I currently have an Intel Core i7-2600 paired with a GTX 1060 6GB, and the processor is holding back performance in games such as Fortnite and Minecraft. Since I'll need a new motherboard either way, I'm considering an AM4 upgrade with either a Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 5 5600. The 5600 costs about $80 more in my area and offers more performance, twice the cache, and PCIe 4.0. My overall upgrade budget is around $300. Is the 5600 worth the extra money, or would the 5500 be enough?
4 Answers
Go with the Ryzen 5 5600 if the extra $80 fits your budget. It has significantly more cache and better overall performance than the 5500, so it should handle CPU-heavy games better and give you more room for a future graphics card upgrade. The 5500 is still a major improvement over the i7-2600, but it’s a more cut-down chip and is closer to the older Ryzen 5 3600 in performance.
Remember that moving from an Intel i7-2600 requires a new motherboard, not just a processor swap. An affordable B550 board paired with the Ryzen 5 5600 would be a good AM4 setup. AM5 and a Ryzen 5 7600 would be faster and offer a better future upgrade path, but the required DDR5 memory would probably push it beyond your roughly $300 budget.
The 5500 and 5600 use different designs. The 5500 is limited to PCIe 3.0, while the 5600 supports PCIe 4.0 and has twice the L3 cache. Your GTX 1060 won’t really benefit from PCIe 4.0, but the 5600’s extra cache and stronger CPU performance can still matter in games like Fortnite and Minecraft.
Check the prices of the Ryzen 5 5600X as well. It’s only a small step up from the 5600, so it’s worth considering if the price difference is around $5–$20. Otherwise, the regular 5600 is usually the better value. Either processor should be a large improvement over the i7-2600, but the 5600 is the better long-term choice if you can afford it.
That makes sense. I was mainly worried about the PCIe difference, but the extra cache and CPU performance seem more important for my current games.