AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Processor Review
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The AMD Ryzen 5 2600X appears to be an enticing processors for those looking to spend around $230 on a desktop processor for a system build. The performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X was able to top the Intel Core i7-8700K in a small number of tests and that was pretty damn impressive. Seeing a processor in the middle of AMD’s product stack trading blows with Intel’s top part shows just how far AMD has come in recent years. Sure, we still want better gaming performance and single-threaded performance, but AMD has really closed the performance gap with Intel. Speaking of single threaded performance… There was less than a 5% difference in single threaded performance between the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X and the AMD Ryzen 2700X processors as the base and boost clocks differ by just 100MHz. So, single-threaded performance on the Ryzen 5 2600X is impressive from that perspective! The Ryzen 5 2 2600X has impressive multithreaded performance and appears to be a decent all around processor!
An example of this is if you take out Handbrake results and look at the price you are paying for each frame per second that you actually get. The AMD Ryzen 4 2600X comes in with the lowest cost, so it has really solid price versus performance.
We should also point out that AMD has managed to work out many of the issues with the AM4 platform and running Ryzen processors now in April 2108 is such a better user experience than in April 2017. We actually had no issues with DDR4 memory running 3200MHz on the AMD X470 chipset, but when we moved the same kit of memory over to the Intel Z370 platform we were unable to get it to post without having to change the UEFI and manually set the timings and voltages. We can’t remember the last time running a fast enthusiast kit of memory was easier on AMD than Intel, so AMD has really cleaned things up.
We were also happy with overclocking as we were able to take this unlocked 6-core processor and overclock it up to 4.2GHz on all cores with no voltage increase. Our 4.2GHz overclock on all cores was able to boost the performance in Cinebench by about 5%, which isn’t bad for using the stock cooler. That might be impressive for some since the max boost clock is 4.2GHz, but you need to remember that is not on all cores. We asked AMD for a table of clock speeds versus number of active cores, but they are unable to provide that information. Processors have advanced so far that clock speeds are no longer table drive and clock speed now depends on the active workloads, temperatures and so on. Understanding XFR 2 and Prevision Boost 2 is complicated, but Robert Hallock has a great video explaining both here and even wrote a blog post about them last year.
The AMD 3nd Generation Ryzen 2000 series processors are proving to be contenders and the Ryzen 5 2600X at $229.99 shipped is one that you should take a closer look at if you want to spend around $200 on a CPU.
Legit Bottom Line: The AMD Ryzen 5 2600X offers solid performance for the price and it is unlocked for some overclocking fun if that is something you ever wanted to try!