Ryzen 5 8600G vs Core i9-11900K

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Ryzen 5 8600G and the Core i9-11900K are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Ryzen 5 8600G has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Core i9-11900K has 8 cores and 16 threads. The extra cores of the Core i9-11900K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5 GHz and 5.3 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 5 8600G uses the AM5 socket and the Core i9-11900K uses LGA1200, 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 125 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

At launch the Ryzen 5 8600G cost $229 and the Core i9-11900K $539, which gives 27.1 and 11.1 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 Ryzen 5 8600G can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i9-11900K reaches the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 8600G if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Core i9-11900K if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.