Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 6600K or Ryzen 5 1600: what's better?

Intel Core i5 6600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 1600

30 out of 100
Intel Core i5 6600K
VS
29 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Intel Core i5 6600K
AMD Ryzen 5 1600

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 6600K with 4-cores against the 3.2 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 1600 with 6-cores. 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
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Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click “Calculate".
Currency
VS
13.2
(Bad)
Value Index
35.0
(Mediocre)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 1600 and 6600K
Advantages of Intel Core i5 6600K
  • 33% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1486 vs 1118 points
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel HD Graphics 530
  • 8% higher Turbo Boost frequency (3.9 GHz vs 3.6 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 1600
  • Has 10 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 2 more physical cores
  • Newer - released 1 year and 9 months later
  • Around 5.64 GB/s (17%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 6600K
vs
Ryzen 5 1600

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
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)
Core i5 6600K +33%
1486
Ryzen 5 1600
1118
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 6600K
4409
Ryzen 5 1600 +13%
4965
File compression 363.1 MB/sec 473.5 MB/sec
Clang compilation 29.9 Klines/sec 40.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 98.1 pages/sec 121.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 150.1 Mpixels/sec 154.2 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 149.8 pages/sec 99.8 pages/sec
Background blur 28.1 images/sec 21.9 images/sec
Photo processing 47.6 images/sec 48.6 images/sec
Ray tracing 4.81 Mpixels/sec 8.57 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 800 & 509 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 6600K +12%
2315
Ryzen 5 1600
2065
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 6600K
6303
Ryzen 5 1600 +94%
12254
Integer math 16.3 GOps/sec 41.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 14 GOps/sec 21.4 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 31M Primes/sec 35M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 10.5M Strings/sec 20.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 1.9 GBytes/sec 11.7 GBytes/sec
Data compression 86 MBytes/sec 171.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 507 Frames/sec 640 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 7.5B Matrices/sec 6.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 7268 & 9356 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 6600K
54.45
Ryzen 5 1600 +85%
100.94

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 2.3 PPW 6.1 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 48.5 PPW 76.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 69.3 PPW 188.5 PPW
Blender / Watt 0.6 PPW 1.55 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
Intel Core i5 6600K
No benchmark results yet
Add
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-10-14 (El_kocko)Cinebench 202452 / 396
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 6600K and AMD Ryzen 5 1600

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released August 5, 2015 April 11, 2017
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Skylake -
Model number i5-6600K -
Integrated GPU HD Graphics 530 No
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i5 8500
Successor - - AMD Ryzen 5 7600
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#183rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 6
P-Threads 4 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 3.9 GHz 3.6 GHz
Total
Total Cores 4 6
Total Threads 4 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 35x 32x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 96K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 6MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.8 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 14 nm
TDP (PL1) 91 W 65 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature - 95°C
Desktop CPU ranking (182nd and 184th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel HD Graphics 530 -
GPU Boost Clock 1150 MHz -

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2133
- DDR3L-1600		 - DDR4-2666
Max. Memory Size 64 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s 39.74 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 6600K official page -
PCI Express Version 3.0 3.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
3 (16.7%)
15 (83.3%)
Total votes: 18

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i5 6600K?
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