AMD’s Zen two chips are strong and quickly. The complete Ryzen 3000 series is turning into the go-to CPUs for enthusiasts and content material creators. And that is just as correct for the Ryzen five 3600X, which is amongst the choose handful of CPUs any gaming fan must look at for a new Computer construct.
I’ve currently looked at what the higher-finish can do with the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X. These CPUs are killer for gaming and productivity. But if gaming is your initially and foremost concern, then the 3600X (and probably the Ryzen five 3600) is a wonderful way to get quickly efficiency devoid of spending a lot of funds.
Specs
Right here are the fundamentals for the Ryzen five 3600X:
- six cores (12 threads)
- Base clock: three.8GHz
- Max enhance clock: four.4GHz* (*we’ll speak about this)
- 64KB L1 cache
- 3MB L2 cache
- 32MB L3 cache
- 7nm method
- PCIe four. help
You can get the Ryzen five 3600X now for $240. And it continues to use AMD’s AM4 socket, so it is compatible with a massive quantity of motherboards.
For this overview, I’m gonna concentrate on gaming efficiency, but we’ll speak about productivity as effectively. So let’s dig into it.
What you will like
Gaming efficiency
The 3600X is the quintessential gaming CPU. It has wonderful efficiency at a cost that tends to make a ton of sense. If you are attempting to construct a strong gaming technique exactly where every single dollar counts, the 3600X is correct in the sweet spot. It has six quickly cores that allow it to preserve up with any game you throw at it. And then it is wonderful for any productivity workloads you finish up needing it for as effectively.
Here’s my AMD test technique:
- Motherboard: ASRock X570 Taichi
- Memory: G.Talent Trident Z Royal 16GB 3600 MHz
- GPU: GeForce RTX 2080
- Storage: Gigabyte PCIe four. 2TB
- Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo
- PSU: EVGA 800W
Here’s my Intel test technique:
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Z390 Master
- Memory: G.Talent Trident Z Royal 16GB 3600 MHz
- GPU: GeForce RTX 2080
- Storage: Western Digital Black SN750 1TB
- Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo
- PSU: EVGA 800W
Game benchmarks
Right here are the gaming benchmarks. I test every game on low settings at 1080p, this puts much more emphasis on the CPU as an alternative of the GPU. But for the reason that of this approach, these benchmarks are not indicative of actual-globe framerates you will get operating games at greater settings. As an alternative, we’re just attempting to see how the CPUs examine to a single an additional.
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You can see that the 3600X is competitive with lots of of the top rated gaming CPUs. In lots of games, the distinction amongst a 3600X and even an i7-7700K is tiny. But Final Fantasy XV, Grand Theft Auto V, and Metro: Exodus all choose Intel chips.
But even when attempting to decrease the GPU as a bottleneck, the 3600X is nonetheless correct on par with this pack of chips. And as you turn up resolution and graphical effects, you will only see that distinction shrink.
Productivity benchmarks
What you will not like
Increase-clock troubles
It turns out that a lot of Ryzen 3000 CPUs are not hitting their max enhance clocks. AMD advertises the 3600X as getting a max enhance of four.4GHz, but you only have a 1-in-10 likelihood of basically hitting that threshold, according to a single survey.
I was placing off finishing this overview for the reason that of this challenge. But I’m publishing now for the reason that AMD says it has a repair. Far more vital, even so, is that most individuals are not going to notice this challenge. That is particularly correct if you are making use of the 3600X for a gaming machine.
Your games are going to run wonderful on the 3600X regardless of whether AMD’s BIOS update fixes it or not.
3600X is wonderful, but the Ryzen five 3600 tends to make much more sense
The 3600X’s most significant challenge is AMD’s other CPUs. The Ryzen five 3600 is $200, and it is generally the exact same chip with a slightly slower clock. I do not have a single to test, but primarily based on the testing I’ve observed, you are not going to get $50 of added efficiency out of the 3600X.
But the 3600X is currently down to $240, and that is assisting it to make much more sense.
On the other side of the 3600X is the eight-core Ryzen 7 3700X for $330. For an added $80-to-$90, you will get a two much more cores that will make your technique superior for productivity and a technique that is superior equipped for the future.
The 3600X and 3700X are each wonderful, and the 3600 appears superb as effectively. So you can not truly go incorrect.
Conclusion
If you construct a new Computer gaming rig in the subsequent year, AMD’s third-gen Ryzen five CPUs are a wonderful foundation to construct on. The 3600X is an reasonably priced way to get higher-finish efficiency at friendly cost.
If you spent the final year or so eyeing an Intel i7-8700K, save your funds (if you can even obtain a single). The 3600X does not have rather the exact same gaming efficiency, but it is so close that you could possibly as effectively place that added $110 toward a superior GPU as an alternative.
I enthusiastically propose the Ryzen five 3600X. It is every little thing you want from a gaming CPU.
The Ryzen five 3600X is offered now for $240. AMD supplied GamesBeat with a sample for the objective of this overview.