The Ryzen 5 5600X is one of the cheapest 6-core CPUs from AMD. It is succeeded by the Ryzen 5 7600X, but is it better than the old one?

Both the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Ryzen 5 7600X are two of the most popular AMD CPUs. They have the 6-core configuration, but the latter is newer, has a higher clock, and supports faster DDR5 RAM, among other things. Are these upgrades going to be enough for the Ryzen 5 7600X to be faster than the Ryzen 5 7600X? That’s exactly what we plan to find in this article, with a detailed comparison of the two CPUs. Read on to learn more.
Note: Parts of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinions.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X vs Ryzen 5 5600X: Detailed Comparison
The Ryzen 5 7600X was released in 2022 and is based on the Zen 4 architecture. On the other hand, the Ryzen 5 5600X is based on the Zen 3 architecture and was released in 2020. Let’s start comparing the two CPUs, starting with their specs.
Specs Comparison

Here are the specs of Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 5600X:
Specifications | Ryzen 5 7600X | Ryzen 5 5600X |
Architecture | Zen 4 | Zen 3 |
Core/Thread count | 6/12 | 6/12 |
Max clock speed | 5.3 GHz | 4.6 GHz |
L3 cache | 32 MB | 33 MB |
RAM support | DDR5-5200 | DDR4-3200 |
PCIe Gen support | Gen 5 | Gen 4 |
Platform Socket | AM5 | AM4 |
Thermal design power (TDP) | 105W Typical | 142W Max | 65W Typical | 88W Max |
Manufacturing nodes | 5nm, 6nm | 7nm,12nm |
The major difference between the two CPUs is in clock speeds, RAM support, PCIe generation, platform, and others, but the core count remains the same. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how much of a performance increase there is between them.
Synthetic Performance Comparison
It’s time we put the specs aside and looked at the actual performance differences between the two CPUs. Here’s how the two Ryzen CPUs perform in popular benchmarks:
Benchmarks | Ryzen 5 7600X | Ryzen 5 5600X |
Cinebench R23 (Single-Core) | 1976 | 1593 |
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core) | 15315 | 10988 |
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core) | 2846 | 2113 |
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) | 12714 | 9281 |
CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Single-Core) | 767 | 624 |
CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core) | 6276 | 4784 |
According to the benchmarks, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X scored 29% higher than the Ryzen 5 5600X on average in single-core. On the other hand, in multi-core benchmarks, the former is around 37% faster on average than the latter. Now, that is an impressive number considering there’s no increase in core count.
Game Performance Comparison
Let’s check how the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 5 5600X perform in actual games:
Games | Ryzen 5 7600X | Ryzen 5 5600X |
Red Dead Redemption 2 | 178 FPS | 136 FPS |
Forza Horizon 5 | 273 FPS | 213 FPS |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 152 FPS | 92 FPS |
Fortnite | 317 FPS | 242 FPS |
Witcher 3 | 206 FPS | 147 FPS |
Warzone Season 3 | 214 FPS | 155 FPS |
Microsoft Flight Simulator | 116 FPS | 88 FPS |
Note: The two CPUs were tested at 1080p resolution with the RTX 4090 GPU to eliminate any GPU bottleneck. All FPS numbers were sourced from the Hardware Tested channel on YouTube.
The Ryzen 5 7600X delivers around 35.6% more FPS on average than the Ryzen 5 5600X in many popular games. Therefore, the performance improvements seen in the synthetic benchmarks also apply to the gaming side of things. Also, this means CPU-bound may see an even bigger performance boost from the Ryzen 5 7600X.
Price Comparison

The Ryzen 5 7600X is currently available for $179 at Amazon, while the Ryzen 5 5600X is selling for $158.99 at Amazon. This means the former is 12% more expensive than the latter.
Final Verdict on AMD Ryzen 5 7600X vs Ryzen 5 5600X
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is around 35-37% faster than the Ryzen 5 5600X in gaming and productivity. The former is also 12% more expensive, but it is still better than the latter, especially considering the performance it delivers. Therefore, if you are in the market for a new 6-core budget CPU, go for the Ryzen 5 7600X.
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