Home > CPU Comparison > Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 5 3600X: what's better?

AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs Ryzen 5 3600X

45 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
VS
42 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 5500 against the 3.8 GHz Ryzen 5 3600X. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
130.1
(Excellent)
Value Index
80.7
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3600X and 5500
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 5500
  • Newer - released 2 years and 9 months later
  • 9% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1961 vs 1799 points
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
  • Has 16 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 4.0
  • 5% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.4 GHz vs 4.2 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Ryzen 5 5500
vs
Ryzen 5 3600X

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 424 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 2421 -
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Ryzen 5 5500 +9%
1961
Ryzen 5 3600X
1799
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Ryzen 5 5500 +7%
8220
Ryzen 5 3600X
7670
File compression 819.4 MB/sec 713.7 MB/sec
Clang compilation 61.3 Klines/sec 64.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 147.3 pages/sec 156.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 233.2 Mpixels/sec 232.9 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 191.9 pages/sec 149.6 pages/sec
Background blur 40.4 images/sec 39 images/sec
Photo processing 61.4 images/sec 54 images/sec
Ray tracing 15.4 Mpixels/sec 13.1 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 907 & 441 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Ryzen 5 5500 +16%
3061
Ryzen 5 3600X
2646
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Ryzen 5 5500 +6%
19247
Ryzen 5 3600X
18124
Integer math 64.6 GOps/sec 49.8 GOps/sec
Floating point math 36.8 GOps/sec 29.3 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 55M Primes/sec 111M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 24.7M Strings/sec 24.3M Strings/sec
Data encryption 14.8 GBytes/sec 14.2 GBytes/sec
Data compression 245.4 MBytes/sec 224.3 MBytes/sec
Physics 881 Frames/sec 1180 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 17.3B Matrices/sec 14.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 15772 & 8629 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Ryzen 5 5500 +4%
143.63
Ryzen 5 3600X
137.5

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 9 PPW 5.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 126.5 PPW 80.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 296.1 PPW 190.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 2.21 PPW 1.45 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-10 (leosangester)Cinebench 2024429 / 2105
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-04 (Aideau)Cinebench 2026424 / 2421
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-21 -> sububurbiabomb22Geekbench 6 CPU2028 / 8385
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-21 -> sububurbiabomb22Cinebench 202488 / 627
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-02-21 -> sububurbiabomb22Geekbench 6 CPU1972 / 8289
Add View all (15)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2024-12-08 (Skiddy)Cinebench 202491 / 536
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Ryzen 5 3600X

General

Vendor Amd Amd
Released March 15, 2022 July 7, 2019
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Zen 3 (Cezanne) -
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - Intel Core i5 11400 - Intel Core i5 9600K
Successor - AMD Ryzen 5 9500F - AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (138th and 153rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 12 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.2 GHz 4.4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 6
Total Threads 12 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 38x
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 512K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 7 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 95 W
Socket AM4 AM4
Peak Temperature 90ยฐC 95ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (129th and 141st place)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-3200 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 47.68 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site AMD Ryzen 5 5500 official page AMD Ryzen 5 3600X official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 24 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
97 (55.7%)
77 (44.3%)
Total votes: 174

Competitors

1. AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
2. AMD Ryzen 5 3600X vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600
3. AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (5)
4. AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs Intel Core i5 12400F (1)
5. AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs Intel Core i3 12100F
6. AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (1)
7. AMD Ryzen 5 5500 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (5)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Ryzen 5 5500?
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