Ryzen 5 1500X vs Core i5-6600K

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Ryzen 5 1500X scores 25 and the Core i5-6600K scores 24, about 4% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Ryzen 5 1500X has 4 cores and 8 threads, and the Core i5-6600K has 4 cores and 4 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 3.7 GHz and 3.9 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 5 1500X uses the AM4 socket and the Core i5-6600K uses LGA1151, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 91 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 5 1500X cost $174 and the Core i5-6600K $243, which gives 14.4 and 9.9 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 Ryzen 5 1500X can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i5-6600K reaches the GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 1500X if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i5-6600K if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.