Introduction

We have with us the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 "Zen 3" 6-core/12-thread desktop processor. The 5600 is a surprisingly late addition to the company's desktop processor lineup given its predecessors, the Ryzen 5 3600, 2600, and 1600, were the SKUs that sold the most volumes and made the Ryzen 5 brand popular with gamers, as they gave you a 6-core/12-thread processor at typically $199. AMD's "Zen 3" based Ryzen 5 series has had a strange journey to the sub-$200 segment.

It started out as a premium brand with the Ryzen 5 5600X, which launched at $299 in November 2020, with no successor to the popular 3600 (non-X). In Summer 2021, AMD launched the 5700G and 5600G APUs, claiming they succeed the 3700X and 3600 respectively. It's only ten months later that the company got around to launching the 5600 (non-X, non-G).



The Ryzen 5 5600 is based on the same "Vermeer" multi-chip module as the 5600X, which makes it better endowed than the 5600G even though it lacks integrated graphics. The "Zen 3" CCD (chiplet) comes with six out of eight CPU cores enabled, which share the full 32 MB L3 cache available; unlike the 5600G, which is based on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon with just 16 MB of on-die L3 cache. Also, the Ryzen 5600 features PCI-Express Gen 4 support for the x16 graphics and a CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot, while "Cezanne" is limited to PCIe Gen 3.

The Ryzen 5 5600 comes with clock speeds of 3.50 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost, compared to the 3.70 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost frequencies of the 5600X, so you lose 200 MHz on average. Much like the 5600X, its TDP is rated at 65 W, and you get a cooling solution in the box, like the 5600X and 12400F and unlike the higher-end Zen 3 processors. AMD launched the Ryzen 5 5600 at $199—the historic USP of the 3600 and 2600, which made them sell like hot-cakes. At this time, the Ryzen 5 5600 retails for $180, probably due to serious competition from Intel's 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors, which has caused the 5600X to drop in price to only $200 right now. Competition from the Intel lineup comes from the Core i5-12400F and i5-12500.