The GPU is pretty much the true workhorse, but because of how monumentally terrible the 9590 was, even a Ryzen 3 or 5 could probably beat it.
In gaming terms probably, but aren't the FX and the Ryzen about 2 years apart?
I have many things I do which will light up all 8 cores and outstrip an i5 of the same era and money. Single core performance is it's let down, multi-core it's strength, so the single threaded DX processing queue runs faster on faster clock speeds not on multiple cores.
From what I can find, the FX-9590 launched in June 2013 for a price of around 960 USD, and this is the start of why I think it's such a joke chip. Ryzen came out in iirc, 2016.
Currently, a Ryzen 1500X, with a launch price of 190 USD (now 160-ish) will par the 9590 in multi-threaded applications (according to passmark, and only having 4 cores) and beat it out in single threaded.
The 9590 was "designed" as a factory overclocked chip that required watercooling in order to not catch fire for it's (at the time) insane 4.7Ghz base clock and 5Ghz turbo, with a TDP of 220W. To put this in perspective, my i7-4790k, which came out a year later, for about a third of the launch price of the 9590, with half the cores, can run at 4.7Ghz (stable with watercooling) and absolutely, and positively smoke the 9590 in every single possible way for less than half the TDP. It could possibly even go twice as fast in single threaded application in that configuration, while still being faster in multi threaded.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like, maybe even love AMD, but they have been releasing turd after turd since Sandy Bridge hit the scene. Ryzen is their new breath of fresh air, and I believe Zen+ secures their place as the price performer over Intel, in a position they haven't held since AM2+. I just think that the FX-9590 is quite possibly the worst chip AMD has ever made. It might be my German harshness, but it truly is a hot flaming turd.
I'm not saying it can't do anything, but for it's price, and especially it's launch price, also factoring in way higher power costs, the need for more expensive boards with the power management to even handle a chip that hungry, it never even made any sense when it was in the 200-300 dollar range. It's why I have a 4790k.
As for outstripping an i5, I have never seen an i5 cost that much. A 900 dollar i7 from 2013 would cream my 300 dollar 4790k. Granted, that price wasn't held for long, but Intel can actually be really really weird with their pricing, having some really shit chips be a lot of money, and then having some diamond in the rough blasting performers (Like the Devil's Canyon 4790k) be dirt cheap for the performance they kick out.
I will still maintain, despite being a turd, it's not useless. It will run every modern game fine enough, and I believe if a true upgrade is desired, spending the money on a new nVidia graphics card is the way to go.