Ryzen 5 5500 vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900 — Specs & Performance Compared

Verdict: The AMD Ryzen 9 5900 is ahead of the Ryzen 5 5500 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 12% to 99%, including 99% in Cinebench R23 multi (20,978 vs 10,561).

Side-by-side CPU comparison of the Ryzen 5 5500 and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900. Specs, synthetic benchmarks, AI inference tok/s, and Amazon availability below; each column header links to that part's benchmark page.

AMD · Zen 3

Ryzen 5 5500

6 cores65W TDP$159 MSRP2022

Full Ryzen 5 5500 benchmarks →

AMD · Zen 3

AMD Ryzen 9 5900

12 cores65W TDP

Full AMD Ryzen 9 5900 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 5500	AMD Ryzen 9 5900
cores	6	12
threads	12	24
base clock ghz	3.6	3
boost clock ghz	4.2	4.7
tdp w	65	65
memory bus	—	Dual-channel
l2 cache mb	—	6
l3 cache mb	16	64
process nm	7	7
socket	AMD Socket AM4	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, GadgetVersus, CGDirector, PCSpecs.io, Electronic Clinic, 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 5500	AMD Ryzen 9 5900
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: GadgetVersus, CGDirector, PCSpecs.io, Electronic Clinic	10,561 points	20,978 points
Cinebench R23 single (higher is better) Source: GadgetVersus, CGDirector, PCSpecs.io, Electronic Clinic	1,365 points	1,594 points
Geekbench 6 multi (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser, HardwareDB, NanoReview, GadgetVersus	7,745 points	9,915 points
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	8,220 pts	—
Geekbench 6 single (higher is better) Source: Geekbench Browser, HardwareDB, NanoReview, GadgetVersus	1,902 points	2,122 points
Geekbench 6 Single-Core (higher is better) Source: NanoReview	1,961 pts	—
PassMark CPU Mark (higher is better) Source: PassMark	19,267 pts	33,954 pts
PassMark Single Thread (higher is better) Source: PassMark	—	3,434 pts
PassMark Single Thread Rating (higher is better) Source: PassMark	3,060 points	3,433 points

Quick answers

Which is faster, the Ryzen 5 5500 or the AMD Ryzen 9 5900?

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900 is ahead of the Ryzen 5 5500 on all 6 shared benchmarks on file, by 12% to 99%, including 99% in Cinebench R23 multi (20,978 vs 10,561).