AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Processor: Review| Specs| Benchmark| Overclocking| Pros & Cons

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Processor: Review/ Specs/ Benchmark/ Overclocking/ Pros/ Cons – In the last review, we looked at the key features of the new Ryzen architecture, and also tested the eight-core Ryzen 7 1800X processor, which is the most powerful …

In the last review, we looked at the key features of the new Ryzen architecture , and also tested the eight-core Ryzen 7 1800X processor , which is AMD’s most powerful solution at the moment. The Ryzen 7 line is opposed to Intel’s HEDT platform, and given the cost of these eight-core processors, they cannot be called budget.

Today, our gaze will be shifted to a less productive, but no less interesting solution from the representative of the Ryzen 5 line, which appeared on the market on April 11 – the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X six-core processor . At the same time, during the review, we will find out what changes have occurred at the program level since then.

Ryzen 5

AMD’s main trend is more productive cores than the competitor provides for the same money. Therefore, the processors of this series have from four to six cores with support for the SMT function, which allows processing 8 and 12 threads, respectively.

Thus, AMD brings multi-core to the masses – the eight-threaded Ryzen 5 1400 processor is priced at $169.

Ryzen 5 processors are based on the same die as Ryzen 7, which is manufactured at 14nm by GlobalFoundries. Disabling unused cores in the right combinations leads to the desired result. For the Ryzen 5 1400, one CCX was completely disabled, which affected the L3 cache. For the rest of the Ryzen 5 line of processors, each CCX has one and two cores disabled, respectively, so, like for Ryzen 7, the frequency of RAM will make a big difference to the performance of the system as a whole.

The possibility of overclocking processors has not disappeared anywhere – the entire Ryzen 5 line has an unlocked multiplier. Given the same basis, it is not necessary to hope for frequencies higher than those of the Ryzen 7 1800X.

The difference is observed in the standard cooling systems provided with the processors. They are called Wraith Stealth (for Ryzen 5 1400) and Wraith Spire (for Ryzen 51500X and 1600).

Despite the fact that this cooling system is not designed for the Ryzen 5 1600X, it will be presented in our material.

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X и B350

The hero of today’s review is the top six-core processor in the line. The base frequency is 3.6 GHz, in practice, thanks to Precision Boost technology, the clock frequency rises to 3.7 GHz. With single-core operations, the processor frequency increases to 4.0 GHz, with the help of XFR technology (the response frequency depends on temperature and processor consumption), the frequency reaches 4.1 GHz.

Thus, in terms of characteristics and behavior, the processor repeats the Ryzen 7 1800X with two disabled cores. The next slide shows some of the possible options for disabling processor cores.

The Prime95 program was used to test stability and temperature conditions.

During the 20 minutes of the stress test, the frequency of all cores did not drop below 3700 MHz at an operating voltage of 1.2 V, and the temperature of the cores did not exceed 57 ^o C. The HWInfo program recorded a maximum processor consumption of 127 W, the average was 110 W.

Ryzen 5 processors can only work with socket AM4 motherboards. In our case, a board based on the B350 logic was used.

The main difference from the previously reviewed X370, in addition to the number of connectors, was the lack of support for SLI technology. Considering that only a few enthusiasts use configurations of two or more video adapters, and otherwise the B350 chipset provides extensive functionality and great overclocking capabilities, these motherboards are an excellent choice for building high-performance and low-cost systems, which will have Summit Ridge or Bristol Ridge.

AMD sees the Ryzen 5 1600X as a competitor to the Intel Core i5-7600K.

Program changes

A fundamentally new architecture requires many software optimizations. For some games, patches have already been released that significantly improve performance for Ryzen processors, and work in this direction is in full swing.

Since the last review, AMD has made several key optimizations, some of which are updating the AGESA microcode to version 1.0. transfers P-state changes from the operating system to the processor and brings performance improvements by disabling core parking. According to numerous tests, using this power mode improves gaming performance by approximately 8% without a significant change in power consumption.

Motherboard manufacturers also did not stand aside. On the Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4, installing BIOS version 2.22 (beta) improved RAM performance. In particular, – the XMP profile was applied correctly and after restarting the computer, random system restarts disappeared. In version 2.50, we managed to significantly reduce the timings (from 16-16-16-36 to 14-15-15-30) and reduce the operating voltage. At the same time, version 2.20 already had the latest AGESA microcode 1.0.0.4a. All this suggests that only pleasant updates and optimizations await us ahead.

Overclocking

In the review of the Ryzen 7 1800X, we managed to achieve a frequency of 4000 MHz at a voltage of 1.48 V for all processor cores, so the calculation was at least for this frequency. Given that the Wraith Spire cooler was used, achieving such a frequency would already be a huge step. As a result, our copy of the Ryzen 5 1600X ran stably at 4 GHz at a voltage of 1.43 V. The situation with the overclocking of RAM also improved: peer-to-peer memory with Samsung B-die chips did not only work with the XMP profile (16-16-16-36 CR1 at a voltage of 1.35 V ), but also with lower timings – 14-15-15-30 CR1 without changing the operating frequency. This is taking into account that the test motherboard does not have a base generator and further overclocking of the RAM is impossible.

At the same time, the temperature of the processor in everyday tasks did not exceed 60 ° C using not the most efficient cooling system ^{. In Cinebench R15, the} peak temperature reached 60 C at ^room temperature 25 C.

In the Prime95 test, temperatures reached 68 °C after ^a 12-minute stress test.

For such an impressive overclocking results are impressive. At the same time, the processor consumption grew to 180 W according to the readings of the sensors.

test stands

Testing took place on four stands.

Technical characteristics of the first stand :

• Motherboard: Asrock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 (BIOS 2.50)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600x
• Cooling System: Wraith Spire;
• Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-2;
• RAM: 2 x 8 GB Geil Evo X DDR4-3200 (GEX416GB3200C16DC; 16-16-16-36 CR1);
• Video cards:
  • MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X8G / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 Гбайт GDDR5;
  • AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11G / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 Гбайт GDDR5x;
• Power supply: Aerocool HIGGS-750W 750 watts;
• System storage: SSD Plextor m7v128 GB;
• Корпус:Thermaltake Versa C22 RGB Snow Edition;

Technical characteristics of the second stand :

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VI hero (BIOS 1002)
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1800x
• Cooling system: MSI Core Frozr L;
• Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-2;
• RAM: 2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4-3000 (CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R; 15-15-15-30 CR1);
• Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X8G / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB GDDR5;
• Power supply: Aerocool HIGGS-750W 750 watts;
• System storage: SSD Plextor m7v128 GB;
• Корпус:Thermaltake Versa C22 RGB Snow Edition;

Technical characteristics of the third stand :

• Motherboard: ASUS X99-A II (BIOS 1401);
• Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition “Haswell-E” 3000 MHz overclocked to 4500 MHz at 1.28 V;
• Cooling system: self-assembled cooling system;
• Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-2;
• RAM: 4 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4-3000 (CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R; 15-15-15-30 CR1);
• Video Cards: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB GDDR5;
• Power supply: Corsair RM1000i 1000 watts;
• System storage: SSD Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB;
• Корпус: Thermaltake Core X5 Riing Edition.

Specifications of the fourth stand :

• Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M5 (BIOS 1.5);
• Processor: Intel Core i7-7700K 4200 MHz, overclocked to 4700 MHz at 1.25 V;
• Cooling system: MSI Core Frozr L;
• Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-2;
• RAM: 2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4-3000 (CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R; 15-15-15-30 CR1);
• Video Cards: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB GDDR5;
• Power supply: Aerocool HIGGS-750W 750 watts;
• System storage: SSD Plextor m7v128 GB;
• Корпус:Thermaltake Versa C22 RGB Snow Edition.

Stand software:

• Operating system: Windows 10 x64 “Professional” with all current updates from Windows Update;
• Video card driver: Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver WHQL 381.89.

Test Methodology

Testing took place in modern games (conducted on all benches) and synthetic tests (conducted on benches with Ryzen 7 1800X, Ryzen 5 1600X and i7-5960x).

In games without a built-in test application, the minimum and average fps readings were recorded using the Fraps program with the following settings:

Game tests were carried out at 1920×1080 with maximum graphics settings, as well as at 1280×720 with minimum graphics settings.

Synthetic tests

The performance of the Ryzen 5 1600X in synthetic tests is impressive. If in multi-threaded loads it is not so much inferior to the Ryzen 7 1800X, then in single-threaded tests it can show better results. This affects the improvement of work with RAM and an increase in its clock frequency.

We also ran tests in Futuremark 3DMark with an AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11G graphics card, where the Ryzen 5 1600X performed well even without overclocking.

Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, Fire Strike Ultra, Time Spy

Gaming Performance

Battlefield 1

Game version – 1.0.49.52296(Origin). Testing took place in the campaign mode on the following game segment:

Crysis 3

Game version – 1.3.0.0 (Origin). Testing took place in the campaign mode on the following game segment:

Settings for FHD resolution:

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Game version – 1.18.798.0 (Steam). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

Test results in 1024×768 resolution at minimum graphics settings:

FHD performance testing:

For Honor

Game version – 1.06 (Uplay). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

Testing at maximum quality settings in FHD resolution:

Grand Theft Auto V

Game version – 1.0.944.2 (Steam). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

The average number of frames per second obtained for the five test scenes was summed up and divided by the number of scenes.

Hitman

Game version – 1.10.1.0 (Steam). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

Metro: Last Light Redux

Game version – 1.0.0.3 (Steam). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Game version – 1.0.767.2 (Steam). Testing took place in the built-in test application.

Testing at a resolution of 1280×720 at the minimum graphics settings:

Results in FHD resolution:

Tom Clancy’s The Division

Game version – 1.5 (Uplay). Testing was carried out in the built-in test application on the following settings (the only thing is that vertical synchronization is disabled):

Watch Dogs 2

Game version – 1.014.178 (Uplay). Testing took place on the following playing area:

Graphic settings:

As we can see, the Ryzen 5 1600X shows a high level of performance in conjunction with the GTX 1070. In the following videos, you can evaluate the capabilities of the processor in conjunction with the GTX 1080 Ti graphics card.

Conclusion

The imminent appearance of Ryzen 5 processors cannot but rejoice. For gaming and multimedia systems, 8-12 threads are enough in most cases, and the low price makes you think about what is better: a slightly higher performance per core, or twice the number of threads for the same money. At the same time, productive processors appear in the AMD arsenal, available to ordinary users, because Ryzen 7 cannot be called inexpensive, and not everyone needs 8 cores and 16 threads. Ryzen 5 is what many have been waiting for, inspired by the success of the new architecture.

The Ryzen 5 1600X leaves nothing but a pleasant user experience. It differs from the previously tested Ryzen 7 1800X only in two disabled cores. Also, the speed of information exchange in the caches of the first and second levels has slightly decreased. Otherwise, the 1600X copies its older colleague, combining all its advantages and disadvantages. In synthetic tests, the Ryzen 5 1600X is slower only in tasks that use all available cores, the performance per core is at the same level. Therefore, the processor will be a good choice not only for gaming computers, but also for workstations and audio and video editing systems.

The gaming performance of the Ryzen 5 1600X is on par and even better than the 1800X. This is due to a large number of optimizations carried out by AMD and its partners over the past month. This gives hope for fixing some of the shortcomings in the future, given the upcoming big update – repeating the tests is necessary.

Compared to the competitor represented by Intel Corei5-7600K, the hero of our review looks more versatile. Despite the lower performance per core (mainly due to the higher overclocking potential of the i5-7600K), the Ryzen 5 1600X has three times more threads. This allows you to use the processor for both work and play. And with more and more game developers betting on performance, the 1600X has a clearer future. At the same time, at low resolutions and at the minimum graphics settings, the Ryzen 5 1600X shows a slightly lower number of frames per second than its competitor, due to its lower overclocking potential. In principle, Moscow was not built right away, but in our case, the foundation has already been poured.

Pros of the Ryzen 5 1600X: Advantages

• Price;
• Six full cores with SMT technology;
• Low temperatures under inexpensive cooling systems;
• Gaming performance is better than Ryzen 7 1800X (last reviewed)
• No need for expensive motherboards;
• Unlocked multiplier;
• Low CPU consumption for everyday use.

Pros of the Ryzen 5 1600X Minuses: Disadvantages

• Low overclocking potential (like Ryzen 7 1800X)

Might not suit

• Not all games and applications are yet optimized for the new architecture (work is underway);

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X is the best choice for computers that combine high performance in work applications and games, as well as low cost and low costs for motherboards and cooling systems.

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