Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 9600K or Ryzen 5 3600XT: what's better?

Intel Core i5 9600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

36 out of 100
Intel Core i5 9600K
VS
41 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
Intel Core i5 9600K
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 3.7 GHz Intel Core i5 9600K against the 3.8 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT. 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.
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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
32.9
(Mediocre)
Value Index
7.8
(Bad)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3600XT and 9600K
Advantages of Intel Core i5 9600K
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.6 GHz vs 4.5 GHz)
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
  • Has 23 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 9 months later
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 9600K
vs
Ryzen 5 3600XT

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)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9600K
6508
Ryzen 5 3600XT +17%
7613
File compression 548.1 MB/sec 738.4 MB/sec
Clang compilation 43.6 Klines/sec 60.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 150.1 pages/sec 154.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 216.2 Mpixels/sec 211.2 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 162.1 pages/sec 150.2 pages/sec
Background blur 41.2 images/sec 37.2 images/sec
Photo processing 72.2 images/sec 57.4 images/sec
Ray tracing 7.85 Mpixels/sec 13.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1063 & 515 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9600K
10654
Ryzen 5 3600XT +74%
18504
Integer math 29.2 GOps/sec 51.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 25 GOps/sec 30.1 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 43M Primes/sec 113M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 18.3M Strings/sec 24.8M Strings/sec
Data encryption 3.3 GBytes/sec 14.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 148.4 MBytes/sec 230 MBytes/sec
Physics 745 Frames/sec 1204 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 13B Matrices/sec 14.6B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 6895 & 1580 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 9600K
94.06
Ryzen 5 3600XT +50%
141.23

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 4.2 PPW 5.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 68.5 PPW 80.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 112.1 PPW 194.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 0.99 PPW 1.49 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 9600K
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-06-15 (Danne)Cinebench 202473 / 395
Add View all (1)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-08-08 (David)Cinebench 202478 / 575
📘 2024-09-16 (Syd)Cinebench 202476 / 563
📘 2024-08-24 (Darkloard)Cinebench 202476 / 501
Add View all (3)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 9600K and AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released October 8, 2018 July 7, 2020
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Zen 2 (Matisse)
Model number i5-9600K -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 3600X - Intel Core i5 9600K
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus -
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#157th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Base Frequency (P) 3.7 GHz 3.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.6 GHz 4.5 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 6
Total Threads 6 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 37x 36x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 9MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors - 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 95 W 95 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature 100°C 95°C
Desktop CPU ranking (157th and 143rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1150 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 9600K
0.4 TFLOPS
Ryzen 5 3600XT
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 630 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 9600K official page AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
6 (16.2%)
31 (83.8%)
Total votes: 37

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT or Intel Core i5 9600K?
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