Question Upgrade from Ryzen 5 3600 to 5600X worth it?

Jun 3, 2022
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Hi guys, I was thinking on upgrading my cpu to the higher gen series of R5 5600X but I don't know if is worth the upgrade because I will notice little increase in performance and I don't want to make the wrong investment, so my question is if I go to a gen Rzyen 7 such as the 3800X or 5800X will it cause the bottleneck effect on my rig or any similar lagging effect due to a possible unbalanced cpu/gpu combination? Any advice and feedback will be greatly appreciated, thanks.
My pc components are:

  • NOX Hummer TGM RGB case
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 stock
  • Artic Freezer A13X
  • Asus Rog Stirx B450-F Gaming
  • Crucial Ballistix 4x8gb DDR4 2400
  • Asus RTX 2060 Dual EVO OC
  • SSD M.2 WD N550 1tb
  • HHD Seagate 1tb
  • NETWAY Gaming 800W psu
 
You won't see massive gains due to the RTX 2060 you are using, however since Ryzen 5000 is the last upgrade path for AM4. The Ryzen 5 5600X is a great idea.

It is a much better option over any Ryzen 3000 series upgrade, even the 3950X if you are primarily gaming. The single-core IPC improvements Zen 2 simply cannot compete with.

So if you plan on keeping your system for another 2 years, and you're on a budget, the 5600X is definitely an upgrade I'd recommend, it will give your system additional CPU horsepower to run higher-end GPUs if you plan on upgrade.

As others have said the RAM is also a bit weak, but thankfully Zen 3 isn't as memory sensitive as Zen 2, because all the CPU cores can communicate with each other without relying on the infinity fabric.

However, that RAM is still slow, and with how cheap RAM is today, I would advise going with a 3200 CL16 or CL14 kit if possible, or 3600MHz if you find it for cheap. However, again, with Zen 3's improvements, going beyond 3200MHz is going to provide you almost zero performance results unless memory latency is better.

Oh BTW, the Ryzen 5 5600 is also a viable option. Literally no performance difference vs the 5600X.
 
Jun 3, 2022
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What do you want the pc to do better?

That slow RAM is going to strangle any CPU on that motherboard.
But my 32gb of memory in 4 modules will help a little in overall performance? My intention is to extend my pc a bit longer until I buy a good gaming pc in the future, I don't play the latest games so I remain always at 1080p in medium/high settings which is fine for me at the moment. thanks.
 
Jun 3, 2022
9
1
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You won't see massive gains due to the RTX 2060 you are using, however since Ryzen 5000 is the last upgrade path for AM4. The Ryzen 5 5600X is a great idea.

It is a much better option over any Ryzen 3000 series upgrade, even the 3950X if you are primarily gaming. The single-core IPC improvements Zen 2 simply cannot compete with.

So if you plan on keeping your system for another 2 years, and you're on a budget, the 5600X is definitely an upgrade I'd recommend, it will give your system additional CPU horsepower to run higher-end GPUs if you plan on upgrade.

As others have said the RAM is also a bit weak, but thankfully Zen 3 isn't as memory sensitive as Zen 2, because all the CPU cores can communicate with each other without relying on the infinity fabric.

However, that RAM is still slow, and with how cheap RAM is today, I would advise going with a 3200 CL16 or CL14 kit if possible, or 3600MHz if you find it for cheap. However, again, with Zen 3's improvements, going beyond 3200MHz is going to provide you almost zero performance results unless memory latency is better.

Oh BTW, the Ryzen 5 5600 is also a viable option. Literally no performance difference vs the 5600X.

My intent is to extend my pc a bit longer until I buy a good gaming pc in the future, the 5600/X was my first thought due to my system specs but I wasn't sure if the investment will be worth it, that's why I asked for help first before making the wrong decision, by your comments my graphic card and memory are low end to run properly for the R7 3000's X series. I'll get the 5600X then since price with the 5600 stock is barely noticeable.

Thanks for your reply is greatly appreciated.
 
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I always play at 1080p due to my monitor specs which is fine for me so no intention on going higher than that untill I buy a better pc in the future.

That's absolutely fair enough, it's your choice and nobody else's. As long as you're happy, that's all that matters.

It's good in your case, upgrading to the 5600x you should see an uplift in performance as the IPC improvement will be more visible at 1080p, where the CPU is leant on more heavily. Higher resolutions tend to put the emphasis on the GPU.

But you should be good.
 

Math Geek

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if you don't need any more cores, then the 5600(x) is a good choice, but for not much more, the 5700x is a great option. 8 cores and almost the same performance as they 5800x.

i actually went nuts and got a 5900x a few days ago, due to them being so cheap ( if you count $390 as cheap), this is an upgrade from a 3800x. i use a ton of cores working with vm's so i wanted more than the 16 threads i had.

passing down the 3800x it freed up a 3600x which is going into a mini-itx build i'm working on now.

man i love upgrading :)
 

dcvikes

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In gaming alone the 5600x is actually the equal of a 5700x. 5600x pulls ahead by a few frames in a few titles and the 5700x does the same in a few titles. 5600x was already close to a 5800x in gaming anyway. With a 2060 you will not see any difference between a R5 3600/5600x/5700x other than 1-2 frames here and there - it takes about a 3060ti / 6700/xt class GPU even @ 1080p to really start to see some wide (like 10-20 FPS) in-game-FPS separation of an R5 5600x vs. your R5 3600. RTX 3080 and above then you would definitely see the IPC improvements of Zen 3.
 

Math Geek

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for sure, my thoughts are n case he does anything else with the pc besides gaming. if it's purely gaming, then the 5600 is great.

but for the in case he does more with it and not wanting to upgrade again before a new platform upgrade, the 5700x adds that little bit more to the scene. :)

that's a big reason i went for the 5900x, i can use the extra cores and i won't have to worry about upgrading it again until i move on to a new platform in a couple years.
 

dcvikes

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^yep I did the same thing (5900x) and yes a 5700x would not be a bad idea at all for the OP, also considering it's lower power profile at just 65w TDP vs. the 5800x that should also help some with normal operating parameters and still have 8c/16t.
 
But my 32gb of memory in 4 modules will help a little in overall performance? My intention is to extend my pc a bit longer until I buy a good gaming pc in the future, I don't play the latest games so I remain always at 1080p in medium/high settings which is fine for me at the moment. thanks.


Yes, you are correct, having four sticks will help CPU performance slightly due to interleaving, however that alone doesn't come close to the performance you gain from a standard 3200 or 3600mhz kit.

Play it by ear, if you find the performance is good enough with a Zen 3 chip and your current memory, don't upgrade the RAM.
 
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Jun 3, 2022
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Yes, you are correct, having four sticks will help CPU performance slightly due to interleaving, however that alone doesn't come close to the performance you gain from a standard 3200 or 3600mhz kit.

Play it by ear, if you find the performance is good enough with a Zen 3 chip and your current memory, don't upgrade the RAM.

I agree with you on memory speed, so according to your criteria what should I buy first? should I go for the memory upgrade first instead of the R5 5600X or viceversa? if so, between Crucial and Corsair kits which is the best buy?
Option 1 - Corsair Vengance LPX DDR4 3200MHZ 2x16gb CL16 (130$)
Option 2 - Crucial Ballistix BLK DDR4 3200MHZ 2x16gb CL16 (165$)
 
Jun 3, 2022
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In gaming alone the 5600x is actually the equal of a 5700x. 5600x pulls ahead by a few frames in a few titles and the 5700x does the same in a few titles. 5600x was already close to a 5800x in gaming anyway. With a 2060 you will not see any difference between a R5 3600/5600x/5700x other than 1-2 frames here and there - it takes about a 3060ti / 6700/xt class GPU even @ 1080p to really start to see some wide (like 10-20 FPS) in-game-FPS separation of an R5 5600x vs. your R5 3600. RTX 3080 and above then you would definitely see the IPC improvements of Zen 3.

At the moment I can't afford to buy a RTX3060Ti (+650$) and higher, that's why I was aiming for the cpu which fits my budget, but some of you have comment that my memory speed is low, so should I go first for the memory 3200mhz upgrade?
 

Math Geek

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here is a quick video of 2400 vs 3200 ram on a 2700x


seems to be around a 10 fps difference, but of course it fluctuates the whole time. this is about what i was thinking it would make. you'd get much more from a 5600x upgrade. obviously upgrading both would be awesome, but if i had to pick i'd go with the cpu. do note though that the ram is much cheaper so if your budget is real tight and saving the cash would make a big difference to you, then the much cheaper ram upgrade is still worth doing.
 
Jun 3, 2022
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here is a quick video of 2400 vs 3200 ram on a 2700x


seems to be around a 10 fps difference, but of course it fluctuates the whole time. this is about what i was thinking it would make. you'd get much more from a 5600x upgrade. obviously upgrading both would be awesome, but if i had to pick i'd go with the cpu. do note though that the ram is much cheaper so if your budget is real tight and saving the cash would make a big difference to you, then the much cheaper ram upgrade is still worth doing.

I can't upgrade both at the same time so I have to do it one at a time within this year, these cpu 5600X and memory 3200 or 3400 would make my rig much better so it can last me longer, so I guess the best choice is to go first for the cpu (200$) and later on the memory modules kit (165$).