When AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 processors, it shook the CPU market to the core by toppling Intel when it came to single-core – and thus gaming – performance. However, another leak has surfaced that suggests that Intel could be reclaiming the gaming performance crown.
A CPU-Z benchmark result for the Intel Core i9-11900K has appeared on bililbili, and spotted by HXL on Twitter. It shows Intel's 11th-gen flagship with a single-core score of 695 and a multi-thread score of 6,522.
The CPU-Z benchmark isn't in our suite of benchmark tests, but according to the folks over at Wccftech, this single-thread score is approximately 5-7% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. If this leak is accurate, Intel could very well reclaim its crown of "the best processor for gaming".
When it comes to multi-core performance, however, it would still be just on par with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, thanks to its 8-core design, which means it would lose significant ground to both the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 5950X, which means it wouldn't really appeal to content creators, which are becoming more and more common as powerful hardware becomes more affordable over time.
Either way, we won't know anything definitive about Intel Rocket Lake performance until Intel is ready to share more details about its upcoming processors. Hopefully we'll hear something about it at CES 2021.
Intel is doubling down
Ever since AMD started giving Intel more competition, Team Blue has consistently claimed that clock speed is king, as it's the most important thing when it comes to straight gaming performance. And, for the most part that's absolutely true.
However, one of the best things about PC gaming in general is the ability to use your gaming rig to do whatever you need to do. Whether you're a professional video editor or if you're just trying to edit together a Call of Duty montage, having the extra multi-threaded horsepower is useful.
We don't know how these upcoming processors are going to perform, even assuming all of these leaked benchmarks are accurate – which is a pretty big assumption. How Rocket Lake will perform both in games and in creative applications is going to be what makes or breaks the upcoming generation.
Right now, all the rumors, including this one, are pointing to an 11th-generation Core i9 with 8 cores and 16 threads, rather than the 10 cores and 20 threads of the Core i9-10900K. If nothing else, this upcoming processor generation may serve as an interesting case-study on what is actually more important for games – single or multi-threaded performance. And, with both the PS5 and Xbox Series X both having 8 core, 16 thread processors as the baseline for next-gen gaming, the answer might not be as simple as it's been in the past.
Chinese media outlet MyDrivers recently reported that Intel's B460 and H410 chipsets are out of stock and could ultimately result in increased motherboard pricing during the first quarter of 2021. We've consulted with our own industry source, confirming that a shortage of lower-end chipsets is taking hold.
It's no surprise that the hardware industry is in a rough place right now, and consumers are the ones to suffer. Now, adding to the pain of the ongoing shortages of graphics cards and AMD processors, Intel's B460 and H410 chipsets might not be far behind. To make matters even worse, PCBs and other electronic components necessary for motherboard manufacturing are either out of stock, or the prices have risen substantially.
According to MyDrivers, motherboard manufacturers received the last wave of B460 and H410 shipments this month, and supply isn't likely to improve in January. The report says that Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI have adjusted their shipment strategies and will raise pricing. Although the report doesn't provide specifics, MyDrivers claims that ASRock and Biostar are in an even worse situation.
While B460 and H410 chipsets might be in a bad place, the supply for Z490 chipsets is tolerable. This is because Z490 is built on the 14nm process node, while the B460 and H410 chipsets are manufactured with the older 22nm process node.
The same strategy reportedly applies to Intel's forthcoming 500-series chipsets for Rocket Lake-S, too. The Z590 chipset is rumored to be manufactured with the 14nm process, while the B560 and H510 chipsets come out of the 22nm oven. Intel likely put the previous-gen 22nm chipsets on the backburner so it could build up enough inventory for the looming 500-series motherboard launch, which is rumored to take place at CES 2021. The official Rocket Lake-S launch is rumored to follow later in the first quarter.
We've heard through the grapevine that supply for the Z590 chipset will be limited too, although inventory isn't at the point of shortage – all of which is normal surrounding the launch of a new line of chipsets.
However, Intel reportedly recommended that its motherboard partners order more B460 and H410 chipsets in advance because supply will be very tight in the upcoming months. There's no definitive timeline on how long the shortage will last, but it may endure throughout the first quarter of 2021.
When AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 processors, it shook the CPU market to the core by toppling Intel when it came to single-core – and thus gaming – performance. However, another leak has surfaced that suggests that Intel could be reclaiming the gaming performance crown.
A CPU-Z benchmark result for the Intel Core i9-11900K has appeared on bililbili, and spotted by HXL on Twitter. It shows Intel's 11th-gen flagship with a single-core score of 695 and a multi-thread score of 6,522.
The CPU-Z benchmark isn't in our suite of benchmark tests, but according to the folks over at Wccftech, this single-thread score is approximately 5-7% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. If this leak is accurate, Intel could very well reclaim its crown of "the best processor for gaming".
When it comes to multi-core performance, however, it would still be just on par with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, thanks to its 8-core design, which means it would lose significant ground to both the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 5950X, which means it wouldn't really appeal to content creators, which are becoming more and more common as powerful hardware becomes more affordable over time.
Either way, we won't know anything definitive about Intel Rocket Lake performance until Intel is ready to share more details about its upcoming processors. Hopefully we'll hear something about it at CES 2021.
Intel is doubling down
Ever since AMD started giving Intel more competition, Team Blue has consistently claimed that clock speed is king, as it's the most important thing when it comes to straight gaming performance. And, for the most part that's absolutely true.
However, one of the best things about PC gaming in general is the ability to use your gaming rig to do whatever you need to do. Whether you're a professional video editor or if you're just trying to edit together a Call of Duty montage, having the extra multi-threaded horsepower is useful.
We don't know how these upcoming processors are going to perform, even assuming all of these leaked benchmarks are accurate – which is a pretty big assumption. How Rocket Lake will perform both in games and in creative applications is going to be what makes or breaks the upcoming generation.
Right now, all the rumors, including this one, are pointing to an 11th-generation Core i9 with 8 cores and 16 threads, rather than the 10 cores and 20 threads of the Core i9-10900K. If nothing else, this upcoming processor generation may serve as an interesting case-study on what is actually more important for games – single or multi-threaded performance. And, with both the PS5 and Xbox Series X both having 8 core, 16 thread processors as the baseline for next-gen gaming, the answer might not be as simple as it's been in the past.
My interest in technology began after I was presented with an Atari 800XL home computer in the mid-1980s. I especially enjoy writing about technological advances, compelling rumors, and intriguing tech-related leaks. I have a degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies and count my family, reading, writing, and travel as the main passions of my life. I have been with Notebookcheck since 2012.
Two of this year's best-performing semiconductor stocks have hit a wall.
Chipmakers Nvidia and AMD have diverged from their competitors this month, falling nearly 2% and 0.5%, respectively, while the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) has climbed nearly 4.5%.
The lag could make for a near-term buying opportunity, JC O'Hara, chief market technician at MKM Partners, told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday.
"This is a market where you want to own leadership. That's the only way for you to outperform a benchmark," he said. "When we look at the 19 semiconductor names within the S&P, we find leadership in Nvidia and AMD."
As of Wednesday's close, Nvidia was sitting on a year-to-date gain of nearly 123.5% and AMD was up over 101%.
"In the short term, they might become victims of their own success," O'Hara said. "If you're an institution and you own these names and these names doubled in size, come the end of the year, you need to rebalance. You need to resize. But this gives us an opportunity to buy a pullback within leadership."
He said the short-term selling pressure will last for "a few more days [or] a few more weeks."
"I'm looking at being able to buy leadership at a discounted price. So, yes, I'm looking to buy the pullback in Nvidia and AMD," O'Hara said.
The chipmakers' fundamental outlook also looks "incredible," Chantico Global CEO Gina Sanchez said in the same "Trading Nation" interview.
"I wouldn't read too much into this pullback. I think it's a pullback," said Sanchez, who is also chief market strategist for Lido Advisors. "Quite frankly, what's driving the SMH really is Taiwan Semiconductor. And Taiwan Semiconductor has just been taking the cake from Intel. I think the best comment I heard was that Intel has been suffering tragically comic missteps. It has definitely been giving away a lot of revenue to the rest of the industry, and Taiwan Semiconductor has been there to benefit from that as the other single-largest foundry in the world."
Intel shares, which are down almost 19% year to date, have been on an upswing in recent days, driven by pressure from activist firm Third Point to explore "strategic alternatives."
As for Nvidia, AMD and the rest of the industry, Sanchez said various drivers — including cryptocurrency mining, online gaming, data center storage — were still in place and strong.
"The fundamentals are great, but I think a lot of this is already priced in," she said. "The entire semiconductor space has had a multiple expansion that has been extraordinary."
Disclosure: Lido Advisors owns shares of Nvidia and AMD. Sanchez owns shares of Intel.
Just under a month ago, the first signs of AMD's new high-end Cezanne mobile chips surfaced with the spotting of the Ryzen 9 5900HX. That chip is likely to be unlocked for overclocking on mobile platforms, which while powerful, is likely not everyone's cup of tea. In a slightly more mainstream fashion, today AMD's Ryzen 9 5900H surfaced, packing 8 Zen 3 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of 4.64 GHz.
Getting down to brass tacks, single-core performance is where the 5900H shines, jotting down a GB5 score of 1,520 points and a multi-core score of 9,325 pts. Of course, the multi-core score can vary, depending on the thermal properties of the device the chip is installed in.
For comparison, although we haven't had the chance to test a notebook with the 4900H ourselves, digging through the GB5 4900H submissions shows that it scores between 1175 and 1275 points in single-core performance with a few outliers and a multi-core score of about 7500 pts, again with a few outliers in both directions.
25% Performance Uplift over Last-Gen?
This makes the 5900H a solid 25 percent more powerful in single-threaded applications and about 20 percent more powerful in multi-threaded tasks. This is in-line with the 19% increase in IPC Zen 3 has over Zen 2 at the same TDP, and we would put the higher single-threaded figure down to improvements in the boost algorithm: 4.64 GHz single-core boost is nothing to scoff at even in desktop solutions -- and this is a mobile part.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900H Specifications
Processor
Cores/Threads
Base/Boost Clock
TDP
L3 Cache
Ryzen 9 5900H
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.64 GHz
45 W (Probably)
16 MB
Ryzen 9 5900HX
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.6 GHz
?
16 MB
Ryzen 9 4900H
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.4 GHz
45 W
8 MB
We can't tell which device the chip was installed in, but with the popularity of the 4900H, chances are we'll be seeing it in quite a handful of devices. The 4900H is a 45 W part, and although the GB5 submission doesn't state this detail, chances are the 5900H will also be a 45 W TDP part so that notebook makers can install it into their new models without having to re-engineer the cooling systems. A 5900HS will likely fall into the 35 W TDP area.
All that being said, the chip hasn't formally been announced yet, and chances are it will still take quite some time before it shows up in laptops that you can actually buy. The 4900H reared its head this time last year, and it took until March for the formal announcement to land, with devices landing in Spring. Expect a similar timeline for the Ryzen 5000 'Cezanne' mobile parts.
Activist hedge fund Third Point has taken a stake of nearly $1 billion in Intel and called on the chipmaker to consider shedding its manufacturing operations, throwing a core part of its strategy into question.
The firm with $15 billion in assets run by Daniel Loeb made a number of demands in a letter sent to Intel’s chairman Omar Ishrak on Tuesday and seen by the Financial Times.
In the letter, Mr Loeb said that Intel was “once the gold standard for innovative microprocessor manufacturing” but had fallen behind manufacturing competitors in East Asia such as TSMC and Samsung.
His intervention comes as Intel faces a critical decision over its future as a leading-edge manufacturer of semiconductors—a position it has held for decades, and the source of its dominance in the PC era.
Bob Swan, its chief executive, has indicated that he will decide early next year whether Intel should outsource a significant part of its most advanced manufacturing, or even get out of leading-edge production altogether, after a series of slips.
The company in July revealed it had hit a new hurdle in trying to move to the next generation of manufacturing technology, where the features on chips are reduced to a width of only 7 nanometres.
That compounded a series of missteps that helped cement the lead seized by TSMC, the Taiwanese chip company that manufacturers semiconductors on behalf of many of the world’s biggest chip designers, including Nvidia, Qualcomm and AMD.
Intel has lost some $60 billion in market value over the past year, Mr Loeb pointed out, as he took aim at the chipmaker’s corporate governance.
“We cannot fathom how the boards who presided over Intel’s decline could have permitted management to fritter away the company’s leading market position while simultaneously rewarding them handsomely with extravagant compensation packages,” Mr Loeb wrote.
The hedge fund said it was particularly concerned at the loss of talent at Intel, saying the company had lost many of its best chip designers while the ones that remained “are becoming increasingly demoralized.”
Mr Loeb said Intel should hire investment advisers to determine whether the company should both design and manufacture chips as well as consider divesting failed acquisitions, though the letter did not point to any specific examples.
“Intel welcomes input from all investors regarding enhanced shareholder value,” the company said in a statement. “In that spirit, we look forward to engaging with Third Point on their ideas towards that goal.”
Ending its efforts to physically make the most advanced semiconductors would mark a turning point in Intel’s fortunes, while also leaving the US without a top chip manufacturer.
Mr Loeb called its difficulties a “critical concern” that could have broader implications on America’s national security if the US was forced to rely on companies located in “geopolitically unstable” regions to “power everything from PCs to data centers to critical infrastructure and more.”
Intel shares rose more than 5 percent on news of Mr Loeb’s letter, which was first reported by Reuters.
My interest in technology began after I was presented with an Atari 800XL home computer in the mid-1980s. I especially enjoy writing about technological advances, compelling rumors, and intriguing tech-related leaks. I have a degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies and count my family, reading, writing, and travel as the main passions of my life. I have been with Notebookcheck since 2012.
December 31, 2020 at 05:45AM
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AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX APU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and a 2K screen with up to 165 Hz support seem likely options for upcoming Asus ROG Strix laptops - Notebookcheck.net
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday closed at a record amid a stalled push to increase stimulus payments for most Americans to $2,000 and the U.K.'s approval of a second coronavirus vaccine.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 74 points, or 0.24% to close at 30,409 while the S&P 500 was up 0.13% and the Nasdaq rose 0.15%.
Here are the biggest decliners in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday by performance in percentage change at the close of regular trade.
1. Intel INTC | Down 1.30%
On Wednesday, shares of Intel (INTC) - Get Report declined after Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore said the next year will be challenging for the chipmaker, Barron's reported. Intel’s well-documented manufacturing issues remain the company’s most pressing concern, Moore wrote. Moore said Intel needs to either fully commit to giving up most of its advanced manufacturing, or figure out how to make the most advanced chips itself. Shares of Intel have fallen more than 18% this year.
Verizon has earned its shareholders about 1% this year, versus a return of more than 8% for the Dow. Barron's reported that the stock needs to show 5G progress next year.
Analyst Daniel Ives, who has an outperform rating and a $260 price target on Microsoft, said in an investors' note that he has seen "strong cloud activity" around Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing service, in the field during the December quarter "with another Street beat likely in the cards for MSFT."
4. Merck MRK | Down 1.02%
Shares of Merck (MRK) - Get Report have dropped 11% this year. Despite its strong vaccine program, it remained far behind in the COVID-19 vaccine development race — while Pfizer and BioNTech (BNTX) - Get Report, and Moderna (MRNA) - Get Report got emergency use authorizations by the FDA for their coronavirus vaccine candidates, Barron's reported.
5. Apple AAPL | Down 0.85%
Shares of Apple ended lower Wednesday at $133.72. Apple’s (AAPL) - Get Report App Store and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) - Get Report Google Play together saw spending increase 34.5% on Christmas Day, to $407.6 million from $303 million last year, the Sensor Tower blog reports. Last year’s gain was more modest at 17.7%, according to Sensor Tower, which analyzes apps. Of the combined $407.6 million in spending on Christmas, $278.6 million, or 68.4%, went to Apple, while $129 million, or 31.6%, went to Google Play.
Intel's 12th Generation Alder Lake-S processors may be still be a far way off. But the chipmaker has already started sampling the chips to PC partners, and other engineering samples are already running in the hardware world, too. A high-end SKU (via Leakbench) with 16 cores has seemingly broken its cover in Geekbench 5.
Alder Lake-S is a hybrid desktop processor, meaning not all cores inside the chip are made equal. The sample that appeared on Geekbench 5 reportedly comes equipped with 16 cores and 24 threads and matches one of the potential configurations that we've seen. There's also a logical explanation behind the odd thread count.
To understand Alder Lake-S, you first need to know the exact recipe that Intel is employing for its hybrid parts. There are two distinct core types on Alder Lake-S that have specific responsibilities. The Golden Cove cores are the high-performance cores that cater to heavy workloads, while the Gracemont (Atom) cores are designed for lesser workloads.
Coming back to the Alder Lake-S sample, there should be eight Golden Cove cores and eight Gracemont cores present. We suspect that only the Golden Cove cores leverage Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Therefore, we have 16 threads from the Golden Cove cores and eight threads from the Gracemont cores, which adds up to the reported total of 24 threads.
Geekbench 5 reported a 1.38 GHz base clock speed that's probably for the Gracemont cores. The reported boost clock, on the other hand, is clearly a mistake, which is common among unreleased hardware that goes through benchmarking software.
The cache configuration for the 16-core Alder Lake-S is also quite interesting. There are eight L2 slices of 1.25MB and 320KB, amounting to a total of 12.5MB of total L2 cache. For the L3 cache, we're also looking at eight slices of 3MB and 768KB that total to 30MB.
The preliminary performance from the 16-core Alder Lake-S part is far from impressive though. As with any unreleased hardware, we recommend taking the benchmark numbers with some skeptical salt. As far as today's sample goes, the Alder Lake-S processor scored 996 points in the single-core test and 6,931 points in the multi-core test. For comparison, the single-core performance is right in the same alley as the AMD's mobile Ryzen 5 4600H (994 average points), while its multi-core performance on par with the Ryzen 5 3600X (6,906 average points).
Alder Lake-S, which commands the new LGA1700 socket, will come out of Intel's 10nm Enhanced SuperFin silicon oven. The chipmaker has previously affirmed that Alder Lake-S competes in the performance segment. Today's outing doesn't look very imposing, although Intel won't likely release Alder Lake until the second half of 2021, so this may just be a teaser of what Alder Lake could offer.
As a six-core, 12-thread processor, the $299 AMD Ryzen 5 5600X slots perfectly into the market for midrange gaming-focused CPUs, and brings with it the best balance of core count and cost in the company's latest launch of Zen 3-based processors. When put up against the so-so Intel Core i5-10600K, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X comes out shining on the other side, presenting serious competition for Intel (albeit at a slightly higher price point than we're used to from Ryzens). The Ryzen 5 5600X set records in some of our gaming results, as well as being one of the best values in price-to-performance that AMD offers in 2020. It lacks the integrated graphics that some buyers in the midrange might be looking for, but that's a small ding on an otherwise stellar showing for this Editors' Choice pick among gaming CPUs, alongside the also-great budget-model Ryzen 3 3300X.
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Specs: The Zen 3 Midrange Pick
To start, if you'd like a deeper dive into all the improvements that AMD has made to its newest line of desktop CPUs in the Zen 3 launch, we recommend checking out our comprehensive review of the Ryzen 9 5900X. But as a situational summary, here's a quick overview of the specs for the Zen 3 midrange desktop stack of Ryzen 5000-series CPUs, as well as a reminder of the previous-generation chips they're set to replace. On the second tab, you'll find our comparison to Intel's closest offerings from its 10th and 9th Generation lines...
The $299 six-core/12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 5600X lands in the arena as the company's lowest-end Zen 3 option, just behind the $449 eight-core/12-thread Ryzen 7 5800X. As with the rest of the Zen 3 launch, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is priced $50 higher than its predecessor was at the time of launch.
The sting of $50 worth of price creep doesn't hurt as much when discussing top-end options like the $749 AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (up from the $699 launch MSRP of the Ryzen 9 3950X, a difference of 7%). But at this cost tier of CPU, the $50 difference between the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X and 5600X (a 20% increase) could be the make-or-break marker for a lot of PC builders' budgets.
Similar Products
That isn't the only change from Zen 2 to Zen 3, however. Since it is a gaming-focused CPU, the move to a single eight-core core complex (CCX) design in Zen 3 gives the 5600X a leg up over the Ryzen 5 3600X. In the Ryzen 5 3600X, the processor was split between two four-core CCXs, made up of two dual-core core chiplet dies (CCDs) each, with one CCX disabled in the second CCD.
Image: AMD
Having the cores spread across two CCDs meant that there was increased travel time for any tasks that utilized all six cores at once, which, for example, games like GTA V and titles in the Civilization series are both known for. By that same note, lightly threaded titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rainbow Six: Siege both suffered slightly on the Ryzen 5 3600X and on the follow-up refresh in the Zen 2 stack, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, due to increased latency.
No more, though. Now that all the cores of the Ryzen 5 5600X have been centralized into a single CCX design, AMD's engineers have reduced the travel time between cores and decreased the latency at the same time.
But it's not all roses for Zen 3 here. Though the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X makes many architectural improvements from Zen 2 that lend themselves especially well to gaming performance, the company still hasn't included any form of integrated graphics on its midrange entries. It's at this price tier where options like the Intel Core i5-10600K can double as both the main CPU and GPU for lower-end systems or buyers on a budget, especially if the only games they plan to play are a bit more forgiving on integrated graphics, like Fortnite or CS:GO.
Compared with Intel, though, AMD's track record for socket compatibility is more favorable toward gamers who are trying to watch their budget and still get the most power out of their build as possible. As of this writing, prospective Ryzen 5 5600X owners can use an X570 or B550 AMD board with the Zen 3 chips with a BIOS update, and many X470 and B450 motherboards should get BIOS updates to work with Zen 3 CPUs in early 2021.
Not only that, but unlike Intel in some cases, AMD has continued to bundle its midrange and low-end CPUs with coolers, this time including the Wraith Stealth cooler in every Ryzen 5 5600X box. Now, it should be noted that we tested the Ryzen 5 5600X on a 280mm closed-loop liquid cooling system, which could easily be categorized as "overkill" for a six-core option. It's the standard gear we use on our AMD AM4 testbed. But speaking of testing hardware...
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: Is This the Zen 3 Sweet Spot?
For our test setup, we installed the Ryzen 5 5600X into an MSI MEG X570 Godlike AM4 motherboard (our standard test platform for latest-generation Ryzens) and populated two of the DIMM slots with 16GB of memory set at 3,000MHz. An Nvidia GeForce GTX 2080 Tihandled video output during the CPU tests. (Like other Ryzen desktop chips not ending in "G," these first four Zen 3-based Ryzens do not have on-chip graphics, so a video card is necessary.) We used an NZXT Kraken Z63 280mm closed-loop liquid cooling solution to keep the chip cool during all our benchmark runs, with fan profiles set to the default of our Godlike's BIOS settings.
We test CPUs using a variety of synthetic benchmarks that offer proprietary scores, as well as real-world tests using consumer apps like 7-Zip, and 3D games such as Far Cry 5. Included in the charts below is a variety of like-priced competing and sibling AMD and Intel CPUs.
Note: The benchmark results we've used for the purposes of this review are not the first we recorded. During the course of testing the Ryzen 5 5600X, AMD had to send us a second Ryzen 5 5600X sample to benchmark, as the first we benched posted numbers that were up to 30% slower than expectations. The following results are what we saw after swapping out the old (pre-launch, faulty) Ryzen 5 5600X sample and replacing it with a new chip we received roughly a month after the initial rollout of Zen 3 (December 2020).
CPU-Centric Tests: A Reliable Mid-Stack Workhorse
Though the Ryzen 5 5600X isn't really intended to stand as the star of AMD's productivity lineup in Zen 3 (that honor goes to the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X, for now), let's see how it fared during various content creation tasks and brute-force benchmarks like 7-Zip...
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X comes out of our benchmarking suite with an overall first-place finish in its price class, though that lead perhaps isn't as pronounced as the company might have been hoping for. The 5600X doesn't beat Intel's Core i5-10600K by the same dominating percentage that AMD's higher-core count processors do over their respective competition (in the case of the Ryzen 9 5900X versus the Core i9-10900K, for example), especially in single-core runs like iTunes.
That said, it still comes out well ahead in every other run when compared with both Intel's i5-10600K, and AMD's higher-end options from last generation like the Ryzen 7 3800XT. On POV-Ray all-core, the Ryzen 5 5600X manages to keep pace with the eight-core Ryzen 7 3800XT, just barely missing the mark but still posting a respectable result.
It's clear from these results that the improvements from Zen 2 up to Zen 3 don't just benefit gamers. And even though we're more likely to recommend the Ryzen 7 5800X to budding content creators or productivity hounds, the Ryzen 5 5600X still holds its own against both Intel and previous-gen AMD chips in enough benchmarks to warrant a double-take if money is tight.
Gaming in the Midrange: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Frame Rates
Now, to focus on the area where the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is tuned to perform at its best: PC gaming, especially at popular resolutions like 1080p, where the CPU comes to the fore in some titles.
Here's what we saw in our bank of gaming tests with our GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card running the show. This top-end consumer graphics card is the primary arbiter of performance at 4K with all of the CPUs that we have laid out below. At 1080p, though, the card gets out of the way a bit more and lets the CPU differences shine.
When the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X achieved a staggering result of 699fps in CS:GO, I didn't think our testbed could go much further than that. With CPUs, I am still testing on an RTX 2080 Ti, after all, so the theoretical limit of frame rates for that card in particular had to be somewhere in sight.
Well, as the gamer of the bunch, the Ryzen 5 5600X just had to put down its stamp with a new record, 727fps, at our test settings. This is higher than both the $549 Ryzen 9 5900X and the $488 Intel Core i9-10900K, and it showcases the insights of AMD's engineers in their best light. In fact, there were only a couple of instances where the Intel Core i9-10900K outright beat the Ryzen 5 5600X in gaming frame rates, and more often than not the Core i9-10900K is practically tied at 1080p to a chip nearly that's 40% less expensive at MSRP (not including the price of upgrading to an LGA 1200 motherboard).
The tests with older games set this tale in stone. Not only does the Ryzen 5 5600X edge out the Intel Core i5-10600K in several titles (an expected result), but it also stays in line with the much pricier Core i9-10900K often enough to put a significant dent in Intel's strategy to sell the "best gaming processors you can buy."
Strictly as a budget gaming engine, though, the $120 AMD Ryzen 3 3300X frees up a hefty chunk of cash that could get shifted to a better graphics card or another stick of RAM without a ton of frame loss. It's behind the Ryzen 5 5600X in most of our 1080p runs, but at less than half the price (if you can find one in stock!), it holds its own as a viable option if you're looking for a better balance between the power of the CPU and GPU in the case of 1440p or 4K gaming.
A Brief Look at Overclocking and Thermals
In our testing, when overclocking or at stock, the Ryzen 5 5600X never went above 74 degrees C, which is actually a smidge hotter than what we've seen on other, higher-core count models in the Zen 3 launch stack like the Ryzen 9 5900X (71 degrees C), or the Ryzen 7 5800X (69 degrees C). After seeing these higher results, I decided to stray from the testing path a bit, extending into some game benchmarks to see if those temperatures held. (Our normal run utilizes a 10-minute CPU-Z stress test of all the cores.)
During runs of Rainbow Six: Siege, the chip stuck around a more reasonable 70 degrees C. If you're only planning to use the Ryzen 5 5600X as your main gaming workhorse (and in most cases, that's a great fit for it), its temperature profile falls more in line with expectations.
Finally, on our overclocking trials, we were able to achieve a stable overclock of roughly 20%, a huge margin that reflects what we've seen across the rest of the Zen 3 stack thus far.
However, in those cases, the higher boost-clock ceilings didn't always translate to real-world gains in performance. The Ryzen 5 5600X saw similar behavior, posting results that were only about 5% faster in gaming or content-creation tasks.
And this, mind you, was on the likely best-case-scenario big liquid cooler in our testbed. If you really need the extra oomph, a Ryzen 7 5800X on a stock cooling fan would be a better investment than this Ryzen 5 plus a three-figure liquid cooler.
Verdict: The Best PC Gaming You Can Get
The Ryzen 5 5600X is a six-core shredder that smooths over the last of the few flaws we saw from Zen 2 and the Ryzen 5 3600X, and it solidifies AMD as the premier desktop CPU manufacturer of 2020 in every way. It's a monster for gaming in 1080p, runs at a lower TDP than the competition, is backward-compatible with older motherboards (or likely will be soon, depending on your board's manufacturer), and comes with a bundled cooler as the CPU cherry on top.
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X does just enough to separate itself from its predecessor to justify the price creep we've seen across every Zen 3 CPU so far. And its lower power requirements, combined with the higher boost core clock of its predecessor, make it a worthy upgrade for anyone who wants the bleeding edge of what Zen 3 can do in gaming.
The eight-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 5800X still wins in select benchmarks as the best CPU for a combination of gaming and robust productivity. But overall, if you're just looking to game, the Ryzen 5 5600X offers up record-setting value in a way that only AMD can to close out 2020.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
4.0
Editors' Choice
Pros
Strong performance in content creation and productivity tasks
Dominance in gaming benchmarks
Low TDP
Compatible with Socket AM4
High overclock ceiling
View More
The Bottom Line
AMD's cheaper Ryzen 3 3300X remains a stellar value among gaming CPUs, but the Ryzen 5 5600X is enough of a brute at its midrange price to make it the best pure gaming CPU of the year.
Christmas has come and gone, but the latest game consoles and high-end gaming GPUs are still out of stock at retailers and selling for large premiums on eBay.
While aftermarket prices for Sony’s (SNE) - Get Report PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) - Get Report Xbox Series X have dropped from the highs they reached after the consoles went on sale in November, they’re still comfortably above list prices.
The standard PS5, which has a $499 MSRP, still sells for more than $800 on eBay (EBAY) - Get Report, for example. And the PS5 Digital Edition, which lacks an optical drive and has a $399 MSRP, tends to go for around $700.
The Xbox Series X is selling for around $700 on eBay. That represents a decent premium to the console’s $499 MSRP, albeit less of one than what’s commanded by the PS5, which from all indications has seen (with the help of an arguably superior slate of exclusive launch titles) stronger interest from gamers.
Meanwhile, the Xbox Series S, which lacks an optical drive and has a less powerful GPU than the Series X, is typically selling for $350 to $400. That represents a moderate premium to the Series S’ $299 MSRP.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) - Get Report RTX 30 Series gaming GPUs also remain hot items following their September and October launches. The top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 3090 is often changing hands for around $2,000, well above its $1,499 MSRP, as you can see below.
Recent eBay sales of graphics cards powered by Nvidia's RTX 3090 GPU. Source: eBay.
The RTX 3080, which has a $699 MSRP, is typically selling for around $1,200 to $1,300. And though Nvidia delayed its launch by two weeks in October in an attempt to prevent major shortages, the RTX 3070 is still selling today for $750 to $800, well above its $499 MSRP.
The story is similar for AMD’s (AMD) - Get ReportRX 6000 gaming GPU line, which launched in November and early December. The flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT typically sells for $350 to $400 above its $999 MSRP; the RX 6800 XT sells for $400 to $500 above its $649 MSRP; and the standard RX 6800 sells for $200 to $300 above its $579 MSRP.
Though such shortages and aftermarket premiums for high-end gaming hardware are unlikely to last for the whole of 2021, it does look as if they’ll remain in place during the early part of the year, as chip and hardware suppliers deal with both supply chain constraints and enormous demand from consumers spending more time at home than ever due to COVID.
Sony and Microsoft have both cautioned that they expect shortages for their latest consoles to persist into early 2021. In November, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart forecast that Xbox Series X and S shortages would last until Microsoft’s June 2021 quarter.
Likewise, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang forecast in October that shortages of RTX 3080/3090 graphics cards would last until 2021. And in late November, AMD reportedly forecast that it would take 4-to-8 weeks for RX 6800 series graphics card prices to fall to their MSRPs.
Of course, given what the supply-demand balance currently looks like for both AMD and Nvidia’s most powerful gaming GPUs, gamers in the market for an RX 6800 series card probably shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for a quick return to MSRPs.
Image: AMD
