6 or 8 cores?
I’ve compared AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X against the Ryzen 7 5800X processor in games and productivity
workloads to show you the differences.
The main difference between these cpus is in the core counts.
The 5800X is the next step up above the 5600X and has two extra cores, higher clockspeeds,
and a little extra L2 cache, so the 5800X is clearly better and it costs more as a result,
the question is how much better is it and is it worth it.
Both processors were tested in the same system, literally the only difference is the processor.
It’s worth mentioning that although the 5600X comes with the Wraith stealth cooler,
the 5800X does not come with one.
I’ve done all testing with the same AIO for comparable results.
I’ve tested both CPUs at stock without power limits, as well as with all core manual overclocks.
I was able to get both processors to 4.7GHz on all cores, but this was by no means finely
tuned and results will come down to silicon lottery.
Alright so with all of that in mind we’ll start out with productivity tests followed
by things like power draw and thermals afterwards, then the game benchmarks followed by cost
per frame value, or you can use the timestamps below to time travel to a relevant section
if you get bored my rambling.
Let’s start with Cinebench R23 as it’s a decent way of showing both single and multi
core performance.
I’ve got the stock results down the bottom, and overclocked results above.
Obviously the multicore score is significantly higher on the 5800X as it’s got two more
cores, and this gives it a 39% higher score at stock.
Single core at stock on the other hand was just 4% higher on the 5800X, then they’re
basically the same with the overclocks.
I’ve also tested the older Cinebench R20 as a lot of people still use it so you can
compare my results, and similar deal here too.
The single core scores are the same when overclocked, and the 5800X is actually losing performance
compared to itself running stock, presumably as manual all core overclocks can prevent
higher single core boosts.
I’ve tested Blender with the BMW and Classroom benchmarks.
This is a heavily threaded test, and similar to Cinebench the 5800X was around 37% faster
at stock in both tests.
With both overclocked though the 5800X is 33% ahead now, so still a big lead, but it
seems the 5600X is doing better with the overclock.
The V-Ray benchmark is another core heavy rendering workload, and again a similar difference,
a 38% higher score at stock with the 8 core 5800X, then a little lower at 34% with both
overclocked.
The Corona benchmark also uses the processor to render out a scene, once more very similar
differences percentage-wise compared to the previous rendering style workloads so let’s
move on.
Linux kernel compilation was around 33% faster with the 5800X, and given that processor has
33% more cores this makes sense as it’s another threaded workload.
With both chips overclocked the lead of the 5800X lowers a little to 27% faster than the
5600X.
Handbrake was used to convert one of my 4K laptop review videos to 1080p.
Although this is also a multithreaded task, the difference was smaller compared to most
of the other workloads tested so far.
The 5800X was completing the task 23% faster at stock, and 19% faster when both are overclocked.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool, and this tests things like
video exporting, live playback and more.
The scores were closer together now, but the 5800X was still scoring 15% higher at stock,
then 12% with both overclocked.
Adobe Photoshop was also tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool, and the differences
were much smaller now.
This test typically depends on single core performance, and as we’ve seen earlier in
Cinebench the differences there are minor, especially with the overclock.
I’ve used 7-Zip to test compression and decompression speeds, and the extra core count
from the 5800X is once more putting it in front, though there’s a much bigger difference
in decompression compared to compression.
AES encryption and decryption speed didn’t really change with the overclocks, though
interestingly the 5600X was doing a little better in this test, not really sure why,
but given it’s a 2% change it’s nothing important in any case.
Microsoft Excel on the other hand had the biggest difference out of all workloads tested.
The 5800X was completing the large number crunch task 40% faster on the 5800X at stock.
Geekbench tests single core and multi core, and like Cinebench, with both overclocked
the two are extremely close together in single, while multicore sees much larger gains with
the 5800X comparatively.
Here’s how much faster the 8 core Ryzen 7 5800X processor is compared to the 6 core
Ryzen 5 5600X in all of the applications just tested at stock.
In the heavily multithreaded tasks we’re looking at a 30 to 40% improvement with the
5800X, while single core tests were typically below 5%.
With both overclocked to 4.7GHz on all cores, we can see that for the most part the differences
between them lower back a little, though results will of course depend entirely on what you’re
able to overclock to.
We can see why this is the case when looking at the clockspeeds while running blender,
a multi threaded test.
With both overclocked they’re running at 4.7GHz on all cores, the same speed, but at
stock the 5800X is 150MHz higher in this test, therefore overclocking the 5600X makes a bigger
difference.
The 5800X requires more power in this test to power those additional cores though.
In this specific test, the 5800X is drawing almost 43% more power from the wall to complete
the task 37% faster.
With both overclocked though, the 5600X starts using more power comparatively.
The 5800X is using 14% more power when overclocked while completing the blender task 33% faster.
My motherboard seems to apply high voltage by default at stock, which is why my overclock
actually uses less power on the 5800X despite performing better.
The 5600X was quite a bit cooler at stock, but with both overclocked they’re quite
similar, just a degree difference now.
Again because the 5800X is actually using less power with the overclock, the temperature
is actually lowering a little despite performing better too.
Let’s get into the gaming tests next, I’ve tested 8 games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions
on both processors.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little china with the street kid life path.
I’ve got 1080p down the bottom, 1440p in the middle, and 4K up top.
Only very minor differences here, basically no major changes regardless of the resolution
in use so let’s move on.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark, and though it might not
look it, this game saw the biggest difference out of all 8 games tested at 1080p with the
5800X just over 6% higher in average frame rate.
The difference at 1440p was the highest of all games tested at just 2%.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was also tested with the games benchmark tool.
The 5600X was a few frames ahead at 1080p, but honestly overall differences are so minor
it’s margin of error stuff anyway.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was also tested with the games benchmark, and there were even
smaller differences in this one, so let’s continue.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested with the games benchmark too, again nothing really to note,
just a 2-3 FPS gain in averages at 1% lows and 1080p with the 5800X, otherwise even closer
results at higher resolutions where the processor typically matters less.
Control is mostly GPU bound, so for games like this the CPU doesn’t even make a difference
at 1080p with high settings.
CS:GO is an esports title where differences in frame rate might actually matter more,
which is why I decided to test this older game.
Again nothing major here, at least not a change you’re likely to notice.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode.
There was an above average 5% gain to average FPS with the 5800X at 1080p, but what was
most interesting was the 1% low differences, particularly at 1440p where the 5800X was
21% ahead, though this was the only game and resolution where a difference this big was
seen, so it doesn’t exactly appear to be a common occurrence.
When comparing all 8 games tested at 1080p, the 8 core 5800X was just one and a half percent
faster on average, no major change, though Battlefield V was closer to 5% with Shadow
of the Tomb Raider being higher, basically it varies a little based on the game.
Stepping up to 1440p and the average difference is basically nothing, again it varies by game,
but when we’re looking at a 2% change in either direction as the largest difference
it’s really not anything important.
The difference is smaller at 4K, just a 1% difference in either direction at the extremes
now.
Higher resolutions generally matter less for CPU selection as the GPU takes on most of
the work, which is why I tested it to illustrate that it doesn’t matter much.
When factoring in cost, it’s no surprise that the 5600X is better value in gaming,
the performance wasn’t too different as we’ve just seen while the 5600X is obviously
cheaper.
I’ve got the 5600X MSRP price highlighted in red, however on Newegg it currently costs
more at $380, while the 5800X is right now available at its MSRP on Newegg, so hopefully
not too long before the 5600X lowers to the correct price too.
It’s worth noting the 5600X includes a cooler in the box while the 5800X does not, so this
will further make the 5800X worse value if you need to factor that purchase in.
If the priority is gaming today, it looks like you can save the money and just go for
the Ryzen 5 5600X.
This might change in the future a bit if future titles do take more advantage of more cores,
but I wouldn’t buy based on that speculation, the fact is 6 cores that are fast still do
plenty well in gaming.
That said, with current prices at just 18% more money, or $70 extra, I’d probably just
get the 5800X.
At the correct MSRP, the 5600X is definitely much more attractive, and hopefully we see
those prices correct soon.
At least it’s now commonly in stock, it wasn’t just a few months ago so that’s
something.
In productivity workloads the single core performance from the 5800X was a little ahead,
but the biggest difference was of course in multicore workloads as expected, it’s got
two more cores.
I think it just depends on whether or not you’ll be running those sorts of workloads
that take advantage of the cores - like rendering.
If so, that current $70 difference for the 5800X is easily worth paying for in my opinion.
I’ve also compared both of these processors against Intel equivalents in these videos
over here, so check those ones out if you want to get an idea of how these Ryzen processors
compare against the Intel competition.
Otherwise get subscribed if you’re new to the channel for future CPU comparisons like
this one, and come and join us on Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting
the channel on Patreon.