6 cores vs. 8 cores, AMD Ryzen 5600 and 5700X head to head!

If you are a user of an AMD PC with an AM4 socket motherboard, it is most likely that if you have considered buying a new processor to expand the processing capacity of your computer without going bankrupt, there are two main options. On the one hand, the Ryzen 5 5600 with 6 cores, and on the other the Ryzen 7 5700X with 8 cores , is it worth paying the extra for the 5700X instead of the 5600? Is it a significant performance increase to go for an 8-core CPU instead of a 6-core one?

The Zen 3 architecture, common to all AMD Ryzen 5000, is the most powerful that the company led by Lisa Su has launched on the market so far. Its main advantage is that with a simple BIOS update, if we have an AMD 300 or 400 series board we can install one of these processors to have a more powerful PC if we are users of an older Ryzen CPU.

6 cores vs. 8 cores, AMD Ryzen 5600 and 5700X head to head

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 versus Ryzen 7 5700X

The best performance test to know how a processor will work is not to use synthetic benchmarks, but real applications, and the ones that best take advantage of a multi-core system are video games. However, there is a dilemma about whether to adopt a 6-core or 8-core processor when upgrading your PC.

Characteristic AMD Ryzen 5 5600 AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
Architecture Zen 3 Zen 3
cores 6 8
threads 12 16
base speed 3.5GHz 3.4GHz
boost speed 4.4GHz 4.6GHz
Overclocking support Yes Yes
Socket AM4 AM4
Memory DDR4-3200 DDR4-3200
TDP 65W 65W

The particularity of games is that currently the bulk of PC users use 4 or 6 core processors, with those who have 8 core systems being a minority. From here to the games using this configuration, it will probably have been enough time for you to consider adopting a more powerful CPU. Hence, there may be a dilemma between these two processors, especially if we take into account that the difference between the two is 100 euros.

More cores are not an advantage in eSports-style games

Not all games have the same technical requirements, especially in terms of the number of processor cores they use to run. For this reason we can find that the difference between the 5600 and 5700X is almost zero . What’s more, since both CPUs are overclocked unlocked, it shouldn’t cost you much to get the performance to match in most games. This is important due to the fact that if what we want is to use the PC to play the most popular games in the world of eSports, then we will find that they do not use a large number of cores:

  • Minecraft recommends 4 cores to run smoothly.
  • Roblox runs on a single core.
  • Rocket League recommends a 4-core processor over 3GHz.
  • Fortnite runs smoothly on a 4 core CPU.
  • Counter Strike: Global Offensive recommends only 2 cores.
  • League of Legends also uses 2 cores.

So if you are going to play one of these games, it will not be an advantage for you to buy the Ryzen 7 5700X over its smaller brother.

Which processor is better for streaming and gaming at the same time?

Many of you who play the games that we have discussed in the previous section also stream. Here it is important to note that having more processor cores and assigning them to applications for live broadcasting on platforms like Twitch is very important, since what we are not interested in is that these programs end up saturating the cores that are used to run the play. It is best to make use of those that are not in disuse.

Dual PC Streaming Twitch

In general, the reason why we recommend the Ryzen 7 5700X over the 5600 is due to the fact that although the vast majority of games will not ask for more than 6 cores to get the most out of it, having 2 more cores to controlling the stream is something that can make a difference in your broadcasts . It would not be the first time that the combination between the browser and OBS, for example, end up affecting the frame rate of games.

5600 versus 5700X in games with high requirements

We have to start from the basis that there are already games on the market that require 8 cores to work smoothly and, therefore, the fact of using the 5700X and not the 5600 is an advantage in terms of frame rate. . All of them are of recent appearance and among them we can include titles such as:

  • God of War
  • Crysis 3 Remastered
  • Sherlock Holmes Chapter One
  • Tales of Arise
  • Resident Evil Village
  • Outriders
  • Cyberpunk 2077

So the titles that are going to benefit from that extra power of the 5700X are few, although they will grow over time. Nor can we forget the titles that get the most out of a 6-core configuration, they are also few, in any case it is important to know in which titles it will mean opting for the 5600.

  • halo-infinite
  • far cry 6
  • ForzaHorizon 5
  • Call of Duty Vanguard
  • days gone

Keep in mind that these games can be played without problems on a Ryzen 5 5600 and the performance advantage on a 5700X will not be noticeable. However, we summon you to what we have told you before about streaming. It is possible that at the moment you do not want to broadcast, but think that more and more games will be released designed to use 8 cores and that extra power will be appreciated in the long term.

Final tests and conclusions

Taking into account that we are talking about two processors that use the same architecture and very similar speeds, then we should obtain the same performance in the vast majority of games, since these would not use the extra cores that the 5700X has compared to the 5600. It is because This is why we have compiled the performance of both processors in several different games. As a graphics card for tandem we have chosen the RX 6600 XT.

5600 5700X comparativa juegos

And your eyes are not deceiving you, in most games the frame rate obtained is the same. How is that possible? Well, we have explained it to you before and that betting on an 8-core processor on PC today is more of a bet for the future or if you want to dedicate yourself to the world of streaming. In any case, the price difference between the two processors is €100, much less, for example, than the price difference between a 6600 XT and a 6700 XT graphics card. So if you have the budget to buy better graphics hardware, then your games will thank you much more, since you can get a higher frame rate or even reach 60 FPS in certain titles.