Ryzen 5 5600 vs i5-12400: Budget-friendly AM4 chip joins AMD Ryzen 5 5500 on PassMark with predictably mixed results

AMD’s new budget offering of desktop CPUs have turned up on PassMark. The Ryzen 5 5500 and its slightly faster Ryzen 5 5600 relative have been flexing their Zen 3 muscles on the benchmark and churned out unspectacular but still reasonable results considering their usage scenarios. However, there was no definitive AMD vs. Intel clash outcome for those curious about how the Ryzen 5 5600 manages against the very similar i5-12400 chip.

It's a well-known story: Intel streaks ahead in single-thread disciplines while AMD balances the results with a powerful multi-core run. So, in this case, the Ryzen 5 5500 and Ryzen 5 5600 score 3,133 points and 3,267 points, respectively, while the Intel Core i5-12400 manages 3,561 points, or +9% over the stronger AMD chip. All three processors have 6 cores and 12 threads, and they all rely on 65 W typical TDP.

Over in PassMark’s test suite for CPU Mark, there is a different but still predictable result. While the i5-12400 can outperform the Ryzen 5 5500, which is actually a Cezanne APU with disabled iGPU, it lags behind the Vermeer CPU Ryzen 5 5600. The difference between the better AMD part and Intel chip here is +11.72%, so not really a massive gain for Team Red over the single-thread difference. As always, things boil down to use case and availability.

Gamers will probably be better off with the i5-12400 because of its solid single-core performance. But those not wanting to splash out on an LGA 1700-compatible motherboard will be better served with the AM4-compatible parts from AMD, especially if they already possess the required supported chipset. At MSRPs of US$159 and US$199, respectively, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Ryzen 5 5600 offer great entry points into Zen 3 architecture.

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