AMD Ryzen 5 1600 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

AMD Ryzen 5 1600

The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is a desktop processor with 6 cores and Hyper Threading (SMT = 12 threads). It is the second fastest Ryzen 5 processor in the beginning of 2017, but the 65-watt TDP is much lower compared to the higher-clocked Ryzen 5 1600X.

The Ryzen 5 1600 has a base frequency of 3.2 GHz and can reach up to 3.6 GHz via Turbo (up to 2 cores) or 3.7 GHz via XFR (also up to 2 cores). The maximum clock for all six cores is 3.4 GHz.

The performance is particularly good in applications. The chip can benefit from its six native cores. They are divided into two clusters (3 cores with dedicated L3 cache each), which connected via Infinity Fabric.

The processor based on the Zen architecture is not fully convincing in games. AMD blames missing optimizations from the gaming producers. Intel's powerful Core i7 quad-cores are usually faster in this case.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based on the Cezanne generation. The R5 5600H has six of the eight cores based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.3 GHz (guaranteed base clock) to 4.2 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT for a total of 12 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process.

The new Zen 3 microarchitecture offers a significantly higher IPC (instructions per clock) compared to Zen 2. For desktop processors AMD claims 19 percent on average and in applications reviews showed around 12% gains at the same clock speed.

In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 7 integrated graphics processor with 7 CUs running at up to 1800 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 16 MB of L3 cache can be found on the chip.

Performance

The average 5600H in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 5 6600HS and the Core i7-1260P, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 45 W, the Lenovo Legion 5 17 is among the fastest laptops powered by the 5600H that we know of. It can be roughly 30% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 45 W, a value that laptop makers are allowed to change to anything between 35 W and 54 W with clock speed and performance changing accordingly as a result. A high-performance cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this.

The hexa-core APU is built with the 7 nm TSMC process for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.