AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor Review

Ryzen 5 2600X We've got a lot of cool new hardware hitting the market today. Of course, we've taken a look at the new AMD top-dog, the Ryzen 7 2700X, but what about the Ryzen 5 series? Today, we'll also be taking a look at the Ryzen 5 2600X, which promises higher clocks, a new design and much more over the first generation Ryzen 5 processors from AMD. AM4 Using the new Pinnacle Ridge 12nm process, the new Ryzen chips have moved on from their 14nm beginnings. Of course, this should be what allows for the higher clock speeds, while hopefully bringing improved performance too. It's still the same AM4 form factor though, so it'll work in existing Ryzen motherboards, as well as the new X470 motherboards that launched today also. Second Generation Ryzen Reviews Gigabyte AORUS X470 Gaming 7 WiFi Motherboard Review ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F Gaming Motherboard Review ASRock Taichi X470 Ultimate Motherboard Review AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Processor Review Ryzen 2700X With 1080 Ti and VEGA 64 Gaming Performance Review Ryzen First Generation CPU Retest Specifications Equipped with a 6-core 12-thread design, the 2600X is similar to the original Ryzen 5 2600. However, it now ups the Max Boost Clock from 3.9GHz to a whopping 4.2 GHz, while still delivering a 19MB cache. More speed does mean more heat though, so it's jumped from a 65W to a 95W TDP. Cores: 6 Threads: 11 Base Clock 3.6 GHz Max Boost Clock 4.2 GHz Package: AM4 TDP 95W Max Temps: 95c Supported Technologies StoreMI Technology SenseMI Technology Ryzen™ Master Utility Learn more about the latest AMD technologies here. Testing and Methodology Test Procedure Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to CPU reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Rember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using the software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Each benchmark runs three times, and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Of course, any relevant details regarding the parameters will be listed below. Test Systems Z370 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Ultra Gaming RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB + Optane CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X399 Motherboard – MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC RAM – Crucial Ballistix 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHz CPU Cooler – CM Master Liquid 120mm (will be retested with Noctua D15S with dual fans in coming weeks) Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 9 RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 X470 (Pinnacle Ridge) Motherboard - Gigabyte X470 Gaming 7 RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 X370 (Raven Ridge) Motherboard - MSI XPower Titanium X370 RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X99 - Our GPU Review Test Bench Motherboard – Asus Rampage V Extreme X99 RAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit Games Used All games are tested at both 1920 x 1080 and 2160 x 3840 (4K) on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Previously we would use "extreme" presets, but these have now been adjusted to "Medium" or equivalent to better test the capabilities of the CPU, not the GPU. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M Power usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks At stock, the Ryzen 5 2600X is off to a great start. It blasts ahead of the older Ryzen 5 and 7's in 3DMark, with a score of 20232, putting it just behind the Intel i5-8600K. However, scoring 5610 in Unigine was more impressive, our fastest stock score for Unigine to date! The good numbers keep rolling in from there too, with 5163 in PCMark 10 putting it just behind the Ryzen 2700X for multitasking, which was even ahead of the 1950X! While video rendering and other demanding tasks are still faster on Ryzen 7, the new Ryzen 5 blazed a trail in those benchmarks too, beating the first gen Ryzen with ease in all tests. Despite the Max Boost Clock of 4.2 GHz, I managed to hit a tasty 4.25 GHz at 1.4v on this CPU. Overclocking saw some huge performance gains in pretty much every benchmark too. Scoring 21155 in 3DMark amazingly put it ahead of the Ryzen 7 2700X, and within shouting distance of the Intel 8600K. Of course, the overclock cut down WPrime times to just 119.616 seconds, around 8 seconds faster than the first generation 1600X. The most significant improvement, however, is single core performance in CineBench, the older 1600X hit just 164 points, while the new one boosted to 173 points. Not the biggest gain ever, but it's still a step up and puts it close to the Intel i5-8400. 3DMark Firestrike Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Stock Overclocked AIDA 64 Memory Bandwidth and Latency Memory performance and support on X470 and Ryzen Gen 2 are significantly improved. Of course, we're running 3400 MHz memory here, so that's why it appears faster than anything else we've tested. However, that's right on the money for how this kit should be performing. Most importantly though, the latency is way down. Ryzen Gen 1 was around 81.5 ns, while the new generation is just 65 ns; that's a massive improvement from one generation to the next. Gaming Performance The Ryzen 5 series is seen as a more gamer focused processor, so this is where I'm hoping to see it shine. With six cores and twelve threads, it's got everything you need for gaming. Of course, it comes with enough grunt left over for streaming applications, team chat, and more, all while maintaining high frame rates. For Deus Ex, the 2600X performed well, hitting a whopping 113.6 FPS at 1080p, and setting our second highest 4K score of 68.4 FPS; second only to the Ryzen 7 2700X! Surprisingly, gaming performance was about 1FPS lower with the CPU overclocked. Rise of the Tomb Raider faired well too, with 185.76 and 86.3 FPS at stock, but seeing a nice boost to 189 and 88.29 FPS once overclocked. That's only 0.68 FPS behind the Intel 8600K at 4K. So that's our DX12 tests done, what about Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Far Cry: Primal? Interestingly, Ghost Recon also performed better without the CPU overclocked, hitting 132 FPS vs 129 FPS at 1080P and 62.5 vs 62.1 FPS at 4K. Of course, that's pretty close, and you're unlikely to see a difference in the real world. Finally, 128 FPS and 69 FPS in Far Cry are some of our highest scores to date. Overall, the new Ryzen 5 is no slouch when it comes to gaming! Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Rise of the Tomb Raider 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Ghost Recon: Wildlands 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Far Cry Primal 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked 2160p Stock 2160p Overclocked Power Consumption and Temperatures Again, we see some pretty consistent improvements from the 2600X. The performance is up, the power usage is improved, and the temperatures are down. Yes, it does use more power than the 1600X while overclocked, but it's also clocked a lot higher. Power Consumption Stock Overclocked Temperatures Stock Overclocked Final Thoughts Pricing The AMD Ryzen 5 Six-Core 2600X 4.2 GHz processor launches today for around £209.99. I have seen that price a little lower and higher, so shop around for the best deals as competitors aim to compete with each other. That's fantastic value for money though. You can pick up a 1600X for just £158.99 now, so an extra £50 for the latest model with more features and performance is fantastic value for money. Keep in mind that the 1600X launched a year ago for £249.99. Overview AMD set a goal to improve pretty much every aspect of Ryzen for their second generation release, and they haven't missed a beat. One of the limitations of the first generation was the single core performance and the clock speeds. Of course, AMD made up for it with a big core count and incredible multi-tasking, so it's not like they were slow CPUs regardless. However, while not the most significant gains, the new generation is faster with better single core performance and higher clock speeds with the ability to boost all cores. When it comes to rendering, multi-tasking, gaming, and anything else really, the gains are there for all to see. Performance The new clock speed and the drop down to a 12nm process are by far the biggest improvements here. Of course, with XFR, the CPU is capable of boosting performance by basically overclocking its self if the thermal limit isn't reached. Keep a big cooler on there, and the CPU will blaze a trail all day long. Of course, if you want to lock in an overclock manually, it's easier than ever with Ryzen Master Utility, and even a beginner can overclock by merely boosting voltage and clock speeds. Honestly, most consumers won't need to; the XFR does a great job. Of course, enthusiasts may want to overclock manually, and it does offer some performance gains for heavy-duty tasks. Memory The memory is one of the most significant improvements for Gen 2. The memory support is much broader right out the gates compared to Ryzen Gen 1 and supports much faster memory. We were able to set the 3400 MHz XMP profile with zero issues this time around, something we once had to battle with on X370. Not only that, but improvements to the memory systems mean that latency is down by a third, and that's no bad thing. Gaming For most gamers, the increased core count over a more traditional quad-core is a welcome boost. Given how many gamers now love to stream their gameplay, use chat applications, overlays, and more, six cores is a significant upgrade. When it comes to delivering raw FPS, the 2600X is no slouch either, and while some rival CPUs may be a bit faster, it's close enough that you would have a hard time telling the difference in a blind test. Of course, AMD's new hardware dominates in content creation too, so if you work and game on your PC, you're gaining more than you're losing in my opinion. Should I Buy One I love the Ryzen 7 1700X, it's my current CPU and has been for over a year now. The new 2700X blew me away this week though, with much-improved performance, but since it's the most expensive Ryzen Gen 2 CPU, it may be a little out of reach for some, despite being reasonably priced at just £299.99. Of course, with a wallet-friendly price tag, and performance that's pretty darn close to the 2700X in gaming, the new 2600X is a big win for consumers at just £209.99. Furthermore, if you combine that with a new X470 motherboard, and you'll be reaping the benefits of XFR, StoreMI, SenseMI and other cool features that will future proof your new Ryzen based system. https://youtu.be/ka8w0bm0J3w Pros Fantastic value for money Nice performance boost over Gen 1 Ryzen CPU cooler included Higher Max Boost Clock Greatly improved memory performance 12nm process Improved power consumption and temperatures Works on any AM4 motherboard Fantastic gaming performance Great for multitasking Cons None