Ryzen 5 3600X vs Ryzen 5 5500 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The Ryzen 5 5500 is ahead of the Ryzen 5 3600X on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 3% to 16%, including 11% in Cinebench R23 multi (10,561 vs 9,526).

Side-by-side CPU comparison of the Ryzen 5 3600X and the Ryzen 5 5500. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.

AMD

Ryzen 5 3600X

6 cores95W TDP

Full Ryzen 5 3600X benchmarks →

AMD · Zen 3

Ryzen 5 5500

6 cores65W TDP$159 MSRP2022

Full Ryzen 5 5500 benchmarks →

*Price sourced from Amazon.com. Price and availability subject to change.

Where to buy

A listing for each part; the current price and stock are on the retailer's page.

Specs side-by-side

Spec	Ryzen 5 3600X	Ryzen 5 5500
cores	6	6
threads	12	12
base clock ghz	3.8	3.6
boost clock ghz	—	4.2
tdp w	95	65
l3 cache mb	—	16
process nm	—	7
socket	—	AMD Socket AM4

Synthetic benchmarks

Each row says whether a higher or a lower number is better (ranks and times are lower-is-better). Scores come from NanoReview, CGDirector, GadgetVersus, PCSpecs.io, Geekbench Browser, HardwareDB and PassMark; each row links its sources, and where they differ the cell shows their median. Empty cells mean we don't yet have that benchmark on file for the SKU.

Benchmark	Ryzen 5 3600X	Ryzen 5 5500
Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	—	588 pts
Cinebench 2024 Single-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	—	82 pts
Cinebench R23 multi (higher is better) Source: CGDirector, GadgetVersus, PCSpecs.io	9,526 points	10,561 points
Cinebench R23 single (higher is better) Source: CGDirector, GadgetVersus, PCSpecs.io	1,323 points	1,365 points
Geekbench 6 multi (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser, HardwareDB, GadgetVersus	7,372 points	7,745 points
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	—	8,220 pts
Geekbench 6 single (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser, HardwareDB, GadgetVersus	1,732 points	1,902 points
Geekbench 6 Single-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	—	1,961 pts
PassMark CPU Mark (higher is better) Source: PassMark	18,123 points	19,267 pts
PassMark CPU Mark single thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	2,645 points	—
PassMark Single Thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	2,646 points	3,062 points
PassMark Single Thread Rating (higher is better) Source: PassMark	—	3,060 points

Quick answers

Which is faster, the Ryzen 5 3600X or the Ryzen 5 5500?

The Ryzen 5 5500 is ahead of the Ryzen 5 3600X on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 3% to 16%, including 11% in Cinebench R23 multi (10,561 vs 9,526).