Core Ultra 5 245K vs Ryzen 5 7600

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core Ultra 5 245K scores 74 and the Ryzen 5 7600 scores 71, about 4% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core Ultra 5 245K has 14 cores and 14 threads, and the Ryzen 5 7600 has 6 cores and 12 threads. The extra cores of the Core Ultra 5 245K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5.2 GHz and 5.1 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core Ultra 5 245K uses the LGA1851 socket and the Ryzen 5 7600 uses AM5, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 125 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

At launch the Core Ultra 5 245K cost $309 and the Ryzen 5 7600 $229, which gives 23.9 and 31.0 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core Ultra 5 245K can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9070 XT before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 7600 reaches the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core Ultra 5 245K if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 7600 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.