The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is the objective winner of this comparison, securing victory across eight of the fourteen measured specifications. Its most significant technical advantage is the L3 cache, which offers a 100% improvement over the alternative. This substantial increase in cache capacity serves as the primary differentiator between the two processors, establishing the newer model as the superior choice based on the provided data points.

Users prioritizing high-speed data access should select the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X to leverage its doubled L3 cache capacity. Conversely, those who require a higher count of physical processing units should choose the AMD Ryzen 7 1700, which maintains a 33% advantage in total cores. Your final decision should depend on whether your specific workload benefits more from the increased cache efficiency of the newer architecture or the higher core count of the older hardware.