Is the Ryzen 3 3300X Better Value than the Ryzen 5 3600?

Today nosotros're revisiting AMD's budget-oriented Ryzen 3 3300X. This Ryzen 3 CPU thoroughly impressed the states when information technology launched virtually 2 months ago, even so since that twenty-four hour period-one review we've barely looked back to come across where it stands. In perspective, many things have happened in the past few months, in and outside of tech. Supply of components has been tight and you may recall that at the time AMD had decided to axe back up for all 400-series motherboards.

If you followed that drama you'll know we spent quite a scrap of time and energy fighting AMD on that one and eventually helped get them to walk back that decision.

Past the time that was resolved we were moving on to Intel 10th-gen Core testing, and so we had the Z490 motherboards which morphed into B550 testing, though that's largely on concur at present until stock arrives.

The plan was ever to become dorsum for some detailed Ryzen 3 testing and nosotros began to lay the groundwork for this GPU scaling content many weeks ago. Timing hasn't been great though, with stock almost non-existent and therefore we've been sitting on the information. Ultimately we decided not to delay the blue bar graphs whatsoever longer, so when eventually things come back to normal y'all'll be armed with even more information.

For this test nosotros're comparing the 3300X against the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen five 2600. In previous GPU scaling benchmarks we had too tested the 3900X and 9900K, though this fourth dimension nosotros decided to leave those out in an effort to declutter the graphs, only we'll call on some of that data towards the finish of the article.

Before we get to it, some basic examination notes... nosotros paired the CPUs with Grand.Skill's FlareX DDR4-3200 CL14 memory and a Corsair H115i Pro cooler. Any automobile overclocking features such as MCE or PBO have been disabled and the retentivity hasn't been tuned, just XMP loaded, and so it's simply out of the box performance with a quality AIO and low latency retentivity.

Do note the test setup for this commodity is a flake different to what we've used for our recent CPU reviews and that will influence the results. Nosotros're using merely two memory modules for single rank performance, whereas we've used 4 modules in the near recent CPU reviews for dual rank retention. Some of the areas used for testing the games accept besides been updated in those articles.

Benchmarks

Starting with Assassin's Creed Odyssey using the medium quality preset at 1080p, we find that the 3300X is positioned between the 2600 and 3600 when using the RTX 2080 Ti, making the R5 3600 around 15% faster. However, dropping down to the RTX 2070 Super eliminates that margin near entirely, at present the 3600 is merely a unmarried frame faster. The 3300X was still 11% faster than the 2600 though, so a decent little lead over the second-gen part.

By the time we striking the Radeon RX 5700 though, we're looking at very similar performance for all 3 processors. The 3300X is only 5% faster than the 2600 and ~2% slower than the 3600 as nosotros become more GPU limited.

One time we drop down to the Radeon RX 580, we're entirely bound by the GPU and the results we come across here are largely inside the margin of mistake. Needless to say, y'all won't spot any differences between the 3600 and 3300X when gaming nether these conditions.

If we increment the quality preset a few notches to the max setting, unsurprisingly the results go far more GPU jump and homogeneous. Remember nosotros're withal only testing at 1080p. It won't affair what kind of graphics carte yous take, RX 580, 5700, 2070 Super or even the 2080 Ti, you'll exist looking at virtually identical frame rates with any of these CPUs.

Same game but we're looking at results using 1440p resolution and the medium preset. This data is significantly more GPU limited with the GeForce GPUs. The 3300X and 3600 delivered identical, or about identical performance using all four GPUs, making them a little faster than the 2600.

Finally nosotros have the Assassin's Creed Odyssey results using the ultra high + 1440p. No surprises hither, we're well-nigh entirely GPU leap and inside this grouping of CPUs, there'south no deviation in gameplay performance. If yous plan on playing this and other like games with maximum quality settings, you're generally going to observe the organisation is leap by GPU functioning.

Moving on to Far Cry New Dawn, here we find similar boilerplate frame rate performance between the 3300X and 3600, but the half-dozen-core processor does evangelize amend i% depression results, suggesting we're getting slightly more than consistent performance with the higher-end CPU. It's also interesting to annotation that although slower for both the boilerplate and 1% depression performance, the Ryzen 5 2600 sees merely a 23% variation betwixt the two metrics whereas the 3300X sees up to a 29% difference, suggesting once more that the experience won't be as smooth.

Interestingly, using the Radeon RX 5700 the 3300X's average frame rate falls away from the 3600. We've establish in the past that AMD'southward drivers produce more overhead, so perhaps that's what nosotros're seeing here. By the time nosotros drop down to the RX 580 things offset to come together, but even hither we still run across that the increased latency of the Zen+ architecture is a flake of a problem for the 2600.

We find more than interesting Far Cry New Dawn results at 1080p when increasing the preset quality to 'Ultra'. This appears to increase CPU load and the 3300X is now up to ten% slower than the 3600 when comparing average frame rates.

We also run into a substantial drop off for the 2600 when comparing 1% low data. The operation trends for the RX 5700, 2070 Super and 2080 Ti wait similar and it's not until we drop down to the more modest RX 580 that nosotros see similar frame rates.

Now for the 1440p results using the normal quality settings, compared to what nosotros saw at 1080p at that place's a smaller gap between the 3300X and 3600 when using the RX 5700 and we likewise come across a significant difference in functioning between the RX 5700 and RX 580. Of form, this is because the game is more than GPU express at the higher resolution.

The 1440p ultra quality data shows very little difference between the 3300X and 3600 using fifty-fifty the RTX 2080 Ti. At 1080p the 3600 was upward to 10% faster, here that margin has been halved to 5%.

Testing with Tom Clancy'south Rainbow Six Siege and 1080p medium quality information (labeled equally 'high' in this game), nosotros have some more interesting data. With the RTX 2080 Ti the 3600 is just 4% faster than the 3300X when comparing averages, only fourteen% faster when comparing 1% lows. Equally a result, the 3600 sees a 27% operation disparity between its boilerplate and one% low figure, while the 3300X sees almost twoscore% disparity, suggesting that the six-cadre processor is delivering a smoother more consequent gaming experience.

That difference is somewhat neutralized with the slower RTX 2070 Super and in fact hither the 3300X produces a tighter grouping of frames due to a stronger GPU clogging. We see this result continue as we lower the GPU horsepower.

If nosotros increase the graphics preset to ultra while still maintaining a 1080p resolution, we discover with GPUs such as the RTX 2070 Super, Radeon RX 5700 and RX 580 that the 3300X and 3600 deliver the aforementioned level of performance as both are heavily GPU limited.

We run into a big hit to performance by simply increasing the resolution, now at 1440p using the 'High' quality setting, the RTX 2080 Ti has dropped downward to under 200 fps with the Ryzen 5 3600. Equally a result nosotros see very little performance difference between the tested processors. The 3600 is a few percent faster with the RTX 2080 Ti and and then identical performance is seen with the 2070 Super.

For those of y'all gaming at 1440p using ultra quality type of settings, hither'due south more evidence that the CPU isn't as relevant as the graphics chip powering your game. Information technology's incommunicable to distinguish between any of the CPUs used here and the 3300X was capable of maintaining well over 100 fps at all times with the RTX 2080 Ti.

The concluding game nosotros're checking out is World State of war Z. Testing at 1080p with the medium quality preset sees almost no performance difference betwixt the 2080 Ti, 2070 Super and fifty-fifty the RX 5700, while the RX 580 isn't far behind. Here we observe a scenario that is most entirely CPU express.

In all this data the 3300X was up to 11% slower than the 3600 with like margins betwixt the average and one% depression information. So it's important to note that while the 3600 is clearly faster, the gaming feel wasn't any better, at least not to the degree that you'd be able to notice.

Fifty-fifty when stepping up to the ultra quality settings nosotros see well-nigh the aforementioned results.

The 1440p medium quality results aren't that unlike either, though we start to see the 3300X and 3600 come together with the Radeon RX 5700.

Information technology's not until we tested at 1440p with ultra graphics that the game starts to get a little more GPU bound, so we're now seeing similar performance from the 3300X and 3600 with the RTX 2070 Super.

Functioning Summary

We know iv games isn't a lot, but information technology took almost 300 benchmarks just to add together the Ryzen 3 3300X into this comparison. The games used should too cover most operation scenarios. That existence the example, let's meet what the average performance looks like and for drawing more reference comparisons, nosotros'll be adding in the Ryzen 9 3900X and Cadre i9-9900K to the following graphs.

At 1080p with medium graphics settings, when using the fastest available RTX GPU today, the Ryzen 5 3600 is ~11% faster than the 3300X when comparison ane% low data. That's a reasonable performance uplift simply when you consider we're talking nearly a 50% increase in core count, information technology'due south really not that pregnant. Moreover, the 3300X was averaging 120 fps at all times in this testing.

At present if you're not using an RTX 2080 Ti and instead take a $500 graphics card like the RTX 2070 Super, then that 11% margin shrinks to but 4%, or 6% with a Radeon RX 5700. With a more modest GPU like a sub-$200 RX 580, in that location'due south no margin to speak of.

If we increase the games' resolution to 1440p while still playing on medium settings, we see that the 3600 is now just 5% faster than the 3300X with the RTX 2080 Ti. Similar margins are seen with the RTX 2070 Super and RX 5700.

Looking at the ultra quality preset, nosotros see pretty typical scaling as nosotros go downwardly the GPU stack. With the RTX 2080 Ti the 3600 is eight% faster than the 3300X when looking at the 1% low data, and then 6% faster with the RTX 2070 Super, and but five% faster with the Radeon RX 5700.

Finally, here'southward a look at the 1440p ultra data, probably the most realistic scenario for someone rocking a high-end graphics card similar the RTX 2070 Super or RTX 2080 Ti. Here we're looking at just a 5% departure between the 3600 and 3300X and that means in the games only tested, the one% low functioning of the Ryzen 9 3900X was merely 11% better than the 3300X.

Those margins shrink considerably with the RTX 2070 Super, where the 3600 was a mere 3% faster than the 3300X, while virtually no difference tin can be seen with the Radeon RX 5700.

What Nosotros Learned

2 months ago we chosen the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X the new budget champions. Since then Intel has released newer 10th-gen Core chips, including the Core i3 range, but those new parts have failed to dethrone Ryzen iii. The but trouble at the moment is that you can buy the Core i3-10100, only you lot're unlikely to notice a 3300X anywhere.

The R3 3100 and 3300X have been out of stock for weeks, which is disappointing, and it'southward unclear when stock will render. Needless to say, we're seeing stock shortages for a whole host of PC parts, so it'south not just the 3300X that's been affected by the global pandemic, it'south everything.

Unless stock levels were high prior to going into 2022, at that place's a proficient chance many products are either overpriced or simply unavailable. The Ryzen 5 3600, for example, went on sale mid-2019 and with loftier demand for that part, you can bet AMD was spitting them out as fast equally they could, building upwards a sizable inventory that they're now able to burn through.

As a outcome the Ryzen 5 3600 is not just available today, simply it's bachelor at a discount, typically selling for around $175, down from the $200 MSRP. That makes the 3600 the cheapest Zen ii-based processor you can buy right now.

But what if the Ryzen 3 3300X was available? That may be the instance when this article goes live, or two weeks after... just if it were bachelor at $130, should you buy information technology for gaming?

Information technology'southward a quad-cadre after all, and those are useless for gaming aren't they? Well, equally we explained final year in a feature titled "Are Quad-cores Finally Dead in 2022?", information technology depends. We constitute that iv-core/4-thread quad-cadre processors struggle in a number of mod games, ofttimes suffering from poor frame time operation that leads to a noticeably poor gaming experience. However, 4-core/eight-thread processors like the 3300X featuring SMT (simultaneous multithreading) are much better in that regard and more often than not avoid stuttery performance in modernistic titles. This is why processors like the Core i7-4790K, 6700K and 7700K however work quite well even today, while its Core i5 equivalents do not.

Another big consideration is price. With the Ryzen 5 3600 dropping down to just $175, that'south only a $45 saving (25%) when opting the 3300X. You're taking a 33% core cut, but as we only saw in a lot of instances, the impact on gaming operation is smaller than either of those figures. Basically, if you lot're looking at upgrading an old system and you want to save equally much money equally possible, the ability to save $45 on the CPU might be a pretty big bargain -- especially if y'all won't notice a performance difference.

Fifty-fifty when compared to a class-leading gaming CPU like the Core i9-9900K (now the Core i7-10700K), in a lot of games the Ryzen 3 3300X isn't that much slower. Talking realistic conditions -- and so not an RTX 2080 Ti at 1080p using medium settings where the 3300X was ~20% slower than the 9900K, that margin shrunk to just 13% when playing at ultra or 12% at 1440p, where it enabled over 100 fps on average.

All that said, if you can afford to step upwards to the Ryzen 5 3600, then we suggest you lot do. The 3300X is a solid CPU and a good value, but it's right on the edge where there'south a potential for 4-core/8-thread processors to get problematic down the track. It's far more obvious to us that the R5 3600 volition become noticeably amend than the 3300X inside the next few years, whereas we're hundred-to-one nosotros'll meet the aforementioned happening with the 3700X vs. 3600, for instance. Information technology's our opinion that nosotros're a while off earlier vi-cadre/12-thread processors won't cutting it for gamers, regardless of how many cores the new consoles have.