Features:

  • 6 Cores/12 Threads UNLOCKED; Max Temps : 95°C
  • Frequency: 4.2 GHz Max Boost. Includes Wraith Spire Cooler
  • 19MB of Combined Cache. Pci express version is pcie 3.0 x16 and cmos 12 nm finfet
  • Socket AM4 Motherboard Required
  • Supported technologies are amd storemi technology, amd sensemi technology, amd ryzen master utility and amd ryzen vr-ready premium
Great and cool CPU

I disabled Core Performance Boost for now to make sure that everything is stable. CPU has fixed 3.6 Ghz. Case fans (two of them) have constant speed at 780 RPM. While I’m typing this CPU 35.8C temperature at vCore 0.78V. VRM 36C. CPU fan 1700 RPM. Temperature in room around 22-25C. All windows are open and weather states that there are 27C outside, but I still feel comfortable, so it should be less than 27C. During memtest86 tests I got 124C but I think you have to divide it by 2. Prime95 has 72.5C, VRM 56C, vCore 1.125V. Stock fan had 2500 RPM and it was as quiet as in 1700RPM. I expected that cooler will have AMD logo light and RGB, but I couldn’t find any RGB connector on stock cooler and no AMD logo light as well. Anyway, I totally don’t care about that stuff.

The best budget CPU at this time!

Plays games like a champ. They say i5 8400K, and i7 8700K are faster with games. I have played with them and I honestly can't tell the difference. This things a beast. Build: CPU: Ryzen 2600x Board: MSI x470 Gaming Pro GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 RAM: G.Skill 16GB Ripjaws V Series DDR4 3200MHz Monitor: 27" 144Hz Gaming display Running system at stock, I see no need to overclock with this system, its not worth the effort for the tiny performance boost you get (IMHO). CPU runs at a cool 30c at idle just fine. System stock speeds, RAM running at 3200 Mhz (XMP profiles detected correctly), only three 120mm fans, stock CPU cooler. RAM and system stress tests are good. No thermal throttling or errors. Runs games amazingly (Far Cry 5, PUBG, etc) all better than my i5. And now I can multitask without any issues, even while in games. Most reviews on gaming with Intel vs Ryzen neglect to point out that most gamers do other things while gaming, like watch videos, stream, play music, etc. Try multitasking while gaming on an i5, then switch to this for less money! You will see the difference! Installed Windows in 5 minutes to NVME, PCIe, SSD. System is extremely smooth and responsive. I would recommend Ryzen over Intel for any budget build. Half the cost of an i7 with performance within 10% on games, and equal in most multi-threaded apps. But honestly in games or daily multitasking, can't see any performance drops. Especially with the faster memory. Everything with this just seems faster. My i5 was overclocked and worked fine in games, but I needed more power all around, and this did the trick for less!

Paired them with some really low latency 3200mhz RAM which tests have shows is the best way to get more performance out of the processor ...

Wish the bios updates would come out with more overclocking support. Over all a really solid processor. I put a custom liquid cooling loop on mine and it lets the precision boost kick in and never reach thermal limit at 4.15Ghz on all cores. Paired them with some really low latency 3200mhz RAM which tests have shows is the best way to get more performance out of the processor since the RAM latency ends up being picked up and used as the latency for the processors onboard memory controller. So any ram with timings this fast will give you a few % increase in overall speeds. G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) F4-3200C14D-16GTZ

Speed and stability at an affordable price

I upgraded my PC this past week with the 2600X, and I am so glad I picked this chip. I didn't want to have to mess around with overclocking, didn't want to spend a fortune, and sure as heck didn't want anything Intel given their Spectre & Meltdown issues. Speed and stability were foremost of my concerns. The 2600X so far has been terrific. My computer's speed, by comparison to my previous rig (AMD FX 8350 Black Edition) is phenomenal. Would I have gotten more speed out of the 2700X? Of course, but I didn't want to pay more, and the most intense stuff I do with my rig is VR gaming so at most what I needed was a CPU that wasn't a bottleneck to my video card, although I do occasionally run a video encode and the 2600X has excelled at that too. A VR example: running Skyrim VR on my previous rig, heavily modded and with all settings maxed, gave me an average of about 35% reprojection. It was tolerable, but far from optimal. Now I barely hit 5% reprojection, and I highly suspect even that number is inflated based on reports I've read about how the number is calculated in Steam's Advanced Settings. I'm hitting a solid 90fps in-game at 200% Steam supersampling rate thanks to my CPU no longer bottlenecking my ASUS 1080Ti ROG Strix. I love that this chip provides dynamic "boost" overclocking when I need it, and that I don't have to do anything special to enable or control it. Sure, like others have, I could get a high-end water cooler and start manually testing settings to hit the 5GHz mark for the best speed possible, but I'm really not interested in playing around with overclocking. It's overkill for what I want to do at this point, though it's nice having the option for later if I change my mind. For now my Corsair H60 liquid cooler is handling the 2600X's stock and boosted speeds just fine (at 71F room temp, I average between about 36-43C idle, 56C under moderate load, and 72C with all cores firing at near-maximal capacity). I had the Corsair from my previous setup, and from reading around decided it might be better than the bundled Wraith. I used a little Shin-Etsu thermal paste for the connection and cooling has so far been excellent with this chip. I'm really impressed with this chip and can't recommend it highly enough.

Best performance and value 6 core CPU!

This is my first CPU on the AM4 platform, it offers great performance in apps running Win 10. I can run multiple browser tabs (Firefox) and still play most games, even triple A titles with out much of a performance hit. The 2600x is a snappy 6 core / 12 thread processor and I can definitely tell the difference compared to an older generation 4 core / 4 thread AMD x4 880k CPU running at similar clock speeds. I also like the fact I can get pretty good temps on an air cooler (the older style Wraith with copper heat pipes) around 60C under load and 70C in 1 min stress test. I suspect I would get similar temps using the included Wraith Sprire. I'll have to try this on my next upgrade or future build. What's also great is that I can upgrade to the Ryzen 3000 series coming soon and potentially the 3000+ series in 2020.

Gen 2 upgrades, Very solid performer, stock Spire cooler is spot on, save some money over a Ryzen 7!

I just built a rig 10 months ago and put an i5 in that unit. For my workstation PC, after reading many reviews, I elected to go with this new Gen 2 Ryzen chip and I have not looked back. There is a noteworthy difference between the previous version and this Gen 2 processor! As much as I considered a Ryzen 7, much like the i7, I didn't see how the extra cash was going to put me that much further ahead. The Ryzen 5 2600x comes with a stock heatsink cooler and comes unlocked so there is plenty of overclocking potential available. I paired this with an X470 Gigabyte mobo GIGABYTE X470 AORUS GAMING 5 WIFI (AMD Ryzen AM4/ X470/ USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type A, Type C/ ATX/ DDR4/ Intel Wave 2 WIFI/ M.2/ HDMI/ Motherboard) and a GTX 1060 video card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (GV-N1060WF2OC-3GD) Using the stock heat sink and a very basic boost profile, I run all day at 4.2 ghz with no heat issues. The only other cooling I have are some supplemental silent coolermaster case fans. There are many reviews out there on how solid these OEM Spire heatsinks are and I have to agree. I don't game for hours on end and primarily, I have Photoshop and Illustrator open while streaming videos or Pandora. This chip breezes through everything I throw at it and I have never seen temperatures come close to making me slow down. I have even seen where one person had this very chip running at 6 ghz with a custom liquid cooler and has reported no stability or extreme temperatures. In conclusion, for what I'm doing, I'm so glad I saved the couple hundred bucks over a Ryzen 7 and instead put that into other areas, like a NVME M.2 SSD, which if you don't have, you should really put into your next build as well. Overclocking is simple, drivers and optimizing programs are easy to use and no need for expensive cooling setups since this chip is paired with a brilliant OEM cooler. I hope you found my review helpful and if so, please click the yes button below. Thanks!

The little engine that could, AMD does!

I changed my PC after ten years! I went with AMD as it was so much cheaper and better, looking at the data below. The i7-8700K, the Intel equivalent, is $380.00 verses $200.00 for the AMD 2600X. I used the same power supply, case, mouse, keyboard ETC as it all was newer. You can see the set-up I did this time. The GPU is in the middle slot to give the CPU cooler a tunnel of air straight through the system. The NVMe drive sits under the CPU cooler and gets air pulled across it. The GPU is AIO hybrid type so no hot air in the case. Yes, I oriented the cooler to shoot straight up as this seems best to send hot air UP out the top of the case and not into the GPU radiator. Temps so far support the set-up. Real neat and clean this time around. I have a pretty good CPU and NOCTUA DH-15S cooler, so it auto dynamic clocks (what AMD calls XFR2) to 4.9 GHz on all cores! I don't do a thing, as it is all stock. Even the fans are cool-and-quiet and ramp based on temps. This is a great PC! The ASRock X470 is great, too, with that 1 GB ADATA NVMe SSD drive blazing along with W10 pro. The memory XMP profiled to the right timings and speed straight away with the Taichi MB...dead stable. The Heaven 4.0 scores are 15 FPS faster than the i7-870 in the old system with the same 1070ti clocks (see attached). That AMD CPU kicks butt for the price. If you are thinking of a PC, the 2600X allows you to afford the a NVMe drive and/or a faster graphics card. I game at 1440P so the fastest CPU is a waste of money. Ran Wolfenstein - The New Order all day today and not a single hick-up. The system exceeded my expectations, that's for sure. AMD SYSTEM BRAND PRICE MB ASRock X470 Taichi AM4 AMD $199.99 CPU AMD Ryzen 7 2600X 3.6GHz $209.99 DDR4 MEMORY* G.Skill Flare-X 16GB 2 x 8GB DDR4-3200 - F4-3200C14D-16GFX $224.98 1GB ADATA SX8200 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 SSD $208.99 OS W10 Professsional OEM 64 bit $149.50 GPU EVGA 1070ti hybrid $550.00 I kept my case and PS; Phantek ENTHOO PRO Glass Corsair HX-750 Here is the data on XFR2 actual function. Look at the dynamic OC difference! ~4.3 GHz on one and ~4.9 GHz on the other! VCPU core adjust from less than a volt to 1.48 volts. Remember that the numbers are "max" at any time, not at one point in time. So ALL cores aren't likely ever at those frequencies at the same time, just the ones that are needing the boost. Unlike a manual over clock, you aren't stuck revving the CPU engine in neutral wasting power on cores that don't have work, and, generating HEAT that slows down the thread you DO want to be running hardest! This is why the AMD set-up is so compelling now, It allows every last bit of performance to be reached with minimal HEAT generation as ONLY the cores / clocks that NEED the boost get it. Eventually, they all seem to see a set peak GHz value (I don't think my 2600X can run 4.93 GHz on all cores simultaneously) running randomly at full tilt. If you look at the CPU and GPU utilization scores you'll see dramatic differences between games. One runs the CPU hard, the other the GPU. The CPU processor adjust to fit the requirements. And, it adjusts a LOT more than I ever though it would. With fixed over clock you really match ONE type of game and spin your wheels on the other. XFR2 senses the wheel spin on the CPU and backs it off if it can't drive performance forward on everything you do. And yes, it backs off the CPU voltage on that core, you can watch it dynamically change on each core. This lowers overall heats to the minimum at any point in time for the work being done. I sound like an add for AMD's XFR2, but I'm just the opposite, I was real nervous about the expense on a seemingly too good to be true dynamic OC program. But, it really does work and the data supports it 100% using real games and actual use situations. This CPU is 3.6 GHz base clock, but dynamically OC to near 5 GHz! And, this was gaming for 12 hours straight on Wolfenstein with ZERO crashes. Someone has to do this test, may as well be me. This PC is dead stable hitting those numbers. If you don't believe the AMD propaganda, it is true this time around. Let's add the second important variable, cooling. The AMD Cool and Quiet was panned in the beginning. Now, it supercharges the XFR2 capability as it cools ONLY when needed. The old way was top blow the house down 24/7. Now? I hear the fans spin up in game and then spin down again. The cooling is DYNAMIC as well, so less noise most of the time. The X470 Taichi MB chip set tested my fans min speeds at initialization so it knows their limits and away it went after that. Both systems work seamlessly on my PC. Seldom does this ever happen. I didn't mess with a thing, no CPU overclocks, no fan profiles, nothing. I see completely reasonable heats, too. The 2600X is definitely the little engine that could, and DOES! Or should I say, AMD DOES! HEAVEN WOLFENSTEIN CPU LOWER HIGHER GPU 100% 40% CPU TEMP 57 C 67 C GPU TEMP 56 C 40 C CPU CLOCK 4.3 GHz 4.9 GHz

Excellent value

Great value for the money. In gaming, same performance as the 2700x, for $100 less. Easier to setup higher quality streams than with any current gen (coffee lake at this time) Intel i5. If you heavily multi-task, render, or stream a lot (rather than once in awhile), I would recommend the 2700x over it, however.

Great quality CPU

Upgraded my PC from the 1600, to this 2600X and I'm quite pleased. Increased my average frames in PUBG from 120 to 134, and I have a 1070ti. While great for gaming, I have been working on my own AI model building structure, and this is really where this baby shines... If you like to work and play, highly suggest this processor. The thermal compound pre-applied on the cooler works fine, but if you plan to OC this, I highly recommend a liquid cooler as it gets really hot. There are a lot of online complaints about high temperatures, make sure to use AMD Master utility to check the temp (or look from your BIOS) - Apps like speccy (at the time of this review) are reporting around 20C above actual.

AMD wins in both processor power and consumer practice

When AMD released Ryzen last year, it was a huge disruption to Intel's grasp on the hardware market as they brought 6 and 8 core processors to the mainstream consumer for the first time. With their second generation (not to be confused with the upcoming sub 10nm Ryzen 2) AMD managed to improve the only thing lagging them behind Intel: individual core performance. With a base clock of 3.6GHz and boost clock of 4.2GHz (not to mention each chip comes unlocked for overclocking potential), AMD and Intel are finally neck and neck for the first time since Bulldozer. So discussing processors themselves is, in itself, somewhat futile. In my opinion, you, the consumer, should stick with AMD for their much more consumer friendly practices. More specifically, AMD has committed to supporting the AM4 socket through 2021 meaning that a gen1 Ryzen board will support processors that come out through the next few generations as opposed to having to upgrade motherboards even if the difference in generations is minute at best (Looking at you, coffee lake). Thank you, AMD.

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