One of AMD’s newest chips, the $299 Ryzen 5 5600X, has beat Intel’s competing processors to take the crown on PassMark’s test for fastest single-threaded performance.
PassMark previously rated 19 Intel products—from the Core i7-10700F to the i9-10900K—as the top performing chips on single-threaded performance. But on Thursday, the benchmarking provider updated the list to show the upcoming Ryzen 5 5600X as the top dog.
“We have a new leader in the single threaded CPU benchmark chart. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X,” Passmark announced on Twitter, which was later reported by VideoCardz.
Indeed, based on the benchmarks, the chip scored a 3,495 on Passmark’s test, which is about 10 percent higher than the runner-up, Intel’s Core i9-10900K, a product that currently retails for $549 and has 10 cores. In contrast, the 5600X only has six cores.
The AMD processor also scored about 30 percent higher than the previous generation chip, the Ryzen 5 3600X.
That said, the benchmark for the Ryzen 5600X was only based on a single sample of the processor. So expect the score to change in the coming weeks as more 5600X units enter the hands of actual consumers.
PassMark also tested the Ryzen 5600X while taking into account the multi-threaded performance. The resulting score ranked the product close to last year's AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, and ahead of Intel's Core i9-9900K, both of which are eight-core chips.
Still, the PassMark benchmark was only performed on the lowest end Ryzen 5000 processor—not the rest of the pack. Alongside the 5600X, AMD is releasing three other chips, which have more cores and higher clock speeds: the Ryzen 7 5800X, the Ryzen 9 5900x, and the Ryzen 9 5950X. So expect to see higher PassMark scores from AMD products in the near future.
If the benchmark for the Ryzen 5600X is legit, then AMD wasn’t kidding when it said the new processors would deliver leading performance on single-threaded tasks. In the past, AMD chips have generally lagged behind Intel’s competing processors when it comes to gaming performance, which can lean heavily on the CPU. However, AMD claims the upcoming Ryzen 5000 series chips have been redesigned for higher instructions per clock while reducing the latency.
As a result, AMD’s new processors may seriously shake up Intel’s long-held dominance over the PC gaming market. The Ryzen 5000-series chips will go on sale Nov. 5; stay tuned for PCMag's reviews.
As for PassMark, it’s important to note the company’s rankings on single-threaded performance can drastically shift. Back in February, AMD’s processors originally held the top spots. However, in March PassMark changed the way it scored single-threaded performance for better accuracy, which elevated Intel’s processors to the top of the pack.