Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 8500 or Ryzen 5 2600: what's better?

Intel Core i5 8500 vs AMD Ryzen 5 2600

31 out of 100
Intel Core i5 8500
VS
31 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Intel Core i5 8500
AMD Ryzen 5 2600

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 3.0 GHz Intel Core i5 8500 against the 3.4 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 2600. 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.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click “Calculate".
Currency
VS
20.2
(Mediocre)
Value Index
40.5
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 2600 and 8500
Advantages of Intel Core i5 8500
  • Supports up to 128 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
  • 20% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1396 vs 1162 points
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 5% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.1 GHz vs 3.9 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 2600
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 7 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 12 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 5 months later
  • Around 2.11 GB/s (5%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 8500
vs
Ryzen 5 2600

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Core i5 8500
296
Ryzen 5 2600 +34%
396
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 8500 +20%
1396
Ryzen 5 2600
1162
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 8500 +2%
5321
Ryzen 5 2600
5239
File compression 441 MB/sec 582.9 MB/sec
Clang compilation 40.5 Klines/sec 39.8 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 109 pages/sec 134.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 182.1 Mpixels/sec 160.4 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 142.4 pages/sec 102.9 pages/sec
Background blur 33.4 images/sec 22.9 images/sec
Photo processing 52.5 images/sec 48 images/sec
Ray tracing 6.78 Mpixels/sec 8.95 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 986 & 840 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 8500 +9%
2433
Ryzen 5 2600
2235
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 8500
9511
Ryzen 5 2600 +38%
13133
Integer math 26.5 GOps/sec 44.4 GOps/sec
Floating point math 22.5 GOps/sec 22.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 36M Primes/sec 37M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 16.2M Strings/sec 21.5M Strings/sec
Data encryption 3 GBytes/sec 12.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 133.6 MBytes/sec 186.9 MBytes/sec
Physics 625 Frames/sec 669 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 11.5B Matrices/sec 7.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 5278 & 15855 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 8500
84.03
Ryzen 5 2600 +28%
107.32

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 4.6 PPW 6.1 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 81.9 PPW 80.6 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 146.3 PPW 202 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.29 PPW 1.65 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 8500
No benchmark results yet
Add
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-02-25 (Friendly_Name)Cinebench 202461 / 420
📘 2025-06-10 (Edwardvansloan)Cinebench 202460 / 396
📘 2024-08-25 (Guest #2)Cinebench 202456 / 328
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 8500 and AMD Ryzen 5 2600

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released April 3, 2018 September 11, 2018
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake -
Model number i5-8500 -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - - Intel Core i5 8500
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 235H - AMD Ryzen 5 7600
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#179th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.0 GHz 3.4 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.1 GHz 3.9 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 6
Total Threads 6 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 30x 34x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 96K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 9MB (shared) 16MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors - 4.8 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 12 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 65 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature 100°C 95°C
Desktop CPU ranking (176th and 177th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1100 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 8500
0.4 TFLOPS
Ryzen 5 2600
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 630 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR4-2933
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 64 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 43.71 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 8500 official page -
PCI Express Version 3.0 3.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
13 (40.6%)
19 (59.4%)
Total votes: 32

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5 8500?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
EnglishРусский