15 specifications

Intel Core i5-8600 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500

On paper, the Intel Core i5-8600 boosts higher, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 4 with a higher side

Full specifications

Intel Core i5-8600

Intel · Core 8th generation · Desktop

Full specifications

AMD Ryzen 5 5500

AMD · Ryzen 5000 (Cezanne, Zen 3) · Desktop

Cores and clocks

Cores

Threads

Base clock

3.1 GHz

3.6 GHz

Boost clock

4.3 GHz

4.2 GHz

Cache and power

L3 cache

9 MB

16 MB

TDP

65 W

Platform

Socket

FCLGA1151

AM4

Process

14 nm

7 nm

Integrated graphics

Intel UHD Graphics 630

None

Launched

Q2'18 (quarter)

2022-04-04

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

Cores and threads

The Ryzen 5 5500 has 6 cores and 12 threads against 6 and 6. More threads help with work that can be split into many pieces at once: rendering, compiling, video export, running several heavy programs together. They do little for work that runs on a few threads, which includes most games and most everyday software, where the speed of one core decides the result.

Boost clock

The Core i5-8600 boosts to 4.3 GHz against 4.2 GHz, 2 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.

Cache

The Ryzen 5 5500 carries 16 MB of L3 cache against 9 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.

Power and cooling

Both are rated at 65 W, so they ask the same of a cooler and a power supply. The rating is the heat to be moved for the chip to hold its speed; both draw above it in short bursts, and either one slows down rather than fails when the cooling falls short.

Platform

They use different sockets, FCLGA1151 and AM4, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.

Graphics on the chip

The Core i5-8600 includes Intel UHD Graphics 630; the Ryzen 5 5500 has no graphics of its own and will not show a picture without a graphics card. For a build with a card that changes nothing. For an office machine, a home server, or while waiting for a card, it decides the question.

Manufacturing process

The Ryzen 5 5500 is built on a 7 nm process against 14 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.

Which to pick, on paper

Rendering, compiling, video export: Ryzen 5 5500; 12 threads against 6. Work that uses every thread scales with how many there are.
No graphics card: Core i5-8600; It has Intel UHD Graphics 630 on the chip. The other needs a card to display anything.

What no table says

How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

Free CPU stress test

Questions

Is the Core i5-8600 better than the Ryzen 5 5500?: By need, on the specifications: rendering, compiling, video export: the Ryzen 5 5500; no graphics card: the Core i5-8600. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
Do the Core i5-8600 and the Ryzen 5 5500 use the same socket?: No. The Core i5-8600 uses FCLGA1151 and the Ryzen 5 5500 uses AM4, so switching means a new motherboard.
Does the Core i5-8600 or the Ryzen 5 5500 have integrated graphics?: Only the Core i5-8600, which has Intel UHD Graphics 630. The Ryzen 5 5500 needs a graphics card to show a picture.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

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