AMD's $299 5600X Spotted Flying Past All Intel CPUs in Single-Threaded Performance

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More nails in Intel's coffin.

Ryzen Desktop Processor
(Image credit: AMD)

When AMD announced its Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 processors two weeks back, the biggest shocker was the increase in IPC of 19%. This would mean a serious increase in single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, and now, benchmarks are surfacing showing these gains.

Today, AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X was listed in the single-threaded PassMark CPU performance charts (via VideoCardz), and it's found all the way at the top, above even Intel's Core i9-10900K -- by quite a significant margin. As these are unverified benchmarks take this information with a pinch of salt.

(Image credit: Passmark)

Where the Intel CPUs show very minor gains from chip to chip, the AMD chip jumps ahead of the competition by a staggering 320 points, which is unlike any improvements from CPU performance that we've seen in years. 

But, the list is not complete just yet. AMD's 5800X, 5900X, and 5950X haven't been spotted on the list just yet, and given that these all have max boost clocks that climb up in 100 MHz increments as you climb up the product stack, chances are AMD will be dominating the charts for some time to come. 

The Ryzen 5 5600X is AMD's most affordable Zen 3 option that's set to land with this release (though more options will undoubtedly come in due time). Packing 6 cores, 12 threads, a base clock of 3.7 GHz and it boosts up to 4.6 GHz from the factory -- all in a 65 W TDP package.

Of course, the real question we're all curious about is how well this translates to gaming performance, which we cannot tell at this time. In high-FPS gaming (1080p), chances are that the new chips will make a stellar difference in framerates, but at higher resolutions (1440p, ultrawide, and 4K), the GPU will sooner become the limiting factor. 

Meanwhile, results for all the chips have already been listed on the Cinebench R20 single-core performance charts for some time, where AMD's 5000-series chips are clearly dominating.

AMD's Zen 3 chips will slot into the existing X570 and B550 motherboards, with plenty of vendors supporting the chips on 400-series platforms too. 

Expect an update to our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy when the review embargo is lifted. The chips are slated to be available on November 5th.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CerianK
    If that PassMark result is accurate and representative, note that the RAM it was tested with was 3200 CL16. I am anxious to see the aggregate results accumulate for the entire 5900X 5000X series in a few weeks.
    Reply
  • RodroX
    Wow, thats about a 10% increase over the fastest intel cpu.

    Anyways 1 benchmark does not tell the whole story. Then again now that I think about it is two benchmarks, CB and Passmark. Can't wait to read and watch all the reviews!!!
    Reply
  • ajr1775
    First time I've been excited for a CPU release since the first hex core for mainstream consumption. Can't wait to get my hands on a 5900X. Here is to hoping Big Navi is as big as the 3080. If so then AMD will be sitting pretty for while. I haven't dipped my toe in the red AMD/Radeon pool since 2009.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    ajr1775 said:
    First time I've been excited for a CPU release since the first hex core for mainstream consumption. Can't wait to get my hands on a 5900X. Here is to hoping Big Navi is as big as the 3080. If so then AMD will be sitting pretty for while. I haven't dipped my toe in the red AMD/Radeon pool since 2009.
    Ryzen is pretty mature now, and should be fine. Not really the case on the GPU side. The hardware usually hasn't been too bad on the AMD side, outside of efficiency, it's the drivers that always tank its appeal. Even with the most recent 5700XT, it took AMD a year to release a major bug fix driver which still didn't quash major issues for everyone. Until AMD can demonstrate an acceptable track record of reliable drivers, I will continue to avoid their cards.
    Reply
  • RodroX
    spongiemaster said:
    Ryzen is pretty mature now, and should be fine. Not really the case on the GPU side. The hardware usually hasn't been too bad on the AMD side, outside of efficiency, it's the drivers that always tank its appeal. Even with the most recent 5700XT, it took AMD a year to release a major bug fix driver which still didn't quash major issues for everyone. Until AMD can demonstrate an acceptable track record of reliable drivers, I will continue to avoid their cards.

    Its also true that many RX 5000 series GPU users never had any issues with thier own cards. But yeah there were "lots" of people reporting the problems.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    I just hope they have produced enough supply initially that at least we have a chance at getting one instead of getting beaten by bots. All these e-tailers should be limiting CPUs to 1 per address & have back-order queues as well.

    The "unprecedented demand" quote is so over-used. All of the CPU/GPU mfgs have seen the demand spike since March onward. Even when factory output was basically back up to full production, they still were using that trite phrase. Nividia knew absolutely well that demand was going to be "unprecedented" given that every release before was the same, and actual demand now is even higher than past new releases. You know none of their internal analysts were saying "oh, we can get by with the same levels as our past releases." No, I'm sure their internal analysts were shouting "look, it's going to a much bigger demand than even past releases! We are going to need a lot more!" They should have been producing 3080s even before July.

    Sure, they love the publicity & marketing of the "unprecedented demand," and they love to instill the "gotta have it" desire in everyone. A bit of artificial shortage also helps with that (not saying that is the whole case here). But I wish for once they would say "look, we only have the capacity to make x number of GPUs per month, and we didn't get more capacity online before actual production. So for that, we're sorry. We should have purchased more Samsung/TSMC capacity well before, but we wanted to get our new products out bfore the release of the PS5/XSX so people would buy our $699 GPU instead of the $499 console" (if they only could buy one). Now that would be more truth in advertising!

    Now, I know there is no way AMD got enough TSMC capacity to supply both new GPUs and new CPUs to all who are ready to buy. But I sure hope they got enough made to give at least some of us a chance to beat the scalper bots!
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    2Be_or_Not2Be said:
    I just hope they have produced enough supply initially that at least we have a chance at getting one instead of getting beaten by bots.
    Between all of the new stuff AMD has on TSMC's 7nm process, I'd expect everything to be on relatively short supply for the next many months, hence the price hikes on CPUs to cash in on the wafer crunch.
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    InvalidError said:
    Between all of the new stuff AMD has on TSMC's 7nm process, I'd expect everything to be on relatively short supply for the next many months, hence the price hikes on CPUs to cash in on the wafer crunch.

    TSMC has so much going on for them right now. Just GPU/CPU production for consoles alone is huge, never mind the standalone CPUs/GPUs for AMD. I wish I had money to buy their stock & AMD earlier this year. I could have retired early! :)
    Reply
  • Avro Arrow
    I could write a long analysis of this but really really, only one word is needed:
    Reply
  • GeekyOne
    I pretty much expected this as the 5600X smokes all the 3000X/XT processors in single core benchmarks if the 19% IPC improvement was to be accurate.
    I had been looking at the 3700X for my next build, but since there is no 5700X and the huge price jump to 5800X plus an additional $50 for a cooler means I've started considering the 5600X. I just don't know how important multi-core performance is for productivity tasks such as office applications and web and mobile software development. I'm pretty sure the loss of 2 cores hurts as the Cinemark multi-core shows the 5600X behind the 3700X, but waiting to see the productivity benchmarks. With a cool and quiet build in mind, I actually wouldn't mind if they lowered the price even more on a Ryzen 3 chip with 65 W TDP by un-bundling the cooler since AIO liquid coolers are as cheap as $50 now. The only thing this non-gamer could ask for would be an integrated GPU, like a 5700G?
    Reply