When AMD first unveiled their Ryzen 5000 CPUs at the beginning of October, their new Zen 3 architecture hinted at several tantalising performance boosts, both in terms of power efficiency and overall gaming speeds. Alas, they’re also coming at much higher than expected prices, with their mid-range Ryzen 5 5600X starting at a decidedly not-mid-range £280 / $299. It had me worried.
While AMD’s outgoing Ryzen 3000 CPUs weren’t as quick as their Intel counterparts when it came to gaming performance, their lower prices (and bundled coolers) often made up for it, making them great value options in the face of their Intel competition. But the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t just more expensive than its immediate predecessor, the Ryzen 5 3600X. It’s also more expensive than Intel’s monstrously powerful Core i5-10600K, which rather takes a sledgehammer to their previous value proposition.
Turns out my fear was misplaced, as the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t just faster than the Core i5-10600K, both in terms of its gaming prowess and its multitasking chops, but you also don’t need ludicrously fast (and expensive) RAM or an equally beefy cooler and power supply to get the best out of it.