AMD Ryzen 5 7600 65 W Review: Midrange US$220 gaming sweet spot that outperforms Core i9-12900K and all Zen 3 CPUs in single-core

AMD introduced the 65 W Ryzen 7000 family targeting budget price points at CES 2023. These are pretty much identical to the Ryzen 7000X CPUs save for slightly lower boost clocks, and come with support for overclocking. Previously, we have reviewed the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 as one of the first such 65 W non-X parts.

Now, we get to review the entry-level Ryzen 5 7600. A review of the top-end Ryzen 9 7900 will follow shortly. The Ryzen 5 7600 offers six cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 5.

1 GHz (against the 5. 3 GHz boost of the Ryzen 5 7600X ). The CPU is rated at a 65 W TDP and is currently retailing for ₹22,997 (US$281.

5) in the Indian market. AMD bundles a Wraith Stealth cooler in the box along with a three-year warranty. Our test bench for the AMD Ryzen 6 7600 is based on the new B650 chipset.

This includes the following components: We would like to thank AMD for supplying the Ryzen 5 7600 CPU and the Kingston DDR5 memory kit, and Asus for the TUF Gaming B650-Plus motherboard and the Kingston SSD. We also would like to thank Nvidia for the RTX 4090 GPU, Gigabyte for the M28U monitor, and finally Cooler Master for the test bench and AIO cooler. Note : We are in the process of transitioning our GPU of choice from the RTX 3090 to the RTX 4090 for desktop CPU tests.

As such, synthetic 3D and game comparisons using the RTX 4090 are available only for a limited number of CPUs at the moment. We hope to bench more CPUs with the RTX 4090 in the coming days. CPU-only benchmarks should not be affected by this change.

The 6C/12T AMD Ryzen 5 7600 at 65 W manages to be a hair’s breadth faster than the 8C/16T Ryzen 7 5800X at 105 W in cumulative CPU performance but trails behind the Ryzen 5 7600X by about 7% due to lower boost clocks. While we see leads of 11% compared to the Intel Core i5-12600K , the CPU also lags behind the Core i5-13600K by 15%. Cinebench R20 and Cinebench R23 see the Ryzen 5 7600 easily surpassing all Zen 3 CPUs, including the Ryzen 9 5950X , in single core.

AMD has consistently demonstrated excellent single-core performance with Zen 4, and we see that the Ryzen 5 7600 is just 8% and 10% behind the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7950X3D parts, respectively in the aforementioned tests. Although Cinebench tests show a sizeable delta between the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Core i9-13900K in single-core performance, we see this gap significantly narrowing in Geekbench. Here, the Ryzen 5 7600 manages to inch past the Core i9-12900K , which operates a much higher 125 W processor base power (PBP).

Multi-core scores and Blender CPU take a beating owing to the lower core and thread counts. Nevertheless, we see very good gains over the Ryzen 5 5600X and only a marginal deficiency compared to the Ryzen 5 7600X depending on the benchmark. AMD supplies Wraith coolers in the box for the 65 W Ryzen 7000 processors.

Our Ryzen 5 7600 unit came with a Wraith Stealth low-profile cooler. The Wraith Stealth can get the job done if you are only using the CPU for basic tasks and multimedia. We recommend using a capable AIO cooler if you wish to use the CPU for any demanding workflows.

The Ryzen 5 7600 showed excellent sustained performance without any throttling in our Cinebench R15 multi-core loop test when used together with the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360L V2 ARGB AIO cooler. The Ryzen 5 7600 can momentarily boost up to a peak of 5. 07 GHz during this test, which is near its rated boost clock of 5.

1 GHz. However, the average core clock speed during the run is around the 4. 8 GHz mark.

The package power consistently hits 90. 2 W for the duration of each loop with the core temperatures touching 71. 5 °C.

The TjMax of 95 °C is not reached during the run, but there is enough thermal headroom for Precision Boost 2 to work its magic. The Ryzen 5 7600 is able to edge out the Ryzen 9 5900X in 3DMark 11 Physics although 3DMark Time Spy Physics proves to be a bit of an uphill task for this chip. In AIDA64, the Ryzen 5 7600 is able to beat its X-series cousin and other Zen 3 and Alder Lake chips in several CPU benchmarks.

For some reason, CrossMark did not run well on our test system. Nevertheless, overall system performance and responsiveness is not an issue with the Ryzen 5 7600. All Zen 4 processors have turned out to be excellent choices for gaming thus far, and the Ryzen 5 7600 is no different.

Taking 3DMark 11 and 3DMark Time Spy into account cumulatively, we see that the Ryzen 5 7600 is on par with the more power hungry and expensive Core i9-13900K while being right on the heels of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. In this comparison, the Ryzen 5 7600X appears to offer the highest performance. In gaming, however, the Core i9-13900K gets a perceivable lead over the 65 W Ryzen 5.

The Ryzen 9 7950X3D benefits from the 3D V-cache that helps it push many more frames at very low quality and resolution settings. Nonetheless, if you are primarily looking for a gaming CPU for a capable midrange build, you cannot go wrong with the Ryzen 5 7600. Similar to what we’ve seen before with the Ryzen 7 7700, the Ryzen 5 7600 continues to offer a higher performance per Watt in Cinebench R15 multi-core when compared to the Ryzen 7000 X-series — 49% more efficient than the Ryzen 5 7600X.

That being said, a Ryzen 9 7950X capped at 65 W offers the highest power efficiency relative to the competition. The Ryzen 5 7600 PC consumes the least amount power from the wall in comparison when running Prime95 in-place large FFTs, using just 134. 5 W.

The Ryzen 5 7600 is seen to be 11% more efficient than the Ryzen 9 7950X3D in The Witcher 3 when used in combination with an RTX 4090 but trails by 21% in Cinebench R15 multi-core power efficiency. As indicated before, we are in the process of transitioning to the RTX 4090 as the GPU of choice. Previous tests were mostly performed with an RTX 3090 or a Titan RTX , but we still see the Ryzen 5 7600 with RTX 4090 combination leading the efficiency charts in The Witcher 3 at 1080p Ultra.

Although the 65 W Ryzen 7000 non-X processors may seem superfluous at first glance, these CPUs offer a viable option for those looking at budget builds without perceivable performance penalties compared to the Ryzen 7000X series. AMD has managed to offer significant performance increases with the Ryzen 5 7600, beating the majority of Zen 3 CPUs and even a behemoth of the likes of an Intel Core i9-12900K in single-core — that too, at a very economical 65 W TDP that can go up to 90 W under load. This is also reflected in the processor’s excellent power efficiency numbers.

The Intel Raptor Lake Core i5-13600K still has the upper hand in overall CPU performance, but the Ryzen 5 costs US$100 less as per current prices and treads right on the Core i5-13600K’s heels in single-core tests. The Intel chip does have the core/thread count advantage in multi-core, but the actual impact of this will depend on your specific workflow. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 ticks all boxes for a viable gaming and content creation CPU at a price that doesn’t break the bank, initial expenditure in the Socket AM5 platform notwithstanding.

” Gaming, in general, has been Zen 4’s forte right from the start. The Ryzen 5 7600 can be just about 9% slower than a Ryzen 9 7950X or a Core i9-13900K at lower settings, and this gap can potentially narrow further at higher quality settings and resolutions. The processor comes with an RDNA 2 iGPU in the I/O die as well.

While this cannot really provide any impetus to anything more than basic casual 720p gaming, it works great as a hardware accelerator for media encode and decode. This also comes in handy during times when the stars don’t align and the discrete GPU gives up on you. The only thing that can possibly hold back your purchase is the initial cost of adopting the AM5 platform and DDR5 memory.

If you don’t mind swallowing this pill and your primary use case is gaming, the Ryzen 5 7600 offers a great bang for the buck and can keep your modern graphics card happily fed with no perceivable bottlenecks. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is currently available at a discounted price of ₹22,997 on Amazon India . In the US, this 65 W processor can be had for US$220 on Amazon US together with a Star Wars: Jedi Survivor game bundle.

The Ryzen 5 7600 is also retailing at its US$229 MSRP pricing on Best Buy . .