Key Points
- The Ryzen 5 5600X is a mid-range CPU that offers a great price-to-performance ratio and is still highly competitive in today’s market.
- It is highly power efficient, drawing only 65 watts of power and requiring less cooling.
- The Ryzen 5 5600X outperforms comparable CPUs in terms of performance and gaming.
What are some reasons to buy a Ryzen 5 5600X? AMD’s mid-range CPU is getting a bit long in the tooth but is still highly relevant in today’s age. If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck on the market, it might be the choice for you.
So, today’s guide will be looking over six great reasons why you’ll want to get a Ryzen 5 5600X for yourself. Sure, it might not be the latest and greatest, but it presents a great price-to-performance ratio while still being very competitive.
What Is the Ryzen 5 5600X?
- 6 cores and 12 processing threads, which provide impressive multitasking capabilities
- Reaches 100+ FPS
- The AMD Wraith Stealth cooler is included
- Supports DDR4 memory, with a max boost of 4.6 GHz and 35 MB of cache
- Compatible with PCIe 4.0 on X570 and B550 motherboards
The Ryzen 5 5600X is a 2020 release and serves as a replacement for the previous Ryzen 3600 series of CPUs. It is priced as a mid-range CPU, with an MSRP of $299.
The Ryzen 5 5600X is built on the Zen 3 architecture and utilizes a much smaller manufacturing process than the previous 3000 series of CPUs.
Compared to contemporary processors like the Intel i5-10600K, there isn’t any competition. While the i5-10600K is a cheaper CPU, it doesn’t come close to matching the performance AMD has packed into its processor.
Specs
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | |
|---|---|
| Core Count | 6 |
| Thread Count | 12 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 3.7 GHz |
| Socket | AM4 |
| PCI-E Standard Supported | 4.0 |
| TDP | 65 watts |
| Cache Sizes | 384KB of L1, 3MB of L2, 32MB of L3 |
| Turbo Clock Frequency | 4.6 GHz |
Top 6 Reasons to Buy a Ryzen 5600X Today
So, you might be wondering why you should purchase a nearly four-year-old processor to serve as the heart of your next build. The Ryzen 5600X still stands toe to toe with contemporary CPUs from both Intel and AMD. As such, it is quite an easy recommendation to make.
Reason #1: It Is Highly Power Efficient
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The first of many reasons to buy an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X relates entirely to its power consumption. With a typical TDP of 65 watts, this is a highly power-efficient CPU.
You get the added benefit of less power being drawn from the wall translating directly to less cooling needed to keep the CPU operational.
So, you could very easily rely on the supplied AMD Wraith cooler to keep things rolling while you game, work, or just browse the web. It is rare to see a CPU with this much performance maintain the relatively slim level of power it needs from the PSU.
Reason #2: Massive Performance Gains Over the Previous Generation
The Ryzen 5600X isn’t just a noted improvement over the previous Ryzen 3600 series of CPUs. AMD’s mid-range CPU easily outperforms the eight-core 3800XT. You’ll find with CPUs from the same year it stands up quite readily.
It’s only roughly 7% slower in terms of computing and instruction processing than the comparable i7 from 2020. The higher-end 5800X does have a substantial lead in most benchmarks, but it isn’t pronounced as you might think.
The Zen 3 architecture had some notable performance gains, and you can really see AMD pulling ahead of Intel in terms of performance. As such, this is just one of many great reasons to buy an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.
Reason #3: Compatible with AM4 Socket
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The AM4 socket has been in use with AMD processors for years. This PGA socket has been a mainstay and you can find numerous older and newer motherboards supporting it.
What this means for AMD users is that upgrading your CPU should be a straight shot if you’re already on an older Ryzen processor. This is just another one of the great reasons to buy an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.
You get all the benefits of performance boosts while still maintaining backward compatibility with your motherboard. With newer Intel processors, this isn’t always a consideration.
LGA sockets change regularly, so you very well could be looking at complete system replacement if opting for a new processor. The AMD processor line usually just requires a BIOS update for newer motherboards to support the latest CPUs.
Reason #4: Huge Overclock Ceiling
The Ryzen 5600X has great potential for overclocking, especially when compared to the rest of the product line. It may draw a nominal 65 watts of power from the wall, but with more robust cooling you can coax another 12 watts or so out.
This translates to fairly substantial increases in the maximum boost clock. Now, overclocking isn’t going to be at the top of everyone’s priorities when building a PC. However, there are certainly users who are seeking to wring every last ounce of performance out of their rig.
The Ryzen 5600X remains fairly stable when pushing the unlocked multipliers. Water-cooled systems could easily edge up near 5 GHz. Make sure you test your rig under stress to see if it is a stable overclock.
Reason #5: Great Performance for Gaming
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The Ryzen 5600X is a great CPU for gaming. Most CPUs can handle gaming to some extent, provided there is a powerful GPU to drive things. Despite its age, the Ryzen 5600X isn’t going to bottleneck performance in the slightest.
When directly compared to the previous Ryzen 3600, using an RTX 3090 yielded some impressive results for some critics. There was a substantial boost in overall performance, around 15 to 20% across the board for most games.
If you’re building a PC for gaming, then this is another one of the many reasons to purchase an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.
Reason #6: Support for PCI-Express 4.0
- 6 cores and 12 processing threads, which provide impressive multitasking capabilities
- Reaches 100+ FPS
- The AMD Wraith Stealth cooler is included
- Supports DDR4 memory, with a max boost of 4.6 GHz and 35 MB of cache
- Compatible with PCIe 4.0 on X570 and B550 motherboards
Now, PCI-E 5.0 is here, and users will likely see PCI-E 6.0 in the coming months. PCI-E 4.0 is still highly relevant for the likes of GPUs and M.2 drives, though.
The Ryzen 5600X comes with native support for PCI-E 4.0, so you can get great performance out of the latest GPUs and M.2 drives. You’ll have to upgrade to an even newer CPU if you’re looking to get support for the likes of PCI-E 5.0.
PCI-E 5.0 isn’t a universal upgrade across the board for most manufacturers at this time. So, if you’re building a PC in 2023, PCI-E 4.0 should have pretty well set up for the time being.
Summary: Reasons to Buy a Ryzen 5 5600X
| 1. The 5600X is highly power efficient. |
| 2. It is a massive improvement in performance over the previous generation of hardware. |
| 3. AMD has left it on the common AM4 socket. |
| 4. It has a massive overclock ceiling. |
| 5. The Ryzen 5 5600X outperforms comparable CPUs at gaming. |
| 6. It comes with support for the latest PCI-E 4.0 standard. |
Closing Thoughts
The Ryzen 5 5600X is still a very compelling and competitive CPU in today’s market. It is beginning to show its age in some cases, especially with the advent of things like DDR5 RAM and PCI-E 5.0 support.
That said, you can still build a screaming fast gaming rig with this at the center of it. The great thing is due to its somewhat older age, you can get it for much lower prices these days than a comparable 7000 series CPU from AMD.
The 5600X will serve you well for years to come, especially if you’re looking to play new games like Starfield and Street Fighter 6.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©ultrafx/Shutterstock.com.
