Intel Core i5-14600K vs Ryzen 5 7600: Which is best for gaming in 2024?

The Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Ryzen 5 7600 target the mid-range segment with competent performance and price range. The chips are designed primarily for gamers but can also be used for entry-level content creation and professional rigs, given their improvements in multi-core performance. They are the most recent offerings from the two companies and bundle some of the latest tech.

Choosing between these two processors can be difficult if you are building a mid-range PC. This article compares their specs, performance, and value proposition.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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Both the Intel Core i5-14600K and Ryzen 5 7600 offer superb performance in video games

The Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Ryzen 5 7600 are much faster than offerings from a few generations ago. With massive IPC improvements, they can supercharge any gaming PC for the latest titles. However, how do they differ? Let's check that out.

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Specs comparison

An overlook of the specs of the i5-14600K (Image via Amazon)

Although the i5-14600K and the 7600 target the same market segment, the AMD chip is a tier below. The costlier Ryzen 5 7600X is the perfect competitor to the 14600K. The lower-end non-X chips have always been great value-for-money offerings from Team Red since they cut down the price without a massive difference in performance.

Recently, Intel introduced the Core i5-14400 and the 14500, both of which are designed to take on the Ryzen 5 7600 with better price-to-performance.

Since the 14600K is slightly more high-end than the 7600, it has a beefed-up specs sheet. The processor bundles a total of 14 cores. Six of them are high-performance 'P' cores, while the remaining are efficient 'E' cores. The processor packs a total of 20 threads. On the other hand, the 7600 packs six cores and 12 threads.

The Intel chip also clocks higher. Its P cores can go up to 5.3 GHz, while the Ryzen 5 7600 is rated at a maximum of 5.1 GHz. Moreover, the 14600K supports both DDR5 and DDR4 memory, while the AMD CPU is locked to just the newer standard.

Here is a detailed side-by-side comparison of the two chips' specs:

	Intel Core i5-14600K	AMD Ryzen 5 7600
Processor family	Raptor Lake Refresh	Ryzen 7000
Lithography	Intel 7 (10 nm)	Zen 4 (5 nm)
Core count	14 (6P+8E)	6
Thread count	20	12
Max. turbo frequency	5.3 GHz	up to 5.1 GHz
RAM support	Up to DDR5 5600 MT/s, Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s	Up to DDR5 5200 MT/s
iGPU	Intel UHD 770	RDNA 3-based 2-core iGPU
Power draw	125W (181W turbo power)	65W

Since the i5-14600K is enthusiast-grade, it has a much higher power draw rating. The Ryzen 5 7600 draws just 65W, which means it doesn't require a high-end cooler or motherboard.

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Performance comparison

The AMD Ryzen 7000 chips offer significant performance improvements (Image via AMD)

Both the Core i5-14600K and the Ryzen 5 7600 are powerful options for most workloads out there. However, the Intel chip takes the lead in some cases because of the extra hardware it packs.

Given below are the scores of the two chips in some single and multi-core benchmarks. The data has been sourced from score aggregator Nanoreview.

	Intel Core i5-14600K	AMD Ryzen 5 7600
Cinebench R23 single-core	1,967	1,850
Cinebench R23 multi-core	23,741	14,315
Geekbench 5 single-core	2,785	2,901
Geekbench 5 multi-core	16,110	12,992

The single-core performances of the two chips are quite close to each other. In Cinebench R23, the Intel chip takes the lead, while the Ryzen 5 7600 is faster in Geekbench. In gaming, single-core performance is necessary, and this makes the two chips nearly equivalent in the latest titles.

In terms of multi-core performance, the i5-14600K has a clear advantage thanks to its 14 cores. This makes it a better option for budget workstations for content creation, 3D modeling, or other professional workloads.

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Besides these differences, the i5-14600K and the 7600 wildly differ in terms of prices. The Intel chip is currently listed for $316. You could also opt for the iGPU-less 14600KF, which costs $302. The Ryzen 5 7600 is much cheaper than this at just $199.

Continuous price cuts have made the processor ideal for low-cost gaming systems. Given the performance it can push out, we believe it is a solid alternative to the 14600K in case you don't have the funds for the higher-end chip.

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Check out Sportskeeda's other CPU comparisons:

Intel Core i5-14600K vs Ryzen 5 7600X || Intel Core i9-14900K vs Ryzen 9 7950X || Intel Core i9-14900K vs Ryzen 9 7900X