AMD Ryzen 5 1600 vs Intel Core i7-5960X

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Combined performance score

i7-5960X
8.28
+3.5%

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 3% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

Comparing Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in performance ranking823837
Place by popularitynot in top-10055
Value for money5.4815.29
Market segmentDesktop processorDesktop processor
SeriesCore i7 (Desktop)AMD Ryzen 5
Architecture codenameHaswell-E (2014)Zen (2017−2020)
Release date1 September 2014 (9 years old)11 April 2017 (6 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$999$219
Current price$177 (0.2x MSRP)$124 (0.6x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance per price, higher is better.

Ryzen 5 1600 has 179% better value for money than i7-5960X.

Technical specs

Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores8 (Octa-Core)6 (Hexa-Core)
Threads1612
Base clock speed3 GHz3.2 GHz
Boost clock speed3.5 GHz3.6 GHz
L1 cache64K (per core)96K (per core)
L2 cache256K (per core)512K (per core)
L3 cache20 MB (shared)16 MB (shared)
Chip lithography22 nm14 nm
Die size356 mm2192 mm2
Maximum core temperature67 °Cno data
Number of transistors2,600 million4,800 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility--
Unlocked multiplierYesYes

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600 compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration11 (Uniprocessor)
SocketFCLGA2011AM4
Power consumption (TDP)140 Watt65 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT
AES-NI++
AVX++
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)+no data
Turbo Boost Technology2.0no data
Hyper-Threading Technology+no data
TSX+no data
Idle States+no data
Thermal Monitoring+no data
Smart Response+no data
Demand Based Switching-no data
StatusDiscontinuedno data

Security technologies

Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT+no data
EDB+no data
Identity Protection+no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600 are enumerated here.

AMD-Vno data+
VT-d+no data
VT-x+no data
EPT+no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4DDR4
Maximum memory size64 GB64 GB
Max memory channels42
Maximum memory bandwidth68 GB/s42.671 GB/s
ECC memory support-+

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600.

PCIe version3.03.0
PCI Express lanes4020

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i7-5960X 8.28
+3.5%
Ryzen 5 1600 8.00

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 3% in our combined benchmark results.


Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

Benchmark coverage: 68%

i7-5960X 12714
+3.5%
Ryzen 5 1600 12281

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 4% in Passmark.

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

Benchmark coverage: 42%

i7-5960X 1273
+19.2%
Ryzen 5 1600 1068

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 19% in GeekBench 5 Single-Core.

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

Benchmark coverage: 42%

i7-5960X 7377
+61.2%
Ryzen 5 1600 4576

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 61% in GeekBench 5 Multi-Core.

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

Benchmark coverage: 20%

i7-5960X 5193
+14.4%
Ryzen 5 1600 4538

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 14% in Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core.

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

Benchmark coverage: 19%

i7-5960X 33929
+30.6%
Ryzen 5 1600 25970

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 31% in Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core.

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

Benchmark coverage: 19%

i7-5960X 9924
+20.4%
Ryzen 5 1600 8244

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 20% in 3DMark06 CPU.

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

Benchmark coverage: 18%

i7-5960X 4.25
+61.2%
Ryzen 5 1600 6.85

Ryzen 5 1600 outperforms Core i7-5960X by 61% in wPrime 32.

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

i7-5960X 15
+19.7%
Ryzen 5 1600 13

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 20% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core.

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

Benchmark coverage: 15%

i7-5960X 1387
+22.9%
Ryzen 5 1600 1129

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 23% in Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core.

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

Benchmark coverage: 15%

i7-5960X 139
Ryzen 5 1600 147
+5.8%

Ryzen 5 1600 outperforms Core i7-5960X by 6% in Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core.

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

i7-5960X 1.53
Ryzen 5 1600 1.65
+7.8%

Ryzen 5 1600 outperforms Core i7-5960X by 8% in Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core.

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

i7-5960X 8.2
+28.1%
Ryzen 5 1600 6.4

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 28% in TrueCrypt AES.

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

Benchmark coverage: 13%

i7-5960X 7049
+106%
Ryzen 5 1600 3430

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 106% in WinRAR 4.0.

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

Benchmark coverage: 13%

i7-5960X 191
+7.9%
Ryzen 5 1600 177

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 8% in x264 encoding pass 1.

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

Benchmark coverage: 13%

i7-5960X 82
+19.8%
Ryzen 5 1600 69

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 20% in x264 encoding pass 2.

Geekbench 4.0 64-bit multi-core

Benchmark coverage: 2%

i7-5960X 22382
+48.3%
Ryzen 5 1600 15096

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 48% in Geekbench 4.0 64-bit multi-core.

Geekbench 4.0 64-bit single-core

Benchmark coverage: 2%

i7-5960X 3980
+9%
Ryzen 5 1600 3652

Core i7-5960X outperforms Ryzen 5 1600 by 9% in Geekbench 4.0 64-bit single-core.

Gaming performance

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 8.28 8.00
Recency 1 September 2014 11 April 2017
Physical cores 8 6
Threads 16 12
Cost $999 $219
Chip lithography 22 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 140 Watt 65 Watt

We couldn't decide between Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600. The differences in performance seem too small.


Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-5960X and Ryzen 5 1600, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

User ratings

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Intel Core i7-5960X
Core i7-5960X
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Ryzen 5 1600

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