i5 11600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with RTX3080 Gaming Review

Intel i5-11600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X in Gaming

Introduction

Whenever a new set of processors is launched we all look longingly at the top of the range model and then check our bank balance and realise we can only afford a model in the upper middle of the range. This is by no means an experience limited to processors of course. The same restrictions affect everything we buy. It’s a matter of getting something with the majority of the elements available on the top of the line model, but at a price point more in keeping with our fiscal limitations.

If you’re building a gaming rig then those restrictions are even tighter. One thing we’ve often said here at OC3D is that you are always going to get a better return on your investment if you put the majority of your budget on the GPU than a CPU. The difference in frames per second between a Ryzen 5 5600X and RX 6800 XT, or a Core i5-11600K and RTX 3080, is going to be significantly better than what you’d achieve with a Ryzen 9 5950X and RX 6700 or Intel Core i9-11900K and RTX 3060Ti setup.

However, we also know that even hardcore gamers do other things with their system, so today we’re going to build two systems based around the biggest selling items in the upper midrange, the Ryzen 5 5600X and Core i5-11600K and the best selling GPU, the RTX 3080. There are enough cores that you’re not hanging around waiting for video to encode nor will more CPU intensive titles slow to a crawl, but there is enough saved in the budget that the RTX 3080 will also bring 4K gaming to you if you so desire it. It’s a nice futureproofed setup for those of you currently waiting for a great 4K panel to be affordable.

With a full suite of games on hand, let’s see how the two CPUs at the heart of their respective ranges go head to head, and perhaps give those of you sitting on the fence a little more information about a future purchase.

Test Setup

For our testing we’re running both the Intel Core i5-11600K and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X at stock and with an all-core overclock to see how they compare if you just want to build and play, or if tweaking them a little will bring you more frames per second. For the graphics card side of things we chose the RTX 3080, a graphics card which is a perfect gaming weapon and the best balance between price and performance. Certainly we could have utilised a more affordable one, or a more expensive one, or one of the new Radeon range, but we wanted a card that we knew would be able to run full on in 1080P and 1440P and should give 60FPS in the 4K tests. It’s one of the most popular GPUs for a reason. For the overclock results both the AMD and Intel are running at 4.8 GHz on all cores.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X on ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula
Intel Core i5-11600K on ASUS ROG Z590 Maximus XIII Hero
Nvidia RTX 3080 FE
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB Series DDR4 3600MHz
Corsair RM1000i PSU
Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Pro XT AIO
Corsair MP600 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Corsiar Obsidian 500D RGB SE
Windows 10 x64 “May 2020” Update

Intel i5-11600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X in Gaming   
Intel i5-11600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X in Gaming  Â