With the Ryzen 5 2600X ($229), AMD offers a mild performance step down from its flagship mainstream Ryzen 7 2700X ($329) processor, but at a rather significant 30 percent cut in price.
The trade-off is that you're down to six cores and 12 threads versus the pricier chip's eight cores and 16 threads.
You also sacrifice 100MHz on the base clock (3.6GHz) and maximum boost clock (4.2GHz).
On a positive note, however, this processor sheds 10 watts from the TDP, so it'll consume less power both at idle and when you're pushing it hard.
On the whole, this is a superb-value package for budget-minded power seekers such as gamers, streamers, and content creators who just want to run at stock speeds.
If you simply want to slap on a stock cooler, install a video card, and get your DIY rig running and crunching, this CPU is one of the best midrange options out there.
Cost-Effective Cores (and Cooling)
AMD is continuing to sell the Ryzen 5 1600X, the first-generation variant of this chip, though at a slight discount.
By going with the revised Zen+ Ryzen 5 2600X, you're getting better memory compatibility and some higher clock speeds.
Also, like with the Ryzen 7 2700X, this processor's retail box includes a perfectly fine general-use CPU cooler bundled in.
The Wraith Spire features a copper disc with pre-applied thermal paste, aluminum fins, and a 92mm fan.
Although the Wraith Spire can handle a smidge of overclocking, we caution you against overclocking the Ryzen 5 2600X very much with it.
The cooler is rated for 95 watts of thermal dissipation, and this processor generates as much at its stock settings.
Like with those first-generation chips, shoppers who opt for the Ryzen 5 2600X will need to have a discrete graphics card, as there's no portion of this processor that handles 2D and 3D video playback and rendering tasks like on Intel's mainstream platform.
If built-in graphics is important to you, AMD has its Ryzen 5 2400G ($169) and Ryzen 3 2200G ($99) with Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics.
AMD's jack-of-all trades AM4 chipset works with the complete lineup of Ryzen chips (excluding AMD's giant Ryzen Threadripper processors, of course), but note that not all AM4 motherboards have the all-important HDMI, DVI, VGA, or DisplayPort video-out ports to support these APUs, as AMD has traditionally referred to its processors with on-chip graphics acceleration.
For those who plan to install an aftermarket CPU cooler, the Ryzen 5 2600X has an unlocked multiplier that makes overclocking a breeze.
Overclockers will also appreciate the fact that this processor's heat spreader is soldered on for optimal heat transfer between the die surface and the cooler.
That Was Then, This Is Wow
AMD's Zen+, or Pinnacle Ridge, architecture was built using Global Foundry's new 12nm Leading Performance (LP) FinFET manufacturing process.
The primary advantages of this process compared to the old 14nm Low Power Plus (LPP) FinFET process include up to 15 percent better transistor performance, up to 16 percent lower DRAM latencies for the L1 and L3 caches, up to 34 percent lower DRAM latencies for the L2 cache, and up to a 3 percent uplift in instructions per clock (IPC).
Not too shabby.
A few features are getting a fresh coat of paint this time around, as well.
Precision Boost is an algorithm that weighs the cooling performance of the system against the current workload to determine how much headroom is available to boost.
With the 2000-series chips, Precision Boost 2 now has the ability to gradually drop the boost clock as more cores, up to the full six, are engaged.
Those running a premium CPU cooler, such as a closed-loop liquid cooler or a tower-style air cooler, can tap into Extended Frequency Range 2 (XFR 2) to achieve even higher average clock speeds under load.
With these new processors, AMD also gave the chipset a spit-shine, though any of the first- or second-gen Ryzen chips will work just fine whether you install them into an X370 or X470 motherboard.
If you opt for one of the new 400-series boards, you'll get access to AMD's StoreMI storage-acceleration technology.
Boost It! Shifting Into Overdrive
Another new trick AMD taught select AM4 motherboards is a feature called Precision Boost Overdrive.
This premium overclocking technology increases the processor's operating frequency based on the current temperature, the power consumption from the CPU, and your motherboard's ability to supply power to the CPU via the VRM.
Regardless of what you're doing with the system, PBO works its magic behind the scenes, ensuring you get the best experience possible.
For all intents and purposes, this is the same as applying a traditional overclock, which means you need a motherboard with a robust VRM, a better-than-stock CPU cooler, and a dash of reckless bravado that makes voiding your warranty seem like a worthwhile chance to take.
Best of all, to enable Precision Boost Overdrive, all you need to do is flip a switch in the BIOS of select X470 motherboards, or enable the setting from within the AMD Ryzen Master overclocking utility, which you can download here.
Once Ryzen Master was downloaded and installed, I launched it, switched to Creator Mode, clicked Precision Boost Overdrive, and clicked Apply.
With the PBO feature enabled, my Cinebench R15 single- and multi-core scores jumped from 171 and 1,349 to 173 and 1,365, respectively.
Incidentally, the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard I used to test this processor has a Precision Boost Overdrive feature setting in the BIOS menu.
Testing Methodology
For my test setup, I installed the Ryzen 5 2600X into that MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard, and populated two of the DIMM slots with 16GB of dual-channel Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4-3466 memory.
For the boot drive, I relied on the 500GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO M.2, a SATA SSD installed in the topmost M.2 slot on this motherboard.
I installed the components into a Phanteks Enthoo Pro Tempered Glass Edition case, with a Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB closed-loop cooler keeping my CPU temperatures in check.
For the graphics card used during the non-gaming benchmarks, I used an MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X.
To compare this processor's scores with other viable options currently on the market, I included in the charts to follow scores for the six-core/12-thread Intel Core i7-8700K, the six-core/six-thread Intel Core i5-8400, and the four-core/four-thread Intel Core i5-7640X ($200.00 at Amazon) .
To represent on the AMD side of the aisle, I also worked in the eight-core/16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 1800X ($629.00 at Amazon) , the six-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 1600X, the eight-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 2700X ($399.00 at Amazon) , and last, the four-core/eight-thread Ryzen 5 2400G.
(I'm in the process of reviewing that last chip.)
Cinebench R15
Maxon's 64-bit Cinebench R15 is a CPU-centric test that lets me gauge both the single-core and multicore performance of the various processors I tested.
The resulting scores are proprietary numbers that represent the processor's performance while rendering a complex CPU-intensive image.
This is considered a synthetic benchmark.
Compared to 2017's Ryzen 5 1600X ($303.58 at Amazon) , this processor achieved a 6.8 percent higher score in the single-core test and a 9.5 percent increase in the multi-threaded test.
The higher memory speed of our current system may account for some of the improvement, but the rest is down to IPC improvements and Pinnacle Ridge's spiffed-up boost performance.
Note also that even though this chip lacks two cores compared to the Ryzen 7 2700X, the single-core performance is practically the same.
iTunes 10.6 Conversion Test
The iTunes 10.6 Encoding Test is laughably single-threaded, which means that more cores don't do AMD's chip any favors.
This test is designed to illustrate the performance you might expect when running legacy software that doesn't scale well.
In this test, all of the Intel chips score better than the AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, but only the Ryzen 7 2700X beats it among AMD's current-generation processors.
The closest Intel processor, the Core i5-8400 ($219.85 at Amazon) , has an advantage of a mere 6 seconds.
Handbrake 0.9.9
Handbrake is a classic (and popular) workstation utility that's used to convert videos between formats.
Typically, the more threads and cores your processor has, the better it will perform in this application.
I loaded up a 12-minute-long open-source 4K video movie, Tears Of Steel, and used the software to convert it into a 1080p MPEG-4 video.
Because of Handbrake's affinity for more cores and threads, the Ryzen 5 2600X didn't do as well as the eight-core/16-thread AMD processors, and it trounced the quad-core processors from AMD and Intel.
When picking on processors with the same number of cores and threads, the Ryzen 5 2600X fell behind the Core i7-8700K but beat the Ryzen 5 1600X in this real-world test.
Although better options are out there, this processor proves you can tackle professional workloads without setting your wallet on fire.
POV-Ray 3.7
This benchmark is another one that's generally considered synthetic, however, the highly-threaded nature of the utility is getting to be more and more representative of the applications available today.
I ran POV-Ray using both the multi-threaded "All CPUs" setting and the hamstrung "One CPU" setting.
The benchmark tasks the processor with rendering a complex photo-realistic image using ray tracing.
Again, the multi-threaded results show that the Ryzen 5 2600X lags behind the eight-core processors, but it beats the chips with six or less.
The Intel Core i7-8700K ($354.38 at Amazon) performs better, but not by much.
The single-core results achieved by the 2600X, i5-8400, and 2700X are just a few seconds apart.
Blender 2.77a
Another of the real-world benchmarks I used is Blender, a popular open-source 3D rendering application that people far more creative and talented than I use to craft 3D visual effects, animations, and models.
Our test file consists of a cartoonish flying-squirrel render that takes less than a minute to complete with most modern processors.
Intel's processors seem to perform well in Blender, with the top score going to the Core i7-8700K.
The next best score goes to the Ryzen 7 2700X.
In third place overall, just a second behind the Core i5-8400, is the star of today's program, the Ryzen 5 2600X.
7-Zip File Compression
7-Zip is a widely-used file-compression utility that features a built-in compression/decompression benchmark.
It's a real-world test that generally makes use of as many cores and threads as your processor has to offer.
The pair of eight-core/16-thread processors from AMD and the Intel Core i7-8700K all beat the Ryzen 5 2600X, but considering how much more you'll be paying for those chips, we think the fourth-place finish for the Ryzen 5 2600X is impressive nonetheless.
Flexing Some Gaming Goodness...
When I examined the gaming performance of the Ryzen 7 2700X, I noted that although AMD has yet to catch up to Intel in some games, performance across most titles has improved (sometimes substantially) compared to the first-generation Ryzen processors.
I tested two games, Far Cry Primal (High preset) and Rise Of The Tomb Raider (DX11, Very High preset) with a GeForce GTX 1080 ($549.00 at NVIDIA) , at 4K and 1080p.
At the lower resolution, where AMD's processors tend to lag behind the most, the Ryzen 5 2600X actually nudged ahead of the flagship Ryzen 7 2700X.
The chip scored 108fps in Far Cry Primal and 120fps in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is a good deal higher than the Ryzen 5 1600X's 90fps and 112fps scores.
Intel's Core i7-8700K and Core i5-8400, meanwhile, scored 138fps/143fps and 137fps/138fps in the two games, respectively.
When I raised the resolution to 4K, however, the games were no longer CPU constrained, and the scores were nearly identical across both AMD's and Intel's platforms.
In short, if you're serious enough about gaming to invest in a midrange or high-end graphics card, you really should be gaming at a better-than-1080p resolution, at which point your card likely will be your constraint, not your CPU.
...and a Taste of Overclocking
Having already overclocked the Ryzen 7 2700X, moving to its six-core sibling yielded a similar experience.
As is my preferred overclocking method, I made a few tweaks to the BIOS settings of the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC, equipped with the latest BIOS available as of the start of September 2018.
I generally start by slightly raising the core frequency, testing for stability, raising it again, and testing for stability again until the system fails to boot or becomes unresponsive.
From here, I systematically raise the core voltage until stability is once again achieved, or back off on the core frequency if that fails to work.
For Ryzen 2000-series processors, I try to keep the core voltage below 1.4V, as much more than that may significantly reduce the chip's lifespan.
Adding to the SoC voltage can help maintain stability under load, and occasionally, adjusting the Loadline Calibration can give me that extra little boost I need.
Throughout the overclocking session, I kept an eye on the core temperature to make sure our Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB could handle the increased thermal load.
The system booted into Windows with the all-cores clock speed at 4.3GHz, 4.25GHz, and 4.225GHz, however, the system wasn't stable enough to complete Cinebench R15 at those settings.
I finally achieved stability with the multiplier set to 42, for a 4.2GHz core clock, CPU core voltage set to 1,3875V, and SoC voltage set to 1.2V.
This time, I left CPU Loadline Calibration modes at the default "Auto" setting.
This overclock yielded me a 1,442 Cinebench multi-threaded score and a 177 Cinebench single-core score.
When we overclocked the Ryzen 5 2600X using Precision Boost Overdrive in the Ryzen Master utility, we saw a minor bump in our scores.
The manual overclocking performed from the BIOS, however, produced significantly better results.
I admit, this type of trial-and-error overclocking isn't for everybody.
If you're a little worried about tweaking settings in the BIOS, but not fazed by the threat of losing warranty coverage, Precision Boost Overdrive is an easy, fast, and relatively worry-free alternative.
Just know that you'll want to factor in the cost of a liquid cooler, or an air cooler more robust than the bundled one, if you mean to get truly...
