Ryzen 5 1600 vs Core i5-7600

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Ryzen 5 1600 scores 28 and the Core i5-7600 scores 27, about 4% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Ryzen 5 1600 has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Core i5-7600 has 4 cores and 4 threads. The extra cores of the Ryzen 5 1600 help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 3.6 GHz and 4.1 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 5 1600 uses the AM4 socket and the Core i5-7600 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 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 5 1600 cost $219 and the Core i5-7600 $213, which gives 12.8 and 12.7 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 1600 can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5050 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i5-7600 reaches the Arc A750. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 1600 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i5-7600 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.