Custom PC - UK (2019-12)

increasedinstructionsperclockfromthenewarchitecture.
Incredibly,though,thehugelypopularRyzen5 2600is
nowavailableforunder£130incVAT,sowhiletheRyzen
5 3600remainsa gooddeal,youcanstillgeta cracking
6-coreCPUona tightbudgetif yougofortheolderchip.

Performance
WhiletheRyzen5 3600’sperformanceis someway
behindthatofthe3600X,itsclockspeedboosthelpedit
toaddnearly12,000pointstotheimageeditingscoreof
theRyzen5 2600,offering 25 percentmoreperformance.
It evenbeattheCorei5-9600Kbya comfortablemargin
inthistest,whichhashistoricallyfavouredIntelchips.
Meanwhile,ourheavilymultithreadedHandbrakevideo
encodingtestenabledthesixSMT-enabledcoresto
stretchtheirlegsandcarveouta hugeleadovertheCore
i5-9600K,witha 27percentperformanceadvantage.
WitheveryscoreinourRealBenchsuiteseeingbig
improvementsoverthe2600,it wasn’ta surprisetosee
theRyzen5 3600’ssystemscoresitting 14 percenthigher
thantheolderchip’sresult,andtheoverallgapwaseven
biggerbetweenthe 3600 andtheCorei5-9600Ktoo.

PLANETZEN

+ Superbvalue

+ Significantly

faster than its

predecessor

+ Excellent^

all-rounder

PLANETXEN

• Slower than
  overclocked
  Intel CPUs in
  somegames


• Ryzen 5
  2600 costs
  significantlyless


• Little overclocking
  headroom

Meanwhile, Cinebench’s scores represent raw multi-

threaded and single-threaded performance and the

Ryzen 5 3600 performed well here too. It beat the Core

i5-9600K’s single-threaded score, albeit by just eight

points, but the higher boost frequency of the Ryzen 5

3600X did help the latter to get just over 500 points

compared to 471 for the Ryzen 5 3600. The multi-threaded

test once again showed AMD’s dominance too, thanks to

SMT, with the 3600 posting a score of 3,473 compared to

the Core i5-9600K’s 2,559 – a 36 per cent advantage.

In Far Cry 5, the Intel CPU had a lead of 3fps on the

minimum frame rate and 18fps on the average frame

rate, but as this was at over 100fps, the percentage

difference is far smaller than with the Ryzen 5 2600,

which only managed a minimum and average of 66fps

and 86fps respectively.

We’ve also found that the Core i5-9600K and Core

i5-9700K benefit from not offering Hyper-Threading here

too, with Far Cry preferring them over CPUs with twice as

many threads as cores. Bear in mind that this Far Cry test

is also unusually CPU-limited – other games point to only

modest gains for Intel over AMD, or similar performance.

Overclocking proved to be very fruitful for the 3600 too,

with our usual 1.425V vcore offering a maximum all-core

overclock of 4.25GHz. This is the same figure we achieved

with the Ryzen 5 3600X, meaning the Ryzen 5 3600

offers far better value if you’re up for some overclocking.

More importantly, this all-core overclock frequency is

50MHz higher than the CPU’s maximum boost clock, and

over 200MHz faster than the all-core boost we saw at

stock speed, so the Ryzen 5 3600 benefits in all areas after

overclocking, and likely more than it would from dabbling

with Precision Boost Overdrive too. This overclock saw the

system score rise from 185,659 to 207,899 and the average

frame rate in Far Cry 5 increase from 104fps to 110fps, with

300 points added to the Cinebench R20 multi-threaded

score and the single-threaded score rising from 471 to 490.

Conclusion

While the Ryzen 5 3600X is still a fantastic CPU, the Ryzen

5 3600 is much cheaper, not significantly slower at stock

speed and can overclock to similar frequencies – at least if

our sample is an example of a regular chip. It offers excellent

all-round performance, leaving the Core i5-9600K in the

dust, never mind Intel’s less potent CPUs, and while Far

Cry 5 gave Intel an advantage, this is by no means the case

in every game. If you’re looking for an overclockable all-

rounder, the Ryzen 5 3600 is the new kid on the block, and

it represents a decent upgrade from the Ryzen 5 2600 too.

ANTONY LEATHER

VERDICT

A huge amount faster than its predecessor, and the

new benchmark for a sub-£200 all-rounder.

OVERALLSCORE

89 %

PERFORMANCE

40 / 50

FEATURES

15 / 15

VALUE

34 / 35

S P E C

Base frequency 3.6GHz

Max boost frequency 4.2GHz

Core Zen 2

Manufacturing process 7nm

Number of cores 6 x physical (12 threads)

IGP None

Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) Ye s

Memory controller Dual-channel DDR4, up to 3200MHz

Packaging AMD Socket AM

Thermal design power (TDP) 65W

Features Precision Boost 2, Precision Boost Overdrive, FMA3,

F16C, SHA, BMI / BMI1 + BMI2, AVX2, AVX, AES, SSE4a, SSE4,

SSE3, SSE2, SSE

The Ryzen 5 3600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler in the box,

rather than the larger Wraith Spire