The Ryzen 5 5600X is both the entry-level and best value for money 5000 series CPU. The 5600X is a hex-core 12 thread processor with a base clock speed of 3.7 GHz boosting to 4.6 GHz. It has 35 MB of cache and a TDP rating of 65W. A cooler is included in the MSRP of $300 USD, but cheap after-market coolers (such as the $20 GAMMAXX 400) are far more effective and therefore worth the upgrade. Notably, AMD’s new Zen 3 architecture has vastly improved single-core performance and lower memory latency, which leads to a significant effective speed advantage over its predecessor, the 3600X. Last year, AMD’s class-leading marketers secured significant sales of the 3000 series CPUs despite a 15% performance deficit against lower priced Intel parts. The games, specific scenes, software/hardware settings and choice of competing hardware were often cherry picked, undisclosed and inconsistent from one product to the next. Now that AMD have actually achieved both top tier performance and market share, their marketing machinery is focused on price hikes. Users that do not wish to pay a marketing premium should investigate Intel’s 11400F, which, when paired with a 2060 Super, delivers higher EFps in four out of five of today’s most popular games, at half the MSRP. Allocating the savings to a higher tier GPU will result in a far superior gaming PC. [Nov '20CPUPro]
Intel’s Alder Lake i5-12400F offers six hyper-threaded performance cores at an MSRP of just $180 USD. This represents excellent value for consumers and, in particular, gamers. It has a boost frequency of 4.4 GHz, 18 MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 65W. The F-version of the CPU does not have integrated graphics, however this will be of little concern to gamers with discrete GPUs. Whilst Intel’s overclockable i5-12600K has four additional efficiency cores and offers around 12% more performance than the 12400F, it also costs around 50% more. The 12400F offers great value, but to achieve optimal performance the requisite B660 motherboard (which supports 3200+ RAM) is, at least for now, difficult to find at reasonable ($150 USD) prices. AMD’s top value hex-core Ryzen 5 5600X offers similar performance for 50% more money. Despite Intel’s price / performance lead, AMD’s prolific marketers (forums, youtube, reddit etc.) have historically outsold Intel whilst carrying a similar handicap.[Jan '22CPUPro]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.