I'm putting together a gaming PC with a budget of around £500. The Ryzen 5 5600 costs about £50 more than the Ryzen 5 5500, and I'm wondering whether the performance difference is worth it. Would that extra money make a noticeable difference, or would I be better off saving on the CPU and putting the money toward another component, especially the graphics card?
3 Answers
If this is primarily a gaming PC, the 5500 is the one I’d be cautious about. Its smaller cache can hold it back compared with the 5600, and PCIe 3.0 may limit some newer SSDs or graphics cards. That said, on a tight £500 budget, the 5500 still makes sense if choosing the 5600 would force you into a significantly slower GPU.
The Ryzen 5 5600 is noticeably better for gaming than the 5500. It has twice the L3 cache, which can help game performance, while the 5500 is limited to PCIe 3.0. The 5600 supports PCIe 4.0, so it’s the stronger long-term option if you can afford it without compromising the graphics card.
For a £500 gaming build, I’d usually avoid spending the extra £50 on the CPU if it means dropping to a weaker graphics card. A used Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 5 5500 should be sufficient, and the savings would probably have a bigger effect when added to the GPU budget.
The 5500 I’m considering is already used. Would you still recommend switching to a used 3600, or is the 5500 the better choice at a similar price?