Core i9-10900K vs Ryzen 5 5600

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core i9-10900K scores 58 and the Ryzen 5 5600 scores 56, about 4% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core i9-10900K has 10 cores and 20 threads, and the Ryzen 5 5600 has 6 cores and 12 threads. The extra cores of the Core i9-10900K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5.3 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i9-10900K uses the LGA1200 socket and the Ryzen 5 5600 uses AM4, 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 i9-10900K cost $488 and the Ryzen 5 5600 $199, which gives 11.9 and 28.1 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 i9-10900K can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 4070 Super before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 5600 reaches the Radeon RX 7900 GRE. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i9-10900K if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 5600 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.