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The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is Team Red's latest budget $200 CPU for the gaming audience. Like every year, it packs six cores and 12 threads, but the operating clock speeds have been significantly bumped up since the last gen. The underlying Zen 4 architecture is far more efficient and powerful as compared to the preceding Zen 3 and Zen 2 counterparts, the 5600 and the 3600.
However, on paper, the three CPUs are pretty close to each other, which can make choosing between them quite difficult. Another factor is the pricing. The Ryzen 5 7600 costs almost $230 these days, while the Ryzen 5 5600 and 3600 have been massively discounted in every retail store.
This guide will compile the differences between the CPUs and help gamers make an informed decision about the next chip powering their rig.
Choosing between Ryzen 5 7600, 5600, and 3600 can be difficult
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Before diving into the differences between the processors in video games and real-world workloads, let's take a look at what they bring to the table.
Specifications
Although the three budget $200 Ryzen processors are close to each other in terms of the highlighted specifications, there are a bunch of differences between them. To begin with, the underlying architecture makes the chips nothing like each other.
The second most noticeable difference is the operating clock speeds. Like any other Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 CPU, the 7600 boosts to over 5 GHz. This is a huge step up from older budget Team Red chips, which are about 600 to 800 MHz slower than the latest offering.
AMD has also bumped the cache with each generation. The Ryzen 5 7600 packs a total of 38 MB with the latest processor, while the Ryzen 5 5600 packs 37 MB and the 3600 comes with a 35 MB L2+L3 cache. Although the difference might not sound like a whole lot, an extra couple of megabytes of L2 cache creates a solid difference in video games.
The detailed specifications of the three processors are listed below:
The Ryzen 5 7600 also packs a dual-core RDNA 2 graphics processor while the older chips are void of any on-board graphics-processing capabilities. Although this won't impact performance in any way, it's a nice-to-have option in case your GPU dies for some reason.
Performance differences
The Ryzen 5 3600, 5600, and 7600 are indicative of the performance improvements between the last three AMD architectures. Since they target the same audience and are priced similarly, we can see exactly how much the Ryzen lineup has improved since 2019.
It is expected that the newer processor will be faster than its older counterparts. But, we are interested in the margin. In terms of single-core performance, we can notice an average improvement of 45% from the Ryzen 5 3600 to the latest 7600. This is massive.
A similar trend follows in the multi-core performance metrics, in which we saw an improvement of over 54% across the lineup.
These numbers translate pretty well into gaming performance. The Ryzen 5 7600 obliterates the Ryzen 5 5600 and the 3600 in video games. When paired with the RTX 4090, the latest budget Ryzen chip delivers up to twice the performance of the last-gen processors in a few video games. However, the difference isn't this high in the majority of titles.
The performance of the chips in some of the most popular modern games is listed below.
Thus, in terms of performance, the Ryzen 5 7600 comes off as a no-brainer. However, we have to look at its pricing as well.
Pricing
The Ryzen 5 7600 is priced at $227.99 on Newegg. The Ryzen 5 5600 is $149.99 at Best Buy, and the 3600 can be picked up for as low as $100. Thus, the newer chip delivers twice the performance for twice the price. Gamers will be paying a dollar for every extra frame they get.
However, for most modern GPUs, especially the RTX 40 series offerings, the R5 3600 is just too weak to hold up. It will bottleneck some of the best graphics cards in the market.
Thus, if you have the cash, opt for the Ryzen 5 7600. With a modern platform and DDR5 compatibility, the system will be future-proof and allow you to upgrade to newer, faster, and more efficient chips down the line.
However, if you are cash-strapped, get the Core i5 12400F. For about the same money, it delivers more performance than the Ryzen 5 5600.
