On the day we published this review, the chip at the bottom of AMD's Ryzen 7000 Series processor heap was still the $229 Ryzen 5 7600. In specs, it's effectively half of an Ryzen 9 7900, itself a cut-back Ryzen 9 7950X. As a non-X Ryzen, the Ryzen 5 7600 is limited to a much lower power envelope of 65-watt (W) thermal design power (TDP), or about 88W of actual power draw at the socket. That's not necessarily a bad thing; the Ryzen 9 7900 shares the same power constraints as the 7600, and in our tests we saw it demonstrate impressive efficiency and performance per watt.
With only six cores on the Ryzen 5 7600, you won't see the same multi-threaded chops as with pricier AMD chips, of course. But as the most affordable AMD CPU based on its Zen 4 architecture, the Ryzen 5 7600 is a solid silicon pick for budget-strapped PC gamers. Just know that it's flanked on both sides by more powerful and price-competitive Intel options.
Six Cores Can Still Score
With no Ryzen 3 chips on the horizon, the Ryzen 5 7600 is the lowest-end model in AMD's Ryzen 7000 desktop processor stack at this writing. We've reviewed most of the extant Ryzen 7000 CPUs so far (the Ryzen 5 7600X is still in the works), and you can read up on the changes in the Zen 4 architecture in our review of the Ryzen 9 7950X. The Ryzen 7000 CPUs without the "X" are a welcome departure from the more common "X" models, as they are restricted in maximum power draw. While many enthusiasts look down upon low-power CPUs, these are nothing like the typical 25W-class chips meant for laptops and tablets.
Mentions of "low-power," in this case, are relative to the 105W and 170W used on the X chips, meaning the non-X CPUs are 65W. For consumers who want traditional desktop processing power without also paying for special CPU cooling capacity, the non-X versions are a welcome option. As with the Ryzen 9 7900 and AMD Ryzen 7 7700, limiting the maximum power draw also limits the maximum sustainable clock rates. The Ryzen 5 7600 has a base clock of 3.8GHz and a boost clock of 5.1GHz, compared with the 7600X, at 4.7GHz and 5.3GHz, respectively.
Due to the configuration of the CPUs, we expect to see the Ryzen 5 7600 match up to the Ryzen 7 7700 the same way the 7900X fared against the 7950X. In both pairs, the lower model is made by disabling 25% of the cores of the higher-end version. The 7600 and 7700 share the same thermal and power limits, just like the Ryzen 9 7900X and 7950X do.
We'll be sure to keep an eye on these two sets of not-quite twins in the benchmarks. This also raises the same question as the Ryzen 9 7900X regarding heat density. With fewer cores fighting for a share of the limited power draw, and using a less aggressive voltage curve, will the Ryzen 5 7600 be able to maintain a higher maximum clock rate than the Ryzen 7 7700? That would particularly benefit applications that use 12 or fewer execution threads.
Like the other non-X Ryzen chips, AMD also includes a cooler in the Ryzen 5 7600 box. Unfortunately, it's the much less capable Wraith Stealth cooler instead of the higher-quality Wraith Prism model or even the larger Wraith Spire. The Wraith Stealth has a solid aluminum fin stack in a radial configuration with a downward-facing fan.
Though a downward fan can aid voltage regulator module (VRM) and RAM cooling, the Stealth is about half the height of the Spire, meaning less mass and less total surface area for cooling. It also lacks the copper-slug contact plate of the Spire, so thermal conduction from the CPU to the cooler won't be as efficient. We'll see how this bears out in the power and thermal tests.
Our main comparisons of interest with the Ryzen 5 7600, apart from the obvious 7600X, are the Ryzen 7 7700 and 7700X. We also need to see how the 7600 stacks up against the old Ryzen 5000 favorites of the last generation.
Intel's competition for the 7600, meanwhile, comes from multiple angles. The 13th Generation Intel Core i5-13400 and 13500 have MSRPs between $221 and $242, and both operate with lower base TDPs like the Ryzen 5 7600. However, both of those are allowed to turbo up into the 150W range, and neither is multiplier-unlocked like the 7600 is. The slightly higher-end Intel Core i5-13600K is currently the least expensive 13th Gen Intel desktop CPU that's unlocked, but it's also $100 more than the 7600. Finally, you have the last generation's Core i5-12600K, which works in current motherboards, outperformed the Ryzen 5 7600 in several tests, and costs a bit less.
Our Test Setup
As with our other Ryzen 7000 CPUs, the Ryzen 5 7600 was benchmarked on our updated AM5 test station. In short, the test bed is an ASRock X670E Taichi with 32GB of DDR5 memory clocked at the CPU's maximum supported RAM frequency of DDR5-5200. CPU cooling is handled by a Cooler Master PL240 Flux all-in-one liquid cooler; an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition provides discrete-graphics power; and all of it is mounted on a Praxis Wetbench chassis with a SilverStone DA850 power supply handling power duties.
Benchmarks specifically testing integrated graphics were run on the Ryzen 5 7600's integrated graphics processor or IGP. All other tests used the GeForce RTX 3080. CPU clocks have been left at stock.
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600: CPU Benchmarks
AIDA64 shows us what we expected to see, given the CPU configurations. Due to its greater core count, the Ryzen 7 7700 enjoys roughly 40% higher bandwidth in L1 and L2 cache than the 7600. In L3, the 7700 has a smaller advantage, and system RAM bandwidth is essentially tied. This same pattern is almost perfectly mirrored in the Ryzen 9 chips, along with cache bandwidth almost perfectly doubled over the lower Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 CPUs. With double the core chiplet dies or CCDs, again, that was expected.
AMD's Ryzen 5 7600 may appear lackluster compared with other every current-gen AMD CPU in our benchmark list, as it trailed in almost every respect. But it's important to remember at $230, the 7600 is also the least expensive CPU of the current crop (barring the 7600X) by $100 or more. In tests like Premiere Pro, Blender, and HandBrake, its lower core count was apparent. Even the last-gen Ryzen 7 5700X defeated the Ryzen 5 7600 in a few places. However, when you consider the 7600 has two fewer cores and four fewer execution threads than the 5700X, the fact the 7600 tied it in Blender and beats it in HandBrake by 10 seconds is somewhat impressive.
At $330 MSRP, the Ryzen 7 7700 is 43% more expensive than the Ryzen 5 7600, but nowhere did it come close to giving 43% more performance. The Core i5-13600K is also $330 but, as it has support for eight more threads than the 7600 (and four more than the 7700), it scored about 40% higher or more than the 7600 in Blender, Cinebench, and POV-Ray. However, it's worth noting the Core i5-13600K also has a voracious power appetite and much higher cooling needs. What's even more notable is that the Core i5-12600K also trounced the 7600 in every above test, without being quite as hot and power-hungry as the newer 13600K. (It also ran a tad cooler than AMD's part, as you'll soon see.)
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600: Discrete Graphics Benchmarks
Though the Ryzen 5 7600 took a thumping in the CPU tests, it was never a realistic comparison. No one that needs heavy multi-threading work done would seriously consider the six-core 7600. In gaming, however, the 7600 gets to shine. Many games don't utilize nearly as many threads as our previous tests, and they often reward sheer clock rate instead.
The Ryzen 5 7600, with a lower power budget and fewer cores generating heat, can sometimes stay at higher clocks than its bigger brethren. Both it and the Ryzen 7 7700 danced a few fps faster than their Ryzen 9 stablemates in many tests. They also kept up with Intel's Raptor Lake and the AMD 3D V-Cache Ryzen chips at higher 1440p and 2160p resolutions. And, not to beat a deceased equine, the 7600 does this for far less money than its competitors (aside from the Core i5-12600K, of course).
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600: Integrated Graphics Benchmarks
Speaking of dead horses, this one has died, risen as a zombie, and been put back down. The Ryzen 7000 IGP is meant for basic desktop use and media playback; in no way is it designed or intended for heavy gaming. The IGP results are presented just to be thorough.
However, it's worth noting that Intel's IGPs generally performed better than AMD's in nearly all of our above benchmarks. That was all save for F1 22, which saw more even results across the board that actually trended downward to the last-place Intel Core i5-12600K.
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600: Power & Heat
As noted previously, the Ryzen 5 7600 is a 65W TDP part and limits its power consumption accordingly. All Ryzen non-X models (the 7600, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 9 7900) displayed near-identical power draw, lower than all other CPUs on our list.
While we would expect a lower power draw to also mean a considerably lower running temperature, we didn't see that happen with the Ryzen 5 7600. While both the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 topped out in the low 70 degrees C with our 240mm Flux liquid cooler on the test bed, the 7600 went right up to 80 degrees C. Perhaps the fewer active cores allow heat to concentrate in a smaller area, slowing its transfer into the CPU's water block.
The Ryzen 5 7600 was still well under the 95 degrees C throttling point, so performance wasn't affected, but the available thermal headroom for overclocking was certainly diminished. But this was also on a sizeable liquid cooler, not a mainstream air cooler. It's also possible our particular 7600 sample simply ran hotter than average.
Testing the AMD Ryzen 5 7600: Wraith Stealth Cooler
As expected, the Wraith Stealth didn't handle the heat nearly as well as the Wraith Prism cooler bundled with the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 CPUs.
The Prism was able to keep the 7700 and 7900 easily in check, maintaining a temperature delta close to that of our test bed's AIO liquid cooler. The Stealth, combined with our Ryzen 5 7600's seeming proclivity for higher temperatures, wouldn't prevent the 7600 from thermal throttling under heavy load. The smaller fan staying at its maximum speed was also more noticeable to the ear.
Verdict: A Solid Everygamer's Chip on AM5
In the current climate of expensive, power-hungry CPUs, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a breath of fresh air. It's fun to fawn over high benchmark scores, and bragging rights over friends, peers, and family can certainly be entertaining. But, when you get down to it, not only do most upgraders and PC builders not need a Ryzen 9 or Intel Core i9, but they also don't have any software or workloads that could benefit from one. Add in the expense of extra cooling and higher power draw on your utility bills, and you'll find bragging rights can be quite expensive. The 7600 instead is affordable both up front and in the long run.
For which consumers does the Ryzen 5 7600 make sense? The included cooler simplifies computer assembly if you don't want to bother with aftermarket cooling solutions. The low power draw means lower heat output, always a concern in office environments and some homes. It also means you don't need a motherboard capable of huge power delivery, which may save some money.
Perhaps this Ryzen's strongest suit is in gaming value. Yes, a 3D V-Cache CPU, like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with a top-tier GPU, will yield higher overall frame rates. But, not all games benefit from the larger CPU cache. Those that do are usually graphics-bound, and you'll need an expensive GPU to realize those frame-rate advantages. Outside high-level competitive play, a frame rate above your monitor refresh rate has little benefit. With a more modest GPU, the frame-rate difference is much smaller.
Surprisingly, the biggest hit to the Ryzen 5 7600's value may be the bundled cooler, especially if you like to fiddle with and tweak your system. The Wraith Stealth is easily outmatched by basic aftermarket coolers costing only $20 to $30. In contrast, the Wraith Prism keeps both the Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 9 7900 well below their 95 degree C throttling point, making it sufficient for light overclocking and CPU tuning—perhaps not quite enough for a 7700 to match a 7700X (and certainly not for a 7900 to equal a 7900X), but enough to draw out a little extra performance when you need it without paying additional money. Even if overclocking isn't your thing, a larger cooler with a slower spinning fan will be quieter. Had the Ryzen 5 7600 come with the Wraith Prism or even the larger Wraith Spire, it would be an easy across-the-board recommendation.
It's possible that the 7600 comes with the Wraith Stealth cooler to limit its ability to undercut Ryzen 5 7600X sales. Despite the $70 difference in MSRP, the common street price of the two processors is much closer. The two 7600 models are separated by an only 40W difference in TDP. While that extra 40W is too much for the Wraith Stealth to properly handle, it's well within the range of many affordable aftermarket coolers. The 7600X may be slightly higher-binned silicon, but the odds that a 7600 can match 7600X performance with a modest aftermarket cooler are pretty good.
Depending on the pricing on a given day, it's not outlandish to think you could even do it for less than the cost of a Ryzen 5 7600X alone. Or, if you're upgrading and already have an AM5-compatible cooler (or one that can be made AM5-compatible with an inexpensive mounting adapter), perhaps you opt for the 7600X and just transfer your old cooler over. With price margins this thin, the best option for your particular needs will shift often. Whether it's overclocking a 7600 for better performance or tweaking a 7600X with a lower voltage curve to save some heat, both can be done for about the same price with exceptional performance value for most of you.
An Intel Core i5-12600K could be an interesting option if you don't mind going with a last-generation part. Not only did it outperform this AMD chip in nearly every test, but it's also currently selling for close to the same price as the Ryzen 5 7600. Plus, unlike the Ryzen 5000 CPUs, this 12th Gen Intel part works in current-gen motherboards (and maybe you own one). The Core i5 12600K has more cores and threads than the Ryzen 5 7600 (though not as many as the Core i5-13600K), so it receives a small boost in heavily threaded workflows. However, the Intel part also consumes a bit more power than the AMD one—and it doesn't come with a stock cooler, which adds to its cost—so you need to pick your trade-off.
Anyone who crunches videos and large renders all day, or other tasks that can gobble up execution threads, will benefit from a more powerful CPU than the Ryzen 5 7600. For everyone else who wants a desktop with modern technology but doesn't need something to rival a Pixar render farm, the 7600 and its low-cost and high-value factor should be more than adequate. If you dabble in video transcoding or maybe you do light 3D design on the side, it might be hard to justify the cost of a Ryzen 9 or Intel i7, but a Ryzen 7700 or Core i5 could certainly be a better choice for you, so shop around.
