Recently, there has been an abundance of Ryzen CPUs coming out from AMD and each one has been really good so far. Take for example the R7 3700X vs R5 5600X (we wrote about the R5 3600X here). The first is a high-end Zen 2 core 12 thread workhorse, but do its six fast cores manage to outperform it? The second is the go-to mid-range CPU with four slow clocked yet ample 8 threads because, at the end of the day, most games don’t take advantage of multicore processors anyways; so this choice can vary depending on what you need your PC to do. So while they’re both awesome all-around picks – maybe you’ll want to choose one based on how powerful or cheap you need your PC to be! Make sure to check out Intel Core i7-8700K if you’re looking for something affordable and powerful!
Specifications
Let’s take a closer look at the specifications of each chip. Every specification tells you about what it can do.
Ryzen 5 5600x Specifications
- Number of CPU Cores: 6
- Number of Threads: 12
- Max. Boost Clock: Up to 4.6GHz
- Base Clock: 3.7GHz
- Total L2 Cache: 3MB
- Total L3 Cache: 32MB
- TDP: 65W
Ryzen 7 3700x Specifications
- Number of CPU Cores: 8
- Number of Threads: 16
- Max. Boost Clock: Up to 4.4GHz
- Base Clock: 3.6GHz
- Total L2 Cache: 4MB
- Total L3 Cache: 32MB
- Default TDP: 65W
Differences in Specifications
It may seem that the Ryzen 7 3700x provides better performance overall when you compare it to the RYZEN 5 5600x. For example, while both processors offer 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPUs of the two are vastly different. With the Ryzen 7 3700x running at 8cores and 16threads, you can bet your bottom dollar on there being some significant power behind each of those elements. On one hand, however, you will find with just 2 more cores and 4 more threads -the processor is comparable to its competitor.
When comparing two CPUs, it seems as if the 5600x has an upper hand. With its base clock at 3.7GHz, turbo clock of 4.6GHz, and marginally better boosts, there is no doubting that this processor can outperform the 3700x if taken to its maximum capacity. With default wattage set at 65W for both processors and a boost range from 3.6-4.4GHz for the 3700x and 3.7-4.6 GHz for the 5600x – choosing one over another isn’t just about who will win if they’re ever put head-to-head because these models are compatible with overclocking too!
Another point worth mentioning is the little-known fact that the 3700x has a whopping 4 megabytes of L2 cache, whereas the 5600x only has 3. This may not seem like much but it’s enough to make all the difference when it comes to performance. Furthermore, both CPU runs on AMD’s AM4 socket, which means you can use either one on boards like B450 or even X570 if you wanted to!
Architecture Differences
Zen 2 Architecture
AMD’s newest innovation – Zen2 – has risen to prominence thanks to the company’s flagship processor, the Ryzen 7 3700x. With this latest technology, AMD has achieved an unprecedented leap in CPU performance by introducing the world’s first 7nm microarchitecture. This advancement enabled remarkable improvements in multitasking and gaming capacity for people everywhere.
On release, AMD gave you the chance to buy up to 12 cores and 24 threads with their Zen 3 architecture. Not only did they increase IPC by 15% over previous models – but efficiency in latency when it comes to accessing memory has been increased too. With these changes boosting core speeds – you can feel confident there’ll be no slowing down on this model.
There are many changes in cache design. For the first time since 2012, AMD will be doubling the size of the L3 cache from 8MB to 16MB per processor module consisting of four CPUs or cores per module. This doubling down on cache size is planned for future architectures as well and will eventually lead to up to 64 MB of total L3 Cache.
Compared to the original Zen design, one major improvement with the Zen 2 design was its ability to compete closely with Intel. As if taking over for the previous generation of AMD processors, the new series brought about significant changes such as improved single-core performance, overall core and thread counts, cache size, and IPC – all resulting in a much more powerful product than before. With this increased power came an increase in AMD’s reputation which put them on par with their rival company of Intel at that time.
Zen 3 Architecture
Zen came out in 2018, providing a better bargain than its competitors. However, after only two years of being released it was outperformed by Zen 2 which made huge leaps in performance. A year later AMD exceeded its own expectations with the launch of 5000 series Ryzen processors under the Zen 3 architecture – taking things even further than they were before while still keeping up with its previous marketing campaign. In such a short span of time, AMD has delivered what it promised- and continues to deliver on that promise because consumers keep coming back for more!
In order to keep up with Intel, AMD needed a new design – so they went back to the drawing board. By implementing a new 7nm manufacturing process and improving key features of the architecture, they were able to create one of the most powerful processors yet. With increased processing power comes increased accuracy; because you don’t want incorrect predictions slowing you down from executing commands.Another reason why Zen 3 outperforms its predecessor is due to the size of the cache. Zen 2 had a 16 MB L3 cache per quad-core while Zen 3 quadruples that number by using 32 MB L3 caches in quad-cores. This means that there are twice as many pipelines for data transfer, which improves both inter-core processing and intra-core caching.
A simple redesign made these new Zen 3 chips surpass Intel. With AMD themselves boasting a 19% increase in performance over the previous Zen 2 architecture, it only seems right that we may be seeing something even greater coming up next. If these predictions are correct, then the next generation of AMD’s Zen 4 chip will outperform this one for sure; making for yet another winner from the company.
Gaming Performance: Ryzen 5 5600x vs Ryzen 7 3700x
When comparing the Ryzen 7 3700x vs the Ryzen 7 3700x, there are many aspects to take into consideration when making such a decision. With this in mind, it’s crucial for us to compare both chips’ gaming performance. This way we can determine which chip -even though one may have outperformed another at first- will lead you down the path of ultimate satisfaction. With that said, let’s go over some tests done on each chip and see if there is any other factor coming into play here!
Test Benches
Our goal was to find out how much of a difference there would be between these two processors. To minimize any potential bottlenecks, we used the same type of system for each CPU.
PC Specifications
- MOBO: ASRock X570 Taichi
- Memory: 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel
- Graphics Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3090
- Cooler: Fractal S36 AIO
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600x outperformed the AMD Ryzen 7 3700x by a margin of roughly 30% on average at 1080p. However, in 4K each CPU ran flawlessly without any significant variation in framerate. At 1440p, however, the 5600x was significantly faster than the 3700x by about 15%. This test showed that it was overall much more reliable for benchmarking purposes.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator had the most significant improvements of 5600x over 3700x. In all resolution settings but 4K, the 5600x beats the 3700x by a landslide. With even the lowest 1% FPS drops far surpassing what was being seen in the 3700x, both at 1440p and 1080p resolutions. However, at 4K there wasn’t much difference between what was seen with either video card – with Microsoft Flight Simulator coming out on top just barely against its opponent.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Ubisoft has made another mistake by releasing an unoptimized title. In order to see how the 3700x and 5700x CPUs compare to playing a poor-performing game, we ran some tests. Surprisingly, there was little difference between them when it came to framerate or lowest framerate on all three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K).
Death Stranding
Similar results are shown when it comes to testing out the new upcoming game. This can be seen through a tiny 1% increase in frame rates for 4K settings on the 2600x when compared to its predecessor, or a much larger 22% increase of frame rates for 1080p resolutions on the 2600x when compared to the 3700x.
Battlefield V
In other words, the Battlefield V benchmark yielded virtually identical results in terms of frames per second between the 5800x and 5600x when played at 1080p. It was nearly impossible to distinguish one from another under certain resolutions like 1440p or 4K – but this didn’t seem to make much of a difference anyways, since it wasn’t as if anything changed when we increased them.
CS:GO
AMD proved their claims of moderate improvements to CS:GO frame rates with the new Zen 3 architecture – and the testing showed just how accurate they were. The 5600x had an average FPS 24% higher than the 5600 across 1080p resolution and 13% more over 1440p; while the 4K resolutions also saw an increase of 4%.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Again, the red dead redemption 2 test proves that 5600x performs better than 3700x on low-resolution displays. Across all resolutions, there are only a few extra frames per second (fps) when playing with 5600x versus 3700x; however, at 4k it was different. For every resolution, there was a small difference in fps but this increased at 1440p and 1080p where it was 13% higher respectively.
Rainbow Six Siege
In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege tests, we found that there were minimal differences between the two chipsets; each providing similar performance. When running at 4K, neither CPU had a significant advantage over the other but at 1080p, the 3700x lagged behind with about 13% lower FPS than the 5600x. Surprisingly enough, even though 1440P results in diminishing returns for both CPUs (much like what happened when testing 4K), the 3700x was still able to keep up and remain just as competitive against its counterpart.
Far Cry New Dawn
Far Cry New Dawn achieves better frame rates compared to other games because it uses up more resources than they do. In the 4K resolution setting, Far Cry New Dawn had an average of 6% higher FPS than the rest. It also was able to beat out CS: GO in this resolution.
Average FPS Across 9 Tested Games
Compare the speeds of these processors for any gamer out there. The results are in, and it seems that the Ryzen 7 3700x is about 20% faster than its counterpart when it comes to 1080p gameplay benchmarks. You’ll find some differences between games, such as an FPS difference up to 45.65% or a whopping 0.74%.
For 1080p, the difference between the 5700x vs 3900x is minimal as it’s not so much of a difference from a lower resolution. Though with the 5700x being only slightly less efficient in 1440p compared to 1080p. The AMD Ryzen 5 5700x gives just 11% more FPS than AMD Ryzen 7 3900x. However there was one game where they gave different results – Microsoft Flight Simulator at 31%, which is 19% higher FPS; but then there was Rainbow Six Siege which had no significant change up until now.
Finally, with this new 4K resolution, we’ve been able to test the performance of our AMD Ryzen 7 3700x processors again and find that it beats out other models with a consistent 3% higher average FPS. Interestingly enough, the most significant difference is found in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where it has an astonishingly high 7.74% higher average FPS when compared to its competition at 1080p or lower resolutions. With only minor differences (0%) in other high-resolution games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, these results are quite telling.
Ryzen 5 5600x vs Ryzen 7 3700x: Rendering
In these benchmarks, we put the CPUs through their paces with stock settings, as well as overclocked settings. For example, on the Ryzen 5 5600x all of its cores were overclocked to 4.7GHz and for Ryzen 7 3700x all of its cores were clocked at 4.3GHz. It turns out that the 17% increase in core clock from 3.6GHz to 4.0GHz doesn’t seem worth it given how much slower this chip was than AMD’s last-gen flagship: RYZEN 2700X . So if you’re considering whether or not you should buy a new CPU this year – don’t hesitate!
Cinebench R20
In the Cinebench R20 test, you’ll see that the 3700x had better performance in both its stock and overclocked states. In terms of multi-core performance, it performed 8% better than the 5600x even though it has 33% fewer cores. On a single-core, however, there was only an 18% difference between them because of the improvements Zen 3 architecture made to the performance levels of the 5600x.
Blender
The Ryzen 7 3700x outshines its counterpart – the Ryzen 5 5600x – in every category we tested. This is mainly because it has a higher core count which makes it capable of carrying out more tasks at once. In the Overclocked test, the 3700x was 15% faster than the 5600x for most tasks and this margin increased when we tested them both on their factory settings.
V-Ray Benchmark 4.10.07
The overclocked version of the 5600x performed 6% better than its counterpart in the benchmark tests. Performance was also shown at 8% when looking at both laptops as a whole with all tasks considered. With this kind of performance difference, it seems fair to say that the OC-tested version might be worth purchasing if you’re interested in bumping up your computer’s power without breaking the bank.
Corona Benchmark
Corona Benchmark tests a computer’s rendering capabilities. The test results show that the 3700x was less than 9% faster than the 5600x when it came to calculations at stock speeds, but 8% faster when both chips were overclocked. This is an impressive accomplishment for the flagship product because it displays how well its many cores perform as compared to those of its predecessor.
Handbrake 1.3.3
In tests with Handbrake, the 3700x was on average 12% faster than its predecessor, even when it was running at stock speeds. The Handbrake test also showed us that Intel’s processors could process videos up to 16% quicker than AMD competitors. To run this particular benchmarking tool, we took a 4K video and scaled it down to 1080p while preserving quality of the images.
Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere is a heavy software that consumes much of your computer’s processing power; exporting and rendering can take an excruciatingly long time. To see how it holds up, we took out a 4K resolution video and ran it through Adobe Premier. But before you get too excited about the results: there was barely any difference between 3700x for either OC or stock speeds – averaging at just four percent faster than 3000x. With VBR 2 pass, however, we found drastic differences – on both stocks and overclocked speeds (12% increase), so bear this in mind if you’re using Adobe Premiere heavily.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is an incredible program for editing and exporting images. The Adobe photoshop test proved that single-core performance is favored; with the higher clock speed of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X (3.6GHz) being able to outperform its lower clocked cousin, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (3.7GHz). Single-core performance was proven to be much more important when tested against Adobe photoshop in this instance.
7-Zip
In our 7-Zip benchmarks, the 3700x beat out the 5600x on decompression even at stock clocks but lost out to it during compression tests. Although clocked lower than its competitor’s base clock, the 3700x outperformed it in both overclock and non-overclocked states during decompression while only besting it during compression at OC when comparing stock speeds. This means that an average user would see a near 10% performance improvement if they had been using an old 3rd gen chip or lower and clocked their system higher with this new CPU!
VeraCrypt
In terms of encryption and decryption, we found that the 3700x was much faster than the 5600x. Stock speeds show this difference to be about 25%. But if you decide to overclock your device for even more performance – that percentage of difference jumps up to 33%! While the 3700x has an excellent lead on its competitor when it comes to processing power for encryption and decryption, one could still argue that the ability to overclock makes up for some lost ground.
Microsoft Excel
In Microsoft Excel, the 3700x and 5600x proved to be evenly matched for stock clocks but showed a large gap when overclocked. This was mainly due to the extra cores of the 3700x which allowed it to take advantage of its higher clock rate.
Geekbench
In a way similar to past Single-Core tests, the Geekbench results favored the AMD A10-8700P when it came to speed and scores. Out of all cores though, Intel Core i3-7100E had better multi-core performance than its AMD counterpart with a margin of up to 24%. In other words, while running at 4Ghz versus 3.6Ghz, Intel scored 210 points versus 146 points respectively.
Productivity Test Conclusion
When running these benchmarks, 3700x processors had an advantage over 5600x processors in most cases. The largest discrepancy happened with Veracrypt encryption – there was a 34.3% difference between the two models. This isn’t surprising because this benchmark consists of multiple-core performance for both CPUs and favors having more cores to work with. On the other hand, 5600x does better in all single-core tests across every application.
Recently AMD had two new CPUs released in the Ryzen 3000 series. These CPUs are a 5600x and a 3700x. The 5600x was able to overclock better than the 3700x due to improvements made in its Zen 3 architecture that allow for overclocking of CPU cores. In addition, the 3700x performed better across all multi-core tests than the 5600x – though it did take more time to complete them (with its best results coming from its slower Cinebench single-core test).
Comparing the power usage between both processors, stock results showed that while performing the Blender render test, the 3700x used 13% more power than 5600x. Both processors were overclocked for this experiment which led to surprising data – during these tests, although it consumed more power overall due to its higher overclock speed, the 5600x required less power than 3700x.
Keeping an eye on your processor temperature can give you insight into how much energy they use, which will impact performance. The 3700x can handle work load after workload without breaking a sweat or being too warm. Meanwhile, the 5600x runs hotter than its counterpart despite lower energy consumption due to its fewer cores and high clock speed rating. To prevent problems with overheating, we suggest using one of these CPU coolers – they work wonders!
As we’ve discussed before, the 5600x has a significant advantage over the 3700x. Thanks to its 3rd generation Zen Architecture, it is able to reach higher clock speeds on all cores- even when they are at default or overclocked settings.
Which One Should You Get?
Comparing two generations of AMD Processors – The Ryzen 5 5600x and the Ryzen 7 3700x – isn’t an easy task. But it was made possible thanks to their revolutionary technologies and cost-efficiency. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better or more efficient processor on the market today, which can stand toe-to-toe with these 2 monsters when it comes to power. All while using the same AM4 socket!
For this reason, they both are very compatible with all kinds of motherboards. You don’t really need to buy another one to upgrade from the 3rd generation to the 5000 series because they both come with different architectures and specifications that make great starting points when comparing the two. However, it’s only through playing games or working on projects that we can help you decide which is best for you. If you want more information about compatibility, look at these articles here and here
.Gamers can rejoice because AMD’s new Ryzen 5 5600x features an impressive number of cores and threads combined with some clever software optimizations to give you a superior single-core experience. Even if the base clock speed doesn’t seem as amazing when compared to competing processors, this CPU feels unstoppable in intense gaming sessions. And while it may need a little bit more power than usual, there are still ways to squeeze out even better performance through overclocking capabilities designed right into the product.
However, we do not recommend it for software-based processing because its predecessor – the 3690x – is more than enough for rendering, exporting, encrypting, editing and all other similar types of operations. It should be noted that overclocking can lead to increased TDP and temperature levels so one needs to keep this in mind when they upgrade.
The Ryzen 7 3700x is a powerhouse when it comes to multi-core performance, so much so that it almost guarantees victory in today’s battle royale games. When matched up against the slower single-core performance of the 3600X, the 3700x takes full advantage of its Zen 2 cores and gives off that killer blows. But if you’re mainly concerned about productivity or just want something that will carry itself while playing games well enough to do other things at once without too much hassle – then you might want to consider getting one of these processors instead. You’ll save some money as well!
With the exception of professional gamers, few people need high-speed processors. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600x is an affordable and functional processor, but if you’re looking for something less expensive or are even thinking about buying a CPU without an integrated graphics card- there are other options out there that will suit your needs better. Read Core i5 12600k vs Ryzen 5 5600x before making any purchase decision.
