Conclusion

Final Words 

Right so like, if you can spare the 30 bucks, just go with the X model? See, AMD really finetuned and tweaked the X models close to the maximum performance, and that performance is more in balance energy consumption wise opposed to when you manually tweak a processor. But still, it's a 30 bucks difference, and for many, that is a lot of money. If you are willing to tweak, you certainly can squeeze out that extra all-core performance. And being the same processors series, you'll reach 4100~4200 MHz (all cores) on a proper air-cooler, without a doubt. The Ryzen 5 2600 offers a nice little extra bump in performance when compared to the year-old 1600. It's not massive and as extensive as what the 2700X is to the 1700X, but it is a good step forward with what pretty much is a bit of a die-shrink and tweaking. Ryzen has evolved and matured, it all adds up to lower latency, better memory support, faster base clock, higher turbo bins, the accumulation of it all is what has become Ryzen 2000. It is a very fast threading processor series. Game performance at the lowest resolution, again, Intel wins there but the margin and gap have become smaller. Everything is trivial towards pricing, and what I did not see coming is the price level of the new Ryzen 2000 series. The asking price of 199 USD for this six-core part is simply put a proper value proposition. With Ryzen 2000 / Zen+ the previous max 3.8~4.0 GHz domain also has been breached. The 12nm Zen+ generation can manage 4.2 GHz on all cores fine. For the money, the processor yells performance and fun though, and that becomes clear when we move into the next chapter of this page.

Price and value

Gaming performance

Previous Ryzen reviews have taught me that it is extremely hard to convince a big part of the guru3d community and reader base that Ryzen is plenty fast for gaming. The new Zen+ processors and the respective platform overall bring a bit more oomph compared to last year's Ryzen. The fact remains, that if you take a Core i7 8700K it will still beat Ryzen in CPU bound gaming situations (low resolutions or extremely high refresh rate where a game is not GPU bound). The difference and gap towards Intel are getting smaller though. Get yourself a nice G.Skill FlareX memory kit at 3200 MHz and you've covered your gaming bases. Keep in mind that a CPU bottleneck always has been far less important compared to a GPU bottleneck, which why I'll keep saying it, that differential is trivial at best. Honestly, with the money you save on this processor compared directly to the cheapest Intel processor you can find, you probably should invest in a faster graphics cards. 

DDR4 Memory

The latest firmware for both the older 300 chipsets series and the new 400 Chipset series including the X470 have matured and is an accumulation of DDR4 memory support that evolved when the original Ryzen series was released. Memory compatibility should not and likely will not be an issue as long as you stick to recently released DIMMs. I'll keep repeating this, but there are some really good Ryzen optimized kits out there. The G.Skill Flare X series at 3200 MHz CL14 is hitting a nice sweet-spot and is 100% stable + optimized for your Ryzen infrastructure. We also tested the new Ryzen Sniper X optimized kit from G.Skill, it runs 3400 MHz straight out of the box and will bring your memory bandwidth in the 50K ranges. However, take my advice:  Flare X at 3200 MHz CL14. Install it, activate the profile in the BIOS, restart ...  and never look back. 

Energy efficiency

A full PC at idle will sit in the 50 Watt range with a dedicated graphics card installed (GeForce GTX 1080 / 16 GB memory / SSD and the motherboard). When we stressed the processors with a Prime 1024M run we reached roughly 120 Watts. A threaded CB15 run, reveals close to 140 Watts of power consumption (for the entire PC). That certainly is better compared to the X model. When we game we hover at ~270 Watts, but obviously that factor is dependent on the type of game and graphics card you use of course. So yeah, it's all a notch higher with the 2600X and 2700X and seems a bit better with the non-X models, it's up to you whether or not this is a relevant thing for your purchasing choices. 

The Tweak

The original Ryzen series from 2017 revealed maximum clocks in the ~3900 MHz range on all cores. For Ryzen 2000 / Zen+ you may add roughly 7% on that frequency. In our findings, these processors will reach 4200 MHz. Our Ryzen 5 2600 was able to reach that stable 4200 MHz with air cooling (albeit with the stock cooler used, that was pushing it). Do not expect performance differences that are miraculous. If you tweak to the maximum, likely ~1.425v is the need for a stable 4.3 GHz on all cores, for us that was the equilibrium threshold on the 2600 processor, 100% stable but that will require higher-end heatpipe or liquid cooling.
 

The conclusion

The difference between the 2600 and 2600X is interesting, performance wise I'd put my money on the 2600X though. And it is interesting when I think about that, last year I would have recommended a non X  model. Value for money wise the 2600 screams performance and reaps havoc once you tweak it. The X models, however, are better tuned at nearly that same performance level already, and thus are a bit more refined with voltages and power consumption (compared to a manually tweaked 2600). It's an interesting choice, is that worth the extra 30 bucks? Well, you get to decide that. Overclocking and tweaking aren't that difficult though, cooling is the key factor here.

If you allow me to grab the 8-core 2700X for a second, it really is that processor that I like the best in the new Zen+ updates. The increase in performance really is good, the 2600X, however, felt a bit more ordinary with a small extra bump in performance and then the non X model we tested today, falls below that a notch with a 5 to 10% margin. The reality is that fact isn't even relevant as to what makes this processor so sweet, really is its pricing of 199 USD. For that money, you receive a really proper 6-core part with 12 threads with turbos that can reach 4.2 GHz (tweaked) or 3.9 GHz when kept at default frequencies. The new Ryzen Zen+ processors have been tweaked and optimized, the platforms feels right, it really is a good, properly done processor series. Is it worth upgrading from your original Ryzen processor? Hmm, here I'd have to say no, and that is the honest brutal truth. The extra 10 to 20% performance (depending what processor you are coming from) on your threading madness really isn't going to make huge differences, and that same thesis can be applied towards gaming. Those however that have been waiting with an outdated PC, thinking it's time for something new. Well, yeah here it makes sense. When you opt to build a proper mainstream to high-end gaming (but not enthusiast) PC with a dedicated graphics, the sky is the limit. We do need to factor in though that for Ryzen gaming you need reasonably fast frequency memory, and that is more expensive. Overall for 199 bucks you receive a proper six-core threading little crunching beast that once tweaked will bring you very competitive performance levels (for that money). At 199 bucks, really, it is an admirable deal for the ones willing to tweak it a bit, offering lovely value.

ATH +++

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