Should you upgrade from an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 to a Ryzen 5 3600?

Ryzen 5 2600 Source: Windows Central

Best respond: AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 is nonetheless a great processor (CPU) that should remain a skillful fit in your PC for the time beingness. However, upgrading to a Ryzen 5 3600 might be worth it in some specific scenarios, like if you've upgraded your graphics card (GPU) and are now suffering a clogging.

2d-gen desktop Ryzen: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 ($120 at Amazon), ($125 at Newegg), ($149 at Walmart)
Third-gen desktop Ryzen: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 ($175 at Amazon), ($175 at Newegg), ($193 at Walmart), ($200 at Best buy)

Tin can the Ryzen v 2600 go far through a couple more years?

Source: Windows Central

The short respond: Yes, the Ryzen 5 2600 tin can make information technology through a couple more years. Information technology is still a very able six-core CPU that can handle a modest load. Whether you're looking for solid gaming, creativity, or productivity functioning, it delivers. If you lot take one of these in your PC and yous're happy with the performance, there's no reason to upgrade.

I've been using a Ryzen 5 2600 in my mid-range gaming PC for the last year, and it's still holding up well when coupled with an NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU and 16GB of RAM. With most games, I'one thousand averaging around 100 frames-per-2nd (FPS) on a 1440p monitor. That's a suitable number that gets even ameliorate when I drop down to 1080p.

Game	Resolution	Graphics	Average FPS
Telephone call of Duty: Modernistic Warfare	1440p	High	102.3 FPS
Metro Exodus	1440p	Medium	85.3 FPS
Battlefield 5	1440p	Medium	104 FPS
Tom Clancy'south The Segmentation 2	1440p	High	96.9 FPS
Apex Legends	1440p	High	123.4 FPS

A better GPU would no doubtfulness boost those FPS numbers for the 2600, but high-finish cards similar NVIDIA's RTX 2070 Super or amend are probable going to cause a clogging. An upgrade to a Ryzen five 3600 without touching the GPU would make a difference in its own correct. On average, as long as the 3600 isn't beingness bottlenecked elsewhere, yous can expect an improvement of around ten to 20 FPS for nigh games if you upgrade from a 2600.

In terms of raw performance, the 3600 beats out the 2600, every bit you can see in the synthetic benchmark results below. The 3600 has the same half-dozen cores and 65W TDP, but it has a slightly higher base and heave clock speeds (3.6GHz and four.2GHz compared to 3.4GHz and three.9GHz. The Ryzen 5 3600 also has support for PCIe 4.0, whereas the 2600 tops out at PCIe three.0.

Geekbench 5 (Higher is better)

CPU	Unmarried-core	Multi-core
AMD Ryzen 5 2600	990	five,383
AMD Ryzen 5 3600	1,186	six,182

Cinebench R20 (Higher is better)

CPU	Score
AMD Ryzen v 2600	two,778
AMD Ryzen 5 3600	3,463

It'due south worth noting that there'due south also an AMD Ryzen five 3600X that costs more the 3600. It brings higher clock speeds, simply it also has a higher TDP. If you lot know y'all're going to upgrade and can't make up one's mind between the 3600 and 3600X, we've also put together an in-depth comparison to aid you decide which is best.

A example for upgrading

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Source: Rich Edmonds / Windows Central

Just because the Ryzen five 2600 can even so put up an intense fight doesn't mean in that location aren't certainly scenarios where an upgrade to a Ryzen 5 3600 makes sense. For instance, if you've recently upgraded your GPU and don't feel similar it's reaching its truthful potential, there'southward likely a clogging in your system. This is particularly true if y'all've gone for something like an NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super or amend.

If y'all don't want to wait for fourth-gen desktop Ryzen chips — we've seen Ryzen Mobile 4000, but so far nothing but rumor for the desktop versions — a leap upwardly to a Ryzen 5 3600 or 3600X is no doubt quite highly-seasoned.

And if y'all're a hobbyist who merely has some extra money to burn on a new CPU, terminate reading this and go alee and pick upwards a Ryzen 5 3600 or 3600X and take some fun. You tin can e'er use the old Ryzen 5 2600 to kickstart a budget build.

If y'all decide to upgrade from a Ryzen 5 2600 to a 3600, be sure to check your motherboard compatibility. These third-gen CPUs as well use the AM4 chipset, only that doesn't mean all AM4 motherboards will piece of work. If you're unsure where to begin, check out our roundup of the best motherboards for the Ryzen 5 3600.

2nd-Gen Ryzen

AMD Ryzen 5 2600

AMD Ryzen five 2600

Still going potent

This 2d-gen Ryzen CPU is outperformed by the Ryzen 5 3600, just not past a considerable margin. Unless y'all're seeing a bottleneck or have money to burn, it shouldn't need an upgrade. At least until fourth-gen desktop Ryzen is released.

Tertiary-Gen Ryzen

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

The best until fourth-gen Ryzen

The third-gen AMD Ryzen 5 3600 outperforms the Ryzen 5 2600, and it will pair up ameliorate with powerful GPUs. However, for nearly people who already accept a 2600, information technology's probably not worth the upgrade.

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