Ryzen 3600x stock cooler: Reddit — Dive into anything

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March 29, 2023March 17, 2023 by Albert Ralph

The stock coolers Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600x that come with are pretty damn good on their own but if you are looking to go beyond the thermal performance of these stock coolers, you are in for a treat.

Thermal issues have always been a hot topic for power users and new things are always experimented with when it comes to keeping CPU thermals on the down-low. I’ve tried the crazy liquid CPU coolers, I’ve tried the small low-profile air coolers, and also the crazy HUGE ones.

And after experimenting with all that cooling hardware, I’ve also compared the numbers to see which ones actually deliver a cooler CPU and ultimately a quieter, better-performing PC build. After all that, I’ve come up with a list of CPU coolers to pair with Ryzen 5 series’ (now) upper-mid tier 3600 and 3600x CPUs.

My Top Picks for Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600x CPU coolers

Now I Also kept in mind that the people who are looking to buy a CPU cooler with this tier of CPUs are looking to spend more but don’t wanna spend a HUGE amount of money as their builds mostly tend to stay under a certain budget but they just want something little better than the stock coolers. So here is a list of CPU coolers I think are best suited for a Ryzen 3600 or Ryzen 3600x to get much better thermal performance out of them.

Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B CPU Air Cooler

Replaced the fan with a Noctua one

I want to preface my review of this Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B by saying that this is not a low-profile discreet cooler by any means. That means two things:

1. This cooler is not going to fit inside a mini PC case, so if you are going to buy this, make sure you have room for a 154mm tall CPU cooler. Which means a bigger/thicker PC case.
2. Don’t buy this if you want a very sleek-looking PC with lots of RGBs shining through your PC case’s glass side panel.

I’m still shocked by the performance I can get out of my Ryzen 5 3600x paired with this cooler. Even with high workload situations, this cooler doesn’t ramp up and create noise/distractions for me, yet manages to keep the temperatures cool and that is surprising because of the fact that it has only one fan. “Rev.B” in the name means it’s compatible with the AM4 CPU socket so you needn’t worry about the CPU socket compatibility as well.

Talking about the build quality, this cooler screams premium and is made of high-quality materials. It is also very easy to install as compared to the other CPU air coolers on the market so it’s safe to say that it’s nearly impossible for anything to go wrong with the installation process.

Pair that with the fact that it comes with a magnetic-tip Phillips head screwdriver and Scythe thermal paste, and this CPU cooler is worth every penny of the mid-to-high price it is available for and I’d highly recommend you to buy this one if you are looking to spend 80-ish dollars and want the absolute best for your PC build.

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Noctua’s NH D15 Air Cooler

Here is another high-profile cooler that is a tad more flexible and has a bit of a different take on how to handle thermal dissipation in a PC. Noctua’s NH D15 is based on the tried and tested design of NH-D14 and it has two separate heatsink towers that share the same 6 heat-pipe vapor chambers with a fan between both towers. The bottom of the towers on both sides have been slotted to make room for any RAM compatibility and that works as intended.

Now there is also a second fan included if you want to stack it on either side of the towers if you are gonna be working with heavier workloads. In my case, I had to add the other fan as well because of my adobe premiere pro work, and safe to say the PC managed to stay quiet and didn’t give me any whine. One of the reasons for that silent performance is that the fans (which are NF-A15 140mm fans) have anti-vibration mounts.

D15 also comes with a Y-adapter, so if you decide to use both fans, you can do so by using only one header instead of two. NH-D15 also comes with Noctua’s high-end NT-h2 thermal paste. Overall, looking at the performance and what’s included in the package, I highly recommend this Noctua cooler if you are not worried about the looks of your case as it’s the best bang for the buck CPU air cooler under 90 dollar price bracket and it actually delivers on its promise.

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Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler

Now here is a cooler for people who aren’t looking to overclock their Ryzen 5 3600 or 3600x CPUs. Well, technically you could do that but I won’t recommend doing that with this kinda low-profile air cooler. This cooler is slimmer and isn’t as much of a heavy hitter in terms of looks but for the affordable price it goes for, it’s hard not to recommend it.

Now don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t cut any corners in terms of providing good thermal performance, not by any definition of the word. Cooler Master’s Hyper 202 Evo air cooler features four heat pipes in a flat array on the CPU cooler base (in direct contact), which, not surprisingly, delivers quicker heat dissipation, hence providing a quieter PC overall.

Now onto the bad

The place where this CPU cooler cuts the corners is the CPU thermal paste, it’s not included, but really who cares. Most people who are going to use it already have their own preferences for thermal paste and even if they don’t, decent thermal pastes aren’t as expensive as much money you are going to save because this cooler is so affordable. Another caveat is the mounting mechanism, depending on your PC case design, you’ll have to take out your motherboard to mount this CPU cooler because of the little bit of fiddley cooler bracket installation.

Honestly speaking though, that wasn’t much of a problem for me and at that price, I was really surprised by the performance I got, so the Hyper 212 Evo Air cooler is highly recommended by me to anyone who is looking to buy the best CPU cooler for Ryzen 5 3600 or 3600x CPU and wants to do so on the budget.

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Final Word of advice

The CPU coolers I recommended aren’t liquid coolers and that is for a good reason, studies and numbers across the board have proven that in these kinds of thermals Air coolers perform almost the same if not better than expensive liquid CPU coolers.

If you are on a very tight budget, I’d recommend not buying a cooler at all and using the stock cooler as that is pretty good for most people. Although, if you are looking to squeeze a little extra performance out of your PC without overclocking it, and stock cooler isn’t cutting it for you and you need a better cooling solution.

But if you aren’t willing to spend anywhere upwards of 60 dollars, my best recommendation to you would be Cooler Master hyper 212 Evo.

And if you own either your Ryzen 3600 or 3600x and are planning to overclock it and need the best CPU cooler on the market and price is no problem, both Noctua’s NH D15 and Scythe’s Mugen 5 Rev.B are excellent choices and at this point, it’s down to your personal preference.

Ryzen 5 3600 Wraith Stealth Vs. Cheap DeepCool Tower Cooler

Home » Hardware » Cooling and Fan » Ryzen 5 3600 Wraith Stealth Vs. DeepCool Tower Cooler

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Out of AMD’s first batch of new 3rd-gen Ryzen processors, the Ryzen 5 3600 has become a best-seller due to its excellent price/performance ratio. It clearly offers better value than the more expensive Ryzen 5 3600X, which is less than 5% faster. On the downside, the fan boxed with the R5 3600 is the smaller Wraith Stealth model instead of the slightly more capable (though not by much), Wraith Spire that ships with the 3600X.

On the other hand, as for overclocking the new Ryzens, AMD seems to have squeezed the most out of them through optimizations, leaving little room for manual overclocks. What you do get (among other things) is the Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) feature. This doesn’t boost the clocks outright but indirectly, by allowing the CPU to use more current if the temperatures allow it. You enable the feature via your motherboard’s BIOS and/or by using the Ryzen Master software from AMD.

All other things being equal, sufficient cooling will thus give your R5 3600 CPU the best possible conditions for boosting its own performance, even in the absence of traditional overclocking. It all depends on how the included Wraith Stealth performs compared to a decent aftermarket solution – which is what we intend to take a brief but hopefully revealing look at here.

Considering the budget-oriented nature of the Ryzen 5 3600, we’ve picked one of the most affordable tower-style CPU coolers on the market to compare with the Wraith Stealth. We ended up with the DeepCool Gammaxx 400 (Amazon/Newegg/Amazon UK). It’s one of the cheapest full-size tower coolers, with a 120 mm (case size) fan and a nice-looking blue LED thrown in as a bonus. It uses a simple design that’s been around for many years and sockets, but it’s still going strong in terms of sales and popularity.

So, what sort of gains can you expect from just swapping the Wraith Stealth for this entry-level aftermarket cooler – without any manual tweaks whatsoever? Let’s find out.

Test system

• Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Plus (BIOS 7B86v1A)
• RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB DDR4 (2×8 GB dual channel) 3000 MHz
• Storage: Corsair MP510 M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD
• Graphics: Gigabyte Aorus 1080 Ti Extreme 11G
• OS: Windows 10 Pro version 1903
• CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
• CPU cooler: Wraith Stealth/DeepCool Gammaxx 400

Benchmarks are run five times to produce an average. Other than swapping CPU fans and shifting between stock and PBO modes, we make no changes of any kind to the system.

Maximum Temperatures and All-Core OC Behavior

When running any sort of stress test it quickly becomes obvious that the Wraith Stealth is about as efficient as you’d expect a run-of-the-mill boxed cooler to be. In AIDA64 Extreme (CPU/FPU/Cache), the Ryzen 5 3600 reaches its 95C temperature ceiling in a matter of seconds and hovers just below that limit throughout our 10-minute test run. Meanwhile, clock speeds stabilize at around 3850 MHz on all cores.

In comparison, our affordable aftermarket cooler cuts those temps down by around 20 degrees C, i.e. from near the boiling point well into the green zone. It also adds about 100 MHz to the clocks in this high-load situation and the tower cooler allows the R5 3600 to use 10W of additional power. All settings are identical and Precision Boost Overdrive is activated in both cases.

Maxing out the CPU like this is not representative of the average gaming load (or barely any load), but for us, it’s a useful indicator of relative cooling performance. Unsurprisingly, the large heatsink and full-size fan from DeepCool cools the Ryzen 5 3600 much better than the Wraith Stealth. More so than expected, mainly because the Wraith Stealth performs even worse than expected. In any event, it’s clear that the added cooling headroom should allow the CPU to perform better in any situation involving heavy loads.

Cinebench R20

Moving on to something a bit more grounded in reality; Cinebench simulates rendering performance and provides scores for all cores and a single core, respectively.

As expected, our Cinebench R20 scores are slightly better when using the DeepCool tower. However, activating Precision Boost Overdrive actually lowers the multi-core score compared to just running the R5 3600 in default mode. The single-core score is still higher, but as with all single-core scores, the difference is negligible. This is all well and good since temperatures are less of an issue in single-core loads.

3DMark Time Spy CPU Score

Futuremark’s popular benchmarking software 3DMark is mainly intended for evaluating gaming graphics performance. Consequently, GPU performance weighs heavily into the total scores. However, the DX12 Time Spy test also contains a separate CPU score, which is what we’re looking at here.

The improved cooler increases the score ever so slightly, but yet again, activating PBO reduces the score by a very small amount. It’s worth mentioning that, to our understanding, Precision Boost Overdrive does not push the clocks beyond the rated maximum boost specs. It only adds current to improve the CPU’s “boost potential” in cases when such potential is available. Consequently, this “boost potential” is lower when the CPU is already sufficiently cooled. We’re nevertheless surprised to see a consistent (if slight) performance drop when PBO is activated.

Gaming: Civilization 6 AI/Turn Times

CPU performance affects gaming in a number of ways, and it’s not just frame rates at resolutions lower than 1440p. Case in point is Civ 6 turn times, and there’s a built-in benchmark to measure those. Although it doesn’t look overly demanding, the game will tax your CPU heavily in the late stages of maps with many AI participants. In other words, a fast CPU will reduce your waiting time between turns.

In this test, PBO worked as intended by lowering the average turn times. There was quite a bit of fluctuation between runs, though, which is important to mention since it’s a rather short benchmarking sequence.

Gaming Frame Rates: Grand Theft Auto 5 Benchmark

We’ll stick to games with an in-game benchmark for the purpose of CPU experiments. In GTA V, we just turned off V-Sync, set the resolution to 1080p (full-screen) and left the other settings as they were. So it’s not a particularly demanding situation for an Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti, which leaves room for the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU to shine …

… and it did, once AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler was left out of the equation. With the DeepCool tower cooler installed, GTA V frame rates improved by no less than 14% at the CPU’s default setting. At higher resolutions and settings it won’t be as pronounced, but it’s still a surprisingly large effect from just better cooling.

Conclusion

So, is upgrading the boxed Wraith Stealth cooler to something slightly better worth the effort and money? For gamers and other demanding users, the answer is most definitely yes. The sizzling temps during high loads with the Wraith Stealth are really all the reasons you need. In addition, you get a slight performance boost – without even touching the clocks manually.

For any sort of overclocking, it seems that replacing the boxed cooler is an absolute must. And you don’t need anything more sophisticated than a basic tower cooler such as this one to bring the temperatures down considerably.

It does make sense that AMD ships its more affordable mid-range CPUs with a small boxed cooler, and for most users it might be good enough. However, any mid-range gaming or workstation PC build based on the Ryzen 5 3600 will benefit from something better.

The price/performance calculation is, as of now, affected by the price difference compared to the Ryzen 5 3600X, which includes the slightly better Wraith Spire. But you will likely want to upgrade this one too, in which case it evens out.

Based on the above, it’s easy to recommend the DeepCool Gammaxx 400 because it’s affordable and does the job, even if the build quality can’t compete with a Noctua for three times the asking price. The actual performance benefit in relation to the CPU cost would probably also be questionable. For a high-end build with a corresponding budget, the story might be different.

Jesper Berg

As a PC gaming enthusiast since the 3dfx Voodoo era, Jesper has had time to experiment with a fair few FPS-improving PC parts over the years. His job at GPCB is to test and evaluate hardware, mainly focusing on GPUs and storage devices.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Matisse specifications: tests, competitors, price

Ryzen 5 3600X processor Marked by the manufacturer as: 100 -100000022BOX.

Number of cores — 6, manufactured according to 7 nm process technology, Matisse architecture. Thanks to SMT technology, the number of threads is 12, which increases the performance of multi-threaded applications and games.

Ryzen 5 3600X base clock is 3.8 GHz. The maximum frequency in AMD Turbo Core mode reaches 4.4 GHz. Please note that the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X cooler must cool processors with a TDP of at least 95W at stock frequencies. When overclocked, the requirements increase.

Thanks to the built-in N/A video core, the computer can work without a discrete graphics card because the monitor is connected to the video output on the motherboard.

Price in Russia

Want to buy Ryzen 5 3600X cheap? Look at the list of stores that already sell the processor in your city.

Family

• Ryzen 5 3600
• Ryzen 7 3700X
• Ryzen 7 3800X
• Ryzen 9 3900X

9001 7

Benchmarks AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

Gaming speed

Performance in games and similar applications, according to our tests.

The performance of 4 cores, if any, and performance per core has the greatest impact on the result, since most games do not fully use more than 4 cores.

The speed of caches and working with RAM is also important.

Speed ​​in office use

Performance in everyday work such as browsers and office applications.

The performance of 1 core has the greatest impact on the result, since most of these applications use only one, ignoring the rest.

Similarly, many professional applications such as various CAD programs ignore multi-threaded performance.

Speed ​​in heavy applications

Performance in resource-intensive tasks loading a maximum of 8 cores.

The performance of all cores and their number has the greatest impact on the result, since most of these applications willingly use all the cores and increase the speed accordingly.

At the same time, certain periods of work can be demanding on the performance of one or two cores, for example, applying filters in the editor.

Data obtained from tests by users who tested their systems with and without overclocking. Thus, you see the average values ​​corresponding to the processor.

Speed ​​of numerical operations

Simple household tasks
Minimum	Average	Maximum
66	Memory: 77	8 7
Memory 79. 3
120	1 core: 136	146
1 core 57.3
219	2 cores: 264	287
2 cores 56

Demanding tasks
Minimum	Average	Maximum
415	4 cores: 490	553
4 cores 52. 3
699	8 cores: 808	878
8 cores 45.6

Extreme
Minimum	Average	Maximum
899	All cores: 1017	1106
All cores 18.7

Different tasks require different CPU strengths. A system with few fast cores and low memory latency will be fine for the vast majority of games, but will be inferior to a system with a lot of slow cores in a rendering scenario.

We believe that a minimum of 4/4 (4 physical cores and 4 threads) processor is suitable for a budget gaming PC. At the same time, some games can load it at 100%, slow down and freeze, and performing any tasks in the background will lead to a drop in FPS.

Ideally, the budget shopper should aim for a minimum of 4/8 and 6/6. A gamer with a big budget can choose between 6/12, 8/8 and 8/16. Processors with 10 and 12 cores can perform well in games with high frequency and fast memory, but are overkill for such tasks. Also, buying for the future is a dubious undertaking, since in a few years many slow cores may not provide sufficient gaming performance.

When choosing a processor for your work, consider how many cores your programs use. For example, photo and video editors can use 1-2 cores when working with filtering, and rendering or converting in the same editors already uses all threads.

Data obtained from tests by users who tested their systems both with overclocking (maximum value in the table) and without (minimum). A typical result is shown in the middle, the more filled in the color bar, the better the average result among all tested systems.

Compare

Benchmarks

Benchmarks were run on stock hardware, that is, without overclocking and with factory settings. Therefore, on overclocked systems, the points can noticeably differ upwards. Also, small performance changes may be due to the BIOS version.

Cinebench R23 Single Core

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X

1325

Intel Core i7-8086K

1321

Intel Core i7-1070 0KF

1309

Intel Core i7-10700K

1309

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

1302

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

1301

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

1294

Intel Core i9-10980HK

1294

Intel Core i5-10600

1286

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

1284

Intel Core i9-9900KF

1284

Cinebench R23 Multi Core

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

10123

AMD Ryzen 7 4800U

9974

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

9971

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

9945

Intel Core i9-10980HK

9923

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

9704

AMD Ryzen 7 5700U

9555

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

9314

Intel Core i9-10885H

9311

Intel Core i5-11400H

9237

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

9150

Cinebench R20 Single Core

Intel Core i5-10600KF

501

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

501

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

501 90 019 Intel Core i5-10600K

501

AMD Ryzen 9 4900U

501

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

501

Intel Core i5-10600KF

501

Intel Core i5-10600K

501

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

501

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

501

AMD Ryzen 9 4900U

501

Cinebench R20 Multi Core

Intel Core i5-11400

3888

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT 9001 9

3855

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

3847

AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS

3847

AMD Ryzen 7 4800U

3847

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

3751

Intel Core i5-11400H

3745

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

3709

Intel Core i7-8700K

3689

AMD Ryzen TR 1900X

3678

Intel Core i7-9700K

3656

Cinebench R15 Single Core

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

204

AMD Ryzen 9 4900U

204

AMD Ryzen AMD Ryzen 7 4700G

204

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

204

Intel Core i5-9600KF

204

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

204

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

204

Intel Core i7-10750H

204 900 19 AMD Ryzen 9 4900U

204

Cinebench R15 Multi Core

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

1712

AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS

1712

AMD Ryzen 7 4800U

1712

AMD Ryzen TR 1900X

1709

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

1671

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

1647

Intel Core i9-10980HK

1627

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

1617

Intel Core i5-10600K

1615

Intel Core i5-10600KF

1615

Intel Core i9-9980HK

1607

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Intel Core i7-10750H

1264

Intel Core i5-9600K

1256

AMD Ryzen 7 4700G

1252

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

1252

Intel Core i5-8600K

1251

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

1245

Intel Core i7-7700K

90 020 1229

AMD Ryzen 9 4900H

1225

AMD Ryzen 9 4900U

1225

AMD Ryzen TR 3990X

1219

Intel Core i7-9700F

1218

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

AMD Ryzen 7 5800HS 9001 9

7298

Intel Core i5-11400F

7270

Intel Core i5-11400

7270

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

7100

Intel Core i7-8086K

7031 900 19

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

6992

Intel Core i5-11500

6975

AMD Ryzen TR 1900X

6909

Intel Core i5-10600KF

6877

Intel Core i5-10600K

6877

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

6821

Blender 2.

81 bmw27

Intel Core i9-9980HK

251.2

Intel Core i9-9880H

242.2

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

241.2

AMD Ry zen 5 3600

235.7

AMD Ryzen 7 1700

235.6

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

233.9

Intel Core i7-8700K

232.4

Intel Core i7-8700

231.5

AMD Ryzen 7 2700

2 31

Intel Core i7-10870H

230

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G

230

Passmark

Intel Core i9-9900KF

18500

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650GE

18486

90 018 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750GE

18445

Intel Xeon W-11855M

18349

Intel Core i9-11900T

18276

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

18260

Intel Xeon E7-8880 v3

18244

9001 8 Intel Core i5-11600

18171

Intel Xeon E5-2686 V3

18148

Intel Core i7-9800X

18111

Intel Core i5-12450H

17984

CPU-Z 17 Single Core

90 018 AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

509

Intel Core i5-1135G7

508

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G

507

Intel Core i5-8600K

506

AMD Ryzen 7 5700U

505

90 020 AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

503

AMD Ryzen 7 4800H

500

Intel Core i7-7700K

500

Intel Core i7-10875H

496

Ryzen 5 3600

488

Blender 3.

1

Intel Core i7-11700F

145

Intel Core i9-9980HK

145

Intel Core i7-11700

145

AMD Ryzen 7 5800U

9002 0 143

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

143

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

141

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

140

AMD Ryzen 5 4600G

90 020 137

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G

137

Intel Core i5-11400

135

Game Benchmarks

Our measured FPS in popular games on AMD Ryzen 5 3600X and system requirements. Please note that the official requirements of developers in games do not always match the data of real tests. Also, the result is strongly influenced by the overclocking of the system and the graphic settings in the game. We test at high settings in FullHD resolution to get numbers close to real gameplay.

Now there are 50 games in our database. On average, in all gaming tests, the processor scored 67.8 points out of 100, where 100 is the fastest gaming processor to date.

Select gameA Plague Tale: RequiemAtomic HeartBaldur’s Gate 3 Patch 9Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0Company of Heroes 3Company of Heroes 3 PlaytestCounter-Strike 2 Limited TestCyberpunk 2077 v. 1.61Cyberpunk 2077v. 1.61Dead Island 2 (Updated from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.4.2)Dead SpaceDeliver Us MarsDiablo IV BetaDying Light 2: Stay HumanELDEN RINGELDEN RING V1.09RTEVERSPACE 2F1 22Far Cry 2004 RetroForspokenGod of WarGotham KnightsGrand Theft Auto VHalf-Life: Alyx no VRHogwarts LegacyMarvel’s Midnight SunsMarvel’s Spider-Man RemasteredMarvel’s Spider-Man: Miles MoralesRed Dead Redemption 2RedfallResident Evil 4Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw DemoReturnalSherlock Holmes The AwakenedSons Of The ForestSpellForce: Conquest of EoStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order RemasteredStar Wars Jedi: SurvivorStreet Fighter 6 DemoThe Callisto ProtocolThe Last of Us Part IThe Last of Us Part I v. 1.0.2.0The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice EditionThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt v. 4.0The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt v. 4.02The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: v. 1.32The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: v.1.32UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves CollectionWarhammer 40000 DarktideWo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Features

Main

Socket Installed in motherboards with a suitable socket. Note that a socket is not guaranteed to be compatible. The manufacturer may not add support to the BIOS.	AM4
Chipsets Installed in motherboards with the correct chipset. However, some motherboards may not support or require a BIOS update. There are also various revisions of motherboards (with support out of the box and performance after the update).	A300, X300, A320, B350, X370, B450, X470, A520, B550, X570
Manufacturer Firm	AMD
Presentation datePresentation in mass media, official information.	2019-07-07
Code name of the Microarchitecture family.	Matisse
GenerationCode name for the microarchitecture generation.	Ryzen 5 (Zen 2 (Matisse))

Performance

Cores The total number of physical cores.	6
ThreadsNumber of threads. The number of logical processor cores that the operating system sees.	12
Multi-Threading Technology With Intel’s Hyper-threading and AMD’s SMT technologies, one physical core is recognized as two logical cores in the operating system, thereby increasing processor performance in multi-threaded applications.	SMT (note that some games may not work well with SMT, for maximum FPS you can try disabling the technology in the BIOS of the motherboard).
Base frequencyGuaranteed frequency of all cores (P-cores in case of corresponding architecture) of the processor at maximum load. It is important to remember that speed and frequency are not directly related. For example, a new processor at a lower frequency may be faster than an old one at a higher one.	3.8 GHz
Turbo frequencyThe maximum frequency of one processor core in turbo mode. Manufacturers allow modern processors to independently increase the frequency of one or more cores under low-threaded loads, due to which performance is noticeably increased. It may depend on the nature of the load, the number of loaded cores, temperature and the specified limits. Significantly affects the speed in games and applications that are demanding on the frequency of the CPU, but do not load all threads.	4.4 GHz
Free multiplier Allows you to specify any multiplier, which is convenient for manual overclocking. It’s worth mentioning that old-school multiplier or bus overclocking is a thing of the past.	Yes
BCLK System bus frequency. Some motherboards allow you to achieve a good performance boost by slightly raising the bus frequency. Often this has a bad effect on the stability of the system.	100
CPU multiplier. The final CPU frequency is determined by the simple formula BCLK * CPU multiplier. Modern processors instantly change the multiplier of each of the cores, taking into account the type of load, temperature, consumption and settings in the BIOS.	38
TDPThermal Design Power is an indicator that determines heat dissipation in standard operation. The cooler or water cooling system must be rated for a larger value. Remember that with a factory bus or manual overclocking, TDP increases significantly.	95 W
tCaseMax Allowable IHS (heat spreading plate, «cover») temperature.	95 °C

Cache and RAM

L1 Cache First level cache. Modern processors use a multi-level cache. The first is the fastest, but the smallest. In the case of an L1 access and a miss, the L2 cache is searched for the next stage.	64K (per core)
L2 Cache Second level cache. Holds more data, but is slower.	512K (per core)
L3 Cache L3 cache. AMD created the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a record-breaking L3 volume, which reduced the requirements for memory frequency and significantly increased the number of frames in many games.	32MB (shared)
Supported type of RAM The type of RAM depends on its frequency and timings (speed), availability, price.	DDR4-3200 MHz Dual-channel

Video core

Integrated graphics core Allows you to use your computer without a discrete graphics card. The monitor is connected to the video output on the motherboard. If earlier integrated graphics made it possible to simply work at a computer, today it can replace budget video accelerators and makes it possible to play most games at low settings.

N/A

PCI

PCI-E The PCI Express computer bus version. The bandwidth and power limit depend on the version. There is backward compatibility.

Gen4

Detailed information

ArchitectureCode name for microarchitecture generation.	Matisse
Chip manufacturer A company that manufactures chips in its own factory.	TSMC
Number of transistors	3,000,000
Process The manufacturing process, measured in nanometers. The smaller the technical process, the more perfect the technology, the lower the heat dissipation and power consumption. For Ryzen with a chiplet layout, the CCD process is implied.	7 nm
Die size Depends on process technology and number of transistors. For chiplet Ryzen, the area of ​​​​all CCDs is indicated.	74 mm²
Process I/O DieI/O Die.	12 nm
I/O Die Size I/O Die.	124 mm²
Socket type	µOPGA-1331
Spec Code	100-000000022

Competitors

	Games	Office	Heavy duty
Better than	Intel Core i5-9600K	Intel Core i5-11400F	Intel Core i5-11500
Worse than	Intel Core i7-9700	Intel Core i5-9600K	Intel Core i7-11800H

Please note that competitors are selected automatically based on performance in a particular task. Therefore, some may puzzle you. We are improving our selection algorithm, treat with understanding.

Compare

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i5-9600K

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i5-11400F

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i5-11500

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i7-9700

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i5-9600K

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs Intel Core i7-11800H

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six for the price of eight / Processors and memory

In the Ryzen 3000 series of desktop processors, the most popular model by a wide margin was, and still is, the junior six-core Ryzen 5 3600. Having enough for most modern tasks, the number of cores and threads, it has a low (below $200) price and pretty good performance for its price, which made it almost the standard choice of 2020 for mass gaming configurations. Moreover, even the appearance of worthy alternatives in the face of the Core i5-10400 and i5-10400F could not reverse this trend: buyers continue to vote for six cores with the Zen 2 microarchitecture.

At the same time, Zen 2 is not the newest microarchitecture, for more than a month AMD has been selling Ryzen 5000 series processors based on the Zen 3 core, among which there is also a six-core Ryzen 5 5600X. We have already managed to get acquainted with representatives of this series with 16, 12 and 8 cores, and we know that in the new family the performance has seriously increased, and in addition, the most unpleasant drawback of the predecessors has been fixed — high inter-core delays, which noticeably harmed gaming performance. But despite this, the new Ryzen 5 5600X is in no hurry to replace the Ryzen 5 3600. The problem is in the marketing plane: six Zen 3 cores are priced by AMD one and a half times more expensive than the same set of cores of the previous generation.

From the manufacturer’s point of view, such an assessment of the new processor with six cores is quite justified. In the new generation of processors, operating frequencies have increased by several hundred megahertz and specific performance has increased by 19%, which means that in terms of processing power, the Ryzen 5 5600X should be similar to the representatives of the Ryzen 3000 series with eight cores, which just reflects its price. Moreover, if we compare the Ryzen 5 5600X with its brothers, it turns out that one core in it is even 20% cheaper than in the Ryzen 7 5800X, and this can also be considered an argument in favor of AMD not going too far with the price.

But all this still contrasts strongly with what AMD itself taught us to do. Market success for Ryzen processors initially came due to the company’s strategy to give more for less budget. And until recently, its processors offered more advanced multithreading than competing Intel offerings of the same price. Now the situation is reversed: the Ryzen 5 5600X is a quarter more expensive than the older six-core Intel without integrated graphics, the Core i5-10600KF.

In the future, the Ryzen 5000 series will probably have cheaper processors than the Ryzen 5 5600X. But apparently, this will have to wait a long time, because so far it is very difficult to buy existing models — AMD is clearly unable to meet demand. And this clearly indicates that buyers are ready to pay $300 for a six-core processor, although for the same amount one could easily purchase an eight-core Core i7-10700F. In this review, we will try to understand if the Ryzen 5 5600X is really so successful that it really deserves the amount that AMD is asking to pay for it. Or is it just that the company managed to accumulate a critical mass of fans who are ready to overpay for the opportunity to quickly get their hands on the next “hot” new product?

⇡#Ryzen 5 5600X in detail

The Ryzen 5 5600X is currently the only six-core representative in the Ryzen 5000 model range. This processor supports SMT technology, which means it offers a 6/12 core formula similar to the predecessors Ryzen 5 3600XT, 3600. It does not differ from them in terms of the total amount of third-level cache memory, which is 32 MB.

The Ryzen 5 5600X occupies a special place in the new lineup, and it’s not just the number of cores that makes the Ryzen 5 5600X the junior model. This processor is the only one among its brethren that has a thermal package of not 105, but 65 watts. That is, it is more economical and colder, which is also confirmed by the limited power consumption of 88 W. Thanks to this, it can easily determine a place in compact and economical systems where older Ryzen 5000s are unlikely to take root. AMD was not even afraid to put a complete cooler in the box with the Ryzen 5 5600X — a simple aluminum Wraith Stealth, which the company previously offered with the Ryzen 5 3600.

According to the specs, AMD didn’t have to make any noticeable compromises in terms of frequencies to achieve cost-effectiveness. The base frequency for the Ryzen 5 5600X is set to 3.7 GHz, and the maximum frequency in turbo mode is limited to 4.6 GHz. Both values ​​are 100 MHz lower than the corresponding frequencies of the eight-core Ryzen 7 5800X, but the Ryzen 5 5600X bypasses the older 95-W six-core of the previous generation in maximum frequency. This can be seen from the table of characteristics, in which, in addition to the six-core carriers of the Zen 2 and Zen 3 microarchitectures, we also included the current Intel six-core processor, the Core i5-10600K, for comparison.

	Core i5-106 00K
Platform	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	Socket AM4	LGA1200
Microarchitecture	Zen 3	Zen 2	Zen 2	Skylake
Technical process, mm	7/12	7/12	7/12	14
Cores/Threads	6/12	6/12	6/12	6/12
Frequency (nominal/turbo), GHz	3. 7-4.6	3.8-4.5	3.6-4.2	4.1-4.8
L3 cache, MB	32	2×16	2×16	12
TDP, W	65	95	65	95
Memory	DDR4-3200	DDR4-3200	DDR4-3200	DDR4-2933
PCIe lanes	24 × Gen4	24 × Gen4	24 × Gen4	16 × Gen3
Integrated graphics	No	No	No	Yes
Price	$299	$249	$199	$262

Unlike its competitor, AMD does not name the maximum frequencies achieved by processors when loaded on a specific number of cores: here everything is decided locally and is determined by temperatures and consumption. In other words, different instances of the same processor on different systems may perform slightly differently. But to get a rough idea of ​​what frequencies to expect from the Ryzen 5 5600X under various loads, we checked our CPU instance and plotted its real frequency versus the number of cores and threads loaded with work. The Cinebench R23 rendering test was used as a load in its construction.

Experimental data shows that the Ryzen 5 5600X is capable of operating at a slightly higher clock speed than the maximum clocked in the specifications. Moreover, this processor keeps the frequency of 4.65 GHz not only when loading one core, but also in a much wider range of loads: in fact, the frequency starts to decrease only when the number of involved threads exceeds eight. At the same time, in rendering using all the computing resources of the processor, the minimum frequency was 4.425 GHz, that is, it is legitimate to talk about an increase in the real frequency compared to the Ryzen 5 3600XT by 100-200 MHz.

But more than the frequencies, the new six-core is interesting with the new Zen 3 microarchitecture. You can find a detailed story about it in the review of Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, but here we just recall that IPC increased by 19%, and the most striking moment was the combination of two CCX-complexes inside each eight-core semiconductor crystal into a single structure. As a result, the cache memory in processors with eight and six cores no longer consists of two independent halves, but is a single whole, and each computing core has full and equal access to it. This speeds up the entire memory subsystem and reduces delays in inter-core data exchange, which has a positive effect on performance in a wide range of tasks, and especially in 3D games.

The six-core Ryzen 5 5600X, like the eight-core Ryzen 7 5800X, is assembled from two semiconductor crystals. All computing cores are located in a 7nm CCD chiplet, which consists of 4.15 billion transistors and has an area of ​​80.7 mm ² . This die is standard on all Zen 3s, with eight cores and 32MB L3 cache, but the Ryzen 5 5600X uses two hard-locked dies. Thanks to this, AMD is able to use partially defective silicon with single defects in the Ryzen 5 5600X.

The second die is a 12nm I/O chiplet, which is inherited from the previous generation of processors and consists of 2.09 billion transistors placed on an area of ​​125 mm ² . Communication between semiconductor crystals in the processor is provided by the Infinity Fabric bus, which is now completely unloaded from inter-core traffic and is actually only responsible for the interaction of computing cores with DDR4 SDRAM and PCI Express 4.0 controllers.

Due to the fact that some part of the CCD chip in the Ryzen 5 5600X is disabled, and, in addition, the consumption of this processor is lower than in the case of other members of the Ryzen 5000 series, it operates at relatively low temperatures. However, this does not apply to the situation when the system uses the stock cooler out of the box, Wraith Stealth. Its performance for heat dissipation from the Ryzen 5 5600X is purely conditional: in this case, the user is invited to come to terms with the fact that under any serious load, the processor will reset its frequency in order to avoid overheating. For example, our CPU with Wraith Stealth installed ran at only 4.2 GHz when rendering in Cinebench R23, while with normal cooling, the same test Ryzen 5 5600X is able to pass at a frequency of over 4.4 GHz.

Ryzen 5 5600X with Wraith Stealth cooling in Cinebench R23

Therefore, we would not recommend relying on a boxed cooler — it cuts the performance of the Ryzen 5 5600X, and quite noticeably.

Although the Ryzen 5 5600X can’t be called a budget offering, continuity is still important for it — the ability to work in old Socket AM4 motherboards. AMD has promised that Ryzen 5000 will be compatible with any 500-series chipset boards (X570, B550, and A520) after a BIOS update, while 400-series chipset boards will have limited compatibility with new Ryzen next year. However, the real situation turned out to be even better: motherboard manufacturers were able to implement support for the Ryzen 5 5600X with comrades in many older platforms faster than expected. A large number of boards based on the X470 and B450 chipsets can already today be easily accepted on board the Ryzen 5 5600X. But you need to remember that they do not support PCI Express 4.0, while this version of the interface has already become widespread in modern graphics cards and solid state drives.

⇡ # Overclocking

We are already quite familiar with the overclocking process of the older representatives of the Ryzen 5000 family, and in general, the same principles that were formulated earlier are true for them: Precision Boost technology copes well with automatic frequency control in normal mode, on its own bringing these processors to states close to the silicon limit. And most importantly, with low-threaded loads, it sets the processors to such frequencies that are simply unattainable in manual overclocking with synchronous clocking of all cores. All this makes the usual overclocking of AMD processors not very productive.

However, the situation is somewhat different for the Ryzen 5 5600X. The operating frequencies of this processor are additionally limited by the strict requirements of the 65-watt thermal package, and their cancellation can make it a less promising object for overclocking.

In support of these words, we can present a practical result. Our copy of the Ryzen 5 5600X ran at a fixed frequency of 4.65 GHz without any problems and remained stable at it when loading all the cores.

The voltage required to maintain stability in the Prime95 30.3 stress test was 1.3 V when the fourth level of the Load-Line Calibration function was selected. According to in-processor monitoring, under load, it dropped to 1.288 V, and CPU consumption increased to 142 watts. At the same time, the processor temperature remained within 92 degrees, however, for cooling in this case, a self-assembled LSS from EKWB components with a 360 mm form factor radiator was used.

We cannot say that in this case we managed to conquer some impressive heights, but it is significant that the synchronous overclocking of all cores at the same time allowed us to reach the frequency that the processor independently develops under a single-threaded load. And this means that manual overclocking of the Ryzen 5 5600X will not lead to a decrease in performance when executing low-threaded computational algorithms.

And one more important point: the Ryzen 5 5600X turned out to be the most overclocked processor in the entire Ryzen 5000 family. Overclocking of any of the representatives of this family rests on high operating temperatures. But the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t as hot out of the box as its higher core count brethren, so it gives you more room to increase the frequency.

However, the main surprise of the Ryzen 5 5600X is when overclocked using Precision Boost Override technology. It turns out that it is enough to give this processor complete freedom in terms of heat dissipation and power consumption, and its frequency will immediately rise by 200-300 MHz, while maintaining dynamic auto-tuning. For example, our instance, when enabling Precision Boost Override in a single-threaded load, earned 4.95 GHz, and with multi-threaded it could keep the same 4. 65 GHz that we received in manual overclocking.

This is shown in some detail in the graph we built to illustrate the performance of Precision Boost Override technology across the entire load range from single-thread to 12-thread. Cinebench R23 traditionally acts as a processor loader here.

The rebirth looks very impressive, because the additional performance of the Ryzen 5 5600X is revealed in just a couple of clicks in the BIOS, and automatic overclocking is noticeably more effective than manual overclocking.

However, one should not overestimate the potential of such overclocking. Firstly, when Precision Boost Override is enabled, the processor frequency increases by 6% at best, which means that the performance gain will be even less. Secondly, by turning on this setting, the processor turns from an energy-efficient processor into a regular one. If in the nominal mode its consumption is limited to 88 W, then the activation of automatic overclocking immediately raises its appetites by about a third — up to 120 W at full load.