Review AMD Ryzen 3 3300X and 3100 Review: Low-End Gaming Gets a High-End Boost

[Admin]

AMD's $120 Ryzen 3 3300X and $99 Ryzen 3 3100 bring potent performance in an inexpensive package.

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X and 3100 Review: Low-End Gaming Gets a High-End Boost : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

If we take Intel's stock 7700k as a placeholder for 10th-gen i3s, looks like Intel will have some more catching up to do with AMD's stock 3300X.

 

[AlexTSG]

Just a correction for the first page in the Specifications and Pricing section:

...but you'll need to step up a tier to the six core 12-thread Ryzen 5 3600...

Great article. I'm surprised how well the 3300X does in particular. It seems like AMDs biggest competition for these CPUs will be from it's own Ryzen 5 1600AF.

 

[Myrmidonas]

An impressive CPU. I expect clever configurations around it.

 

[King_V]

Hmm, you know, if I were building an AM4 system today, the 3300X would definitely supplant my choice of $85 1600AF for gaming purposes. MAYBE even the 3100. Very cool stuff.

Also:

AMD didn't send our samples with a stock cooler, so we pushed a spare Wraith Spire into service to measure the impact on performance at stock settings. As we demonstrated on the second page, cooling matters, so you'll need a better cooler to unlock the best of the Ryzen 3 3300X.

The Wraith Spire cooler is the lowest-end budget cooler for the Ryzen 3000 series, which shows. We experienced high temperatures in extended workloads, and the fan was generally noisy as it ran at full speed to keep temperatures in check. But, to keep things in perspective, Intel doesn't provide a stock cooler at all with its overclockable i3 model, and bundled coolers at this price point are generally lackluster. It's a shame AMD didn't bundle the Ryzen 3 3300X with the Wraith Spire, as that would allow enthusiasts to crack open more of the overclocking potential.

Wait, shouldn't those first 2 of the 3 mentions of "Wraith Spire" here actually say "Wraith Stealth"?

 

[InvalidError]

Hmm, you know, if I were building an AM4 system today, the 3300X would definitely supplant my choice of $85 1600AF for gaming purposes.

The 1600AF's limited availability probably disqualifies it from many people's shopping list too. For people building new right now, another significant issue is going to be availability of reasonably priced 3rd-gen-ready B-series motherboards: last time I looked, most were either out of stock or marked up by $20-50.

 

[King_V]

The 1600AF's limited availability probably disqualifies it from many people's shopping list too. For people building new right now, another significant issue is going to be availability of reasonably priced 3rd-gen-ready B-series motherboards: last time I looked, most were either out of stock or marked up by $20-50.

Ugh, yeah, I've noticed that trend recently. Hopefully it's a temporary issue....

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Hmm, you know, if I were building an AM4 system today, the 3300X would definitely supplant my choice of $85 1600AF for gaming purposes. MAYBE even the 3100. Very cool stuff.

Also:
Wait, shouldn't those first 2 of the 3 mentions of "Wraith Spire" here actually say "Wraith Stealth"?

Yes. Paul was up all night finishing testing and writing. I'm giving the article a full technical editing pass now. (I'm west coast, so a couple hours later than intended, but such is life.) We will flog Paul once he wakes up. 😀

Update: And the editing pass is done. You can now blame me for any remaining errors, though I must admit I skimmed pages 3 and 4 a bit.

 

[King_V]

Yes. Paul was up all night finishing testing and writing. I'm giving the article a full technical editing pass now. (I'm west coast, so a couple hours later than intended, but such is life.) We will flog Paul once he wakes up. 😀

ROFLMAO!!

And, NOT having been up all night, I can't tell you how many times my eyes have blurred the distinction between Stealth and Spire.

I think I (usually) notice when Prism is mentioned, but I make no guarantees on that!

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

AMD just dropped a bombshell that you won't be able to use Zen 3 based Ryzen 4000 series CPUs on 300 and 400 series chipset motherboards, which means eBay and other such sites may be flooded with relatively inexpensive X370 and X470 motherboards, making the B550 motherboard irrelevant.

 

[mitch074]

AMD just dropped a bombshell that you won't be able to use Zen 3 based Ryzen 4000 series CPUs on 300 and 400 series chipset motherboards, which means eBay and other such sites may be flooded with relatively inexpensive X370 and X470 motherboards, making the B550 motherboard irrelevant.

I'm not sure that will be the case, as the same slide mentions that X370 and B350 are not supposed to support Ryzen series 3000... Yet it works.

 

[mitch074]

I look at these chips and I'm reminded of the Athlon II X4 620. First quad core for less than$100, and a decent performer once overclocked.

 

[jeremyj_83]

I look at these chips and I'm reminded of the Athlon II X4 620. First quad core for less than$100, and a decent performer once overclocked.

Except here the 3300X doesn't need to be overclocked to be a very good performer. It really shows how good of an architecture Zen 2 is when compared to Sky Lake.

 

[InvalidError]

AMD just dropped a bombshell that you won't be able to use Zen 3 based Ryzen 4000 series CPUs on 300 and 400 series chipset motherboards, which means eBay and other such sites may be flooded with relatively inexpensive X370 and X470 motherboards, making the B550 motherboard irrelevant.

I don't see how a flood of old motherboards not compatible with Ryzen 4k/5k (and 3k without an updated BIOS pre-installed) makes the B550 which does support 3k guaranteed out-of-box and 4k/5k irrelevant. The old motherboards are only useful for people aiming for Ryzen 3k at most.

From the wording I've seen, it sounded like AMD may have changed something in how CPUs and chipsets power up so they can boot without requiring an updated BIOS beforehand. Would be nice not to have to worry about that anymore.

 

[mitch074]

Except here the 3300X doesn't need to be overclocked to be a very good performer. It really shows how good of an architecture Zen 2 is when compared to Sky Lake.

Different times - back then you would OC an AMD chip the day you got it. I pushed mine to 3.4 GHz on air with barely any overvolting.
Now you only activate PBO.

 

[Anujkmr]

I have an old laptop and was planning to upgrade to AMD processor, and as you all know, Intel upgrade is not cost-effective and efficient, so I had to opt for an AMD upgrade. Thankfully, AMD 3300X and 3100 processors have been launched.

I don’t have the money to spend much on processors, so I’d highly recommend this upgrade, as 3300X is $120 and 3100 is just $99. When you compare this with the i7-7700K processor, it is almost 3 times the price of these, and does not do justice. Even a second-hand processor is going to cost you more than what the AMD costs. Performance is also amped up, so it is a great value for money high performance processor.

 

[mdd1963]

Quite a few reviews show the 3300X not only ahead of the 7700K in gaming, but, often just barely behind the R5-3600. this puts the 3300X in the spot for becoming the 'go to' for budget gamers, over even the previous respectable choices of the R5-2600/2600X, R5-1600AF

For the record, I'm a bit surprised to see the 3300X fare this well in gaming against the 7700k...

 

[RodroX]

Very nice review, too bad only soo few games. I would have loved to see some more DX12 titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefied 5, etc. And even something like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Anyways, very nice to see more choices availables.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Honestly, I may just pick one of these up to mess around with. It seems like a fun overclocker and should give me a FPS boost in GTA, although from my 2600 its mostly a side step but should be free performance.

I have seen overclocked 3300x matching a 9900ks single core in Cinebench, which is insane for a CPU that costs less than 1/4 as much.

It seems like a boatload of cache, good IPC, smt, and good clocks can make up for only 4 cores. It seems to almost match a 3600 in most tests, which is incredible.

 

[Ast1on]

The 1600AF's limited availability probably disqualifies it from many people's shopping list too. For people building new right now, another significant issue is going to be availability of reasonably priced 3rd-gen-ready B-series motherboards: last time I looked, most were either out of stock or marked up by $20-50.

Ugh, yeah, I've noticed that trend recently. Hopefully it's a temporary issue....

1600 AF impossible to find in my country.

The 3300x is perfect for my X570 newbuild.

In my case it is time for a new desktop, which i want to upgrade to new ryzen CPU's end of the year and Ampere GPU.
The 3300x is a cheap bridging mode till that time comes. I can do a newbuild, put a cheap but decent CPU in it which gives me a year time to upgrade with no hurry.

 

[saunupe1911]

Sheesh...I've been using a 6700K @ 4.8 Ghz for gaming/HTPC for years now...time for an upgrade. ZEN 3 needs to go ahead and drop

 

[vinay2070]

Should have included a 9900K@5+Ghz just to see how much these CPUs bottlenecked the 2080Ti. And a few 1440P tests would have been helpful.

 

[InvalidError]

Should have included a 9900K@5+Ghz just to see how much these CPUs bottlenecked the 2080Ti. And a few 1440P tests would have been helpful.

GPU-limited benchmarks aren't particularly helpful at ranking CPUs by performance, makes them all look practically the same apart from Ryzen having a 1-2% handicap from its higher IO/RAM latency.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

I wish the FX-8350 or FX-9590 were included as well. Yes it is 8 years old, but it would be interesting to see how it, an essentially quad core processor formerly high end, performed against this years entry level quad cores.

Would make for a good budget build article, a X370 or B350 motherboard, 3100 or 3300X, RX 580 or RX 5500XT...

 

[techgeek]

I love AMD, and these processors (especially the 3300X) look awesome. On the CPU front they have definitely been executing, and I'd say the same for the GPU front if it weren't for their drivers because the 5700XT is a great performer and value. However AMD has really missed the larger picture with this launch,

AMD launch your budget platform (namely the B550) with your budget CPU. No one is going to pair a $120 CPU with a motherboard that costs twice as much (unless the CPU is just a placeholder for something better), and they don't want to pair it with a more budget friendly last gen (X470 or B450) motherboard either. You had the potential for an epic budget launch CPU/chipset combo and you messed it up. I guess that is unless this is a paper launch and these CPUs won't be available in numbers until the B550 is available.