AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Review

The Ryzen five 5600G is about to hit the retail market place as the virtually affordable part sporting the Zen 3 compages for $259. Inside the piffling box you lot likewise receive the Wraith Stealth cooler, which is a pretty interesting proposition. Just starting time, some context...

Concluding month we checked out the Ryzen 7 5700G, which is the other APU in the 5000 series so far. If you haven't read that review, in curt, we were disappointed by what's on offer as we struggled to notice a practical utilise case for it considering the $360 asking toll. For our audience, I call back it'south off-white to say the 5700G is a niche product that just makes sense for ultra compact PCs, whether that be for home theater use, coincidental gaming, or another that requires you to take a desktop PC that's the size of a gourmet burger.

For everyone else, a mid-range 6-core/12-thread processor, such equally the Intel Core i5-10400F and a second hand graphics card such as the GTX 1060 3GB will serve you far amend, at least for gaming, offering roughly twice the performance for the same price.

The R7 5700G so really is a product for OEM system builders. They get to advertise their compact and affordable PCs as serious gaming systems featuring 8 cores of Ryzen 7 power, while as well affording them the luxury of slapping on a Radeon graphics logo, so you know it's ready for Cyberpunk 2077 or whatever other modern game that it can't actually run at a satisfactory level, but of course that doesn't mater, if only has to requite the impression that it's a serious gaming machine.

So for most of you, at $360 the 5700G is a scrap pointless, but what nearly the $260 Ryzen 5 5600G, is it whatsoever improve?

	Ryzen ix 5900X	Ryzen 7 5800X	Ryzen 5 5600X	Ryzen seven 5700G	Ryzen 5 5600G
Release	November 5, 2022			April 13, 2022
MSRP $	$550	$450	$300	$360	$260
Cores / Threads	12 / 24	8 / 16	half-dozen / 12	8 / 16	6 / 12
iGPU	N/A			512:32:8 (viii CU)	448:28:8 (seven CU)
Base Frequency	3.7 GHz	3.eight GHz	iii.7 GHz	3.viii GHz	3.9 GHz
Turbo Frequency	four.8 GHz	iv.7 GHz	4.6 GHz	4.6 GHz	4.4 GHz
L3 Enshroud	32 MB per CCD (64MB Full)	32 MB	32 MB	sixteen MB	16 MB
TDP	105 watts		65 watts

In terms of specifications, it'south pretty straightforward. The 5600G is a 6-core/12-thread part, though it retains the aforementioned 16MB L3 cache, which is half that of the 5600X. Then for the iGPU, the Vega graphics are downgraded from eight CUs to seven, and the frequency has been reduced by 5%, down to 1.9 GHz, and then overall we wait a ~10% drop in iGPU performance.

To find out if that'south indeed the case we demand to get into the benchmarks, and for this we've split the testing upwards into three sections. Commencement we're going to look exclusively at CPU functioning by testing the 5600G in applications so we tin can compare it with the rest of our CPU data.

And so we desire to run into how well it works with the Vega iGPU, and for this we'll be comparing it against the Ryzen v 3400G, Ryzen seven 5700G and Core i7-11700, all using integrated graphics.

Finally, we've run discrete GPU tests using a GeForce RTX 3090, assuasive us to compare the 5600G to a range of competing CPUs with a powerful graphics card. That should be interesting and will requite us a good idea of what kind of headroom this APU offers gamers, should they upgrade downward the track. And so let'southward go into information technology…

Application Benchmarks

Starting as nosotros often exercise with Cinebench, we run across that the 5600G is comparable in this examination to the Cadre i5-11600K and simply a smidgen slower than the 5600X which is skillful because the 5700G was quite a bit slower than the 5800X. I'k not entirely sure why this is, perhaps the 16MB L3 enshroud does a better chore of servicing 6-cores opposed to eight, non sure on that 1.

Interestingly, the single thread operation is down on the 5600X past a vii% margin which isn't massive, simply it's more meaning than what we saw in the multi-thread test and is comparable to the 5700G vs 5800X margin.

Moving on to the 7-goose egg file manager compression test nosotros find that the 5600G is only comparable to the Core i5-11400F making information technology 17% slower than the 5600X, which is a similar margin to that seen betwixt the 5700G and 5800X, suggesting that the L3 cache chapters plays a crucial role here.

Decompression performance is more impressive when compared to the Intel competition and this is due to AMD'southward SMT implementation working better, and every bit a result the 5600G was but 8% slower than Intel's previous generation 8-core Core i7-10700. Still, when compared to the 5600X, it was ten% slower which is disappointing.

Even when testing with Afterward Effects nosotros find that the 5600G is ~ix% slower than the 5600X and because this is a more than lightly threaded application, the 5600G is comparable to the 5700G.

It's the aforementioned with Adobe Photoshop which is some other lightly threaded application that typically only leans on 1 or ii cores heavily. Therefore we're looking at comparable performance betwixt non merely the 5600G and 5700G, only also the new Core i5-11400F.

Adobe Premiere is a little more core-heavy and as a result the 5600G falls behind the 5700G, but when compared to the 5600X, information technology'southward only 4% slower and therefore is comparable to the Core i5-11600K in this test.

The last application benchmark nosotros have is Blender, where the 5600G finds itself situated between the Core i5-11600K and 11400F, making it just half-dozen% slower than the 5600X.

Power Consumption

Before we get to the gaming tests, hither's a brief await at power consumption. The 5600G did swallow slightly more than power than the 5600X in this test despite existence 6% slower. But when compared to the Intel contest, it was considerably more power efficient, peculiarly confronting the 11600K.

Integrated Graphics Testing

Moving on to exam the Radeon integrated graphics, we'll first with Assassin's Creed Valhalla at 1080p using the lowest possible quality settings. If you're happy with 30 fps on average with frequent dips into the mid 20s then then the 5600G volition work, but for me personally I establish it unplayable. I was unable to savor the game at those frame rates, ideally I'd want at least 40 fps on average to start enjoying this one.

Overclocking the Vega graphics to 2.five GHz boosted performance by 13% and that'southward a pretty typical GPU overclock. That said, we have increased the operating frequency by 32%, and so you'd wait a more meaning increase, but I'd say we're bandwidth limited here.

This took us from xxx to 34 fps on boilerplate which certainly helped, simply wasn't plenty to start enjoying this title. As far as iGPU performance goes, it was very skillful, destroying Intel'southward best socketed desktop options available correct now.

Where the 5600G is very usable, in my opinion, is with Rainbow Six Siege. Here the game was very enjoyable with almost threescore fps on boilerplate, so perhaps non at the level of competitive gameplay, just it was playable in the more coincidental sense. Overclocked we received a 12% boost taking the average to 66 fps and now the 5600G is able to match a stock 5700G besides every bit the detached Radeon RX 550.

When compared to the 3400G, the 5600G was 26% faster out of the box and a massive 127% faster than the Intel Core i7-11700. So for an iGPU solution information technology's very impressive, merely when compared to 3 generation old budget graphics cards like the GTX 1060 3GB, it looks a flake pathetic offer half the operation.

Unfortunately games like Horizon Zero Dawn aren't playable using integrated graphics. Here the 5600G was good for just 25 fps on average, and overclocking just boosted that to 28 fps, or the same performance yous'll receive from the RX 550.

You're looking at twice the performance with an old GTX 1060 3GB, or slightly more than in this example. At least the AMD iGPUs ran this game, the Cadre i7-11700 kept crashing out when I tried to load into a level.

Despite being a late 2022 release, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is another AAA title that just can't run on integrated graphics. The 5600G was good for simply 29 fps on average and wasn't much better than the 3400G, we did see an improvement in one% low performance but that'southward probable a result of the actress CPU cores. Even with the 5600G overclocked the GTX 1060 3GB was all the same able to provide 163% greater performance.

Doom Eternal runs well using the lowest settings at 1080p, and this saw the 5600G return 46 fps on average and 52 fps once overclocked. That ways stock the 5600G was 21% faster than the 3400G and RX 550.

Picket Dogs: Legion is another modern game that you won't exist running on integrated graphics, at least at 1080p. With the lowest quality settings enabled, the 5600G rendered just 26 fps on boilerplate so thirty fps one time overclocked with regular dips into the mid 20s. So again we're looking at just shy of half the performance yous'd get from the GTX 1060 3GB.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a skilful example of a game that plays actually well on low-cease graphics solutions, including iGPUs. Here the 5600G was skillful for 101 fps on average at 1080p using the medium quality settings and we were able to boost that a further 24% via overclocking, hitting 125 fps on average and at that bespeak you're receiving a high refresh rate experience.

F1 2022 also plays reasonably well with the 5600G, spitting out 53 fps on average when stock and that made it slightly faster than the RX 550. Our overclock boosted performance by 15%, allowing for 61 fps on average, and at this point the gaming experience is excellent for an iGPU.

Our concluding integrated graphics exam is Dota 2, a game that's known to run on basically anything and proving that betoken is the 5600G with 66 fps on average at 1080p using the highest possible in-game quality settings. The overclock allowed for a big 29% increment in performance striking 85 fps on average, then very smooth playable performance.

Gaming Benchmarks (dGPU)

Time to check out discrete GPU performance with the GeForce RTX 3090, and nosotros'll start with F1 2022. Here the 5600G allowed for 240 fps on average which is about the same level of performance yous receive with the Core i5-10400F. That means this APU is xi% slower than the 5600X, and six% slower than the 5700G, which is not a bad result.

The 5600G fairs better in Rainbow Six Siege, not only did information technology allow for 464 fps on average but it was also but nine% slower than the 5600X, allowing it to beat all 10th and 11th-gen Core i5 processors.

Moving on to Horizon Zero Dawn, we find that the 5600G is comparable to the Core i5-10400F and not a great bargain faster than the older Ryzen vii 3700X. When compared to the 5700G, information technology was just 3% slower and 9% slower than the 5600X.

In Borderlands three the 5600G doesn't look particularly impressive, allowing for 142 fps on average making it 11% slower than the 5600X and the Core i5-10400F. Of form, that's still highly playable performance, but the fact that information technology was slower than the Ryzen 5 3600 is a little concerning.

The 5600G just matched the Ryzen 7 3700X when testing with Watch Dogs Legion, though that did mean information technology also matched the 5700G. It was 12% slower than the 5600X and just eight% faster than the older Ryzen 5 3600.

The 5600G as well looks fairly weak relative to many of the other CPUs tested in Expiry Stranding, averaging 158 fps and placing somewhere between the 3700X and 3600, though it was closer to matching the performance of the viii-core model. It was quite shocking to see the 5600G trailing the 5600X by a massive 20% margin in this game though.

The 5600G was also much slower than the 5600X in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this fourth dimension abaft by an eighteen% margin, rendering 130 fps on boilerplate which was comparable to that of the 5700G, 3700X and 10th gen Cadre i5 processors.

In Hitman 2 the 5600G is much slower than the 5600X once once again, trailing by 19% with an average of 122 fps opposed to 150 fps for the 5600X. The 5600G is similar to the 3700X when it comes to high-end gaming functioning, and while that's non a terrible result, it'southward not exactly what we've come to expect from the Zen 3 architecture.

dGPU Gaming Performance Overview

Finally, we have the ten game average data and as expected given what we only saw, the 5600G is simply comparable with the 3700X when it comes to high-end gaming using a powerful discrete graphics carte du jour. Of class that's non bad, but information technology does mean cheaper parts similar the 10400F will deliver comparable or often meliorate performance.

It also ways when CPU bound the 5600G was on average 14% slower than the 5600X, which is a reasonably large margin. Of course information technology's well worth noting that for the majority of gamers, and hardware configurations, the performance departure between these ii CPUs is going to be very small every bit you'll nigh always end upwardly GPU limited.

So go along in mind the fact that we are testing with a GeForce RTX 3090 at 1080p, using a lower tier GPU such as the RTX 3070 at 1440p will see the margins shrink to less than one-half of what's shown here.

What We Learned

It'southward worth mentioning that AMD is positioning the 5000-One thousand series as flexible, scalable and attainable APUs for PC enthusiasts, said to deliver exceptional price to performance for gaming focused PCs. They fifty-fifty go as far as to say "incredible gaming on Radeon IGP." So make no mistake, AMD is pushing the 5600G and 5700G as gaming-focused products.

How incredible the gaming experience is really depends on the game. In modern and even relatively modern AAA titles, yous're typically looking at effectually thirty fps at 1080p using the lowest quality settings. Now, that might be incredible by iGPU standards, but overall it's pretty miserable when compared to multi-generation one-time discrete GPUs.

With the right selection of games though, the 5600G tin expect quite good -- games like CS:GO, League of Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite and F1 2022, for example. So as long as you lot become into this with the correct expectations, gaming can be enjoyable with the 5600G standalone.

Priced at $260, it certainly makes a lot more sense than the 5700G, especially for gaming. These days y'all're looking at ~$200 for a decent used graphics card -- like the 3GB GTX 1060 -- and so it's hard to beat the value of 5600G by doing what nosotros suggested when reviewing the 5700G, which was to purchase a Core i5-10400 and a second paw GPU.

Ideally, we'd prefer to encounter the 5600G priced closer to $200, only even if that's not so, nosotros can make a case for it at $260, and in our opinion that'south not possible for the 5700G at $360.

The Ryzen 5 5600G is also far more suitable than the 5700G as a stop-gap for those holding out for GPU pricing to recover, and it'southward much more than economic for utilize in home theater PCs. And then as we run into it, in that location's far more use cases where the 5600G makes sense and that makes it a more valuable product in our opinion.