I currently have an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz paired with a GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER. For my 40th birthday, I received some gift cards and am looking to upgrade my CPU. I've already purchased a Ryzen 5 5500, but I saw that the Ryzen 5 5600 is only £26 more on Amazon. I mainly play games like Apex, WoW, and Cyberpunk, with FFVII Rebirth being the most recent title. While the 5500 runs these games, I'm wondering if the 5600 would be a better investment. Should I return the 5500 for the 5600 or stick with what I have?
3 Answers
The 5600 might give you around 10% better performance, which is pretty solid. If the £26 isn't too steep for you, it's a worthwhile upgrade, especially for future-proofing your setup.
The 5600 is definitely the better choice. The 5500 has less cache, which can hurt gaming performance—it's about on par with the Ryzen 3600. The 5600 is not only faster but also has more PCIe lanes, which might help if you upgrade your GPU later on. Since the price difference is just £26, I'd say go for the upgrade!
And don't forget about PCIe Gen 4 support on the 5600; it's a nice perk!
Absolutely upgrade to the 5600 if you can! The 5500 is basically an APU with the integrated GPU disabled, meaning it has fewer PCIe lanes and lower L3 cache compared to the 5600. For just £26 more, you'd really be investing in better performance.
Thanks, I've decided to go ahead and return the 5500.
Thanks for the insight! That makes me feel better about my choice.