[SOLVED] Ryzen 5 3500x vs Ryzen 5 3600 vs i5 9400F

Dec 2, 2020
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Hello strangers

I'm in the midst of upgrading my pc. I have a rx 5600 xt gpu and need to upgrade the cpu. Wich one do you recommend, especially for the price.

Ryzen 5 3500x 175 euro

Ryzen 5 3600 255 euro

i5 9400F 135 euro

These are the prices in Belgium atm, I feel like the 3600 is a bit overpriced here. Are there any big differences between the 3500x and i5 9400F?
My goal here is AAA 60 fps max settings and esport games 144hz whatever settings.

Thank you
 
Solution
This 10400 review tested performance at both DDR4-3200 and 2666 speed to show the difference going with a non-X board would have...


And yeah, the differences are fairly minor overall, and probably not worth paying a big premium for. Especially considering they were performing their gaming tests with a 2080 Ti, as performance will tend to be more graphics-limited with something like a 5600X. The difference is enough to make the processor either slightly faster or slightly slower than a Ryzen 3600 at gaming though, as AMD doesn't restrict RAM speeds on their lower-end boards, and 3200 RAM tends to cost about the same as 2666.

Of course, since that review was made, prices...
Dec 2, 2020
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10400f is the one of best budget range cpu for gaming in my opnion.Its better than the 3600 which was previously the best budget range,but thats only in gaming.Definitely go with 10400f.Do you need help choosing ram and motherboard?
Yeh sure
I would probably go something like Gigabyte z490M and Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3200 C16
How does that sound? My budget is in the 300-400 euro range.
 
What is your current motherboard?
Is there a reasonable upgrade without changing out the motherboard?

You can assess the relative merits of each processor by looking up the passmark performance benchmarks.
For example, the I5-10400f has 12 threads and a rating of 12534.
That is when all 12 threads are fully utilized. Not so easy to do; most games do not effectively utilize more than 4-6 threads.

The single thread rating is 2576. This is arguably the more important metric.

The ryzens are similar if you look them up.
The 9400f would not be my choice with 10th gen available.

Since budget is an issue, look at the i3-10100. 8 threads 8973/2651 rating.
Here is a gaming review of the i3-10100 which includes some of your other processor choices:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i3-10100/15.html

Any lga1200 motherboard will work. No need for a more expensive Z490 motherboard unless you plan on another upgrade to an overclockable Z suffix processor soon.

For gaming, it is all about the graphics card, more than the processor.
 
Dec 2, 2020
7
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What is your current motherboard?
Is there a reasonable upgrade without changing out the motherboard?

You can assess the relative merits of each processor by looking up the passmark performance benchmarks.
For example, the I5-10400f has 12 threads and a rating of 12534.
That is when all 12 threads are fully utilized. Not so easy to do; most games do not effectively utilize more than 4-6 threads.

The single thread rating is 2576. This is arguably the more important metric.

The ryzens are similar if you look them up.
The 9400f would not be my choice with 10th gen available.

Since budget is an issue, look at the i3-10100. 8 threads 8973/2651 rating.
Here is a gaming review of the i3-10100 which includes some of your other processor choices:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i3-10100/15.html

Any lga1200 motherboard will work. No need for a more expensive Z490 motherboard unless you plan on another upgrade to an overclockable Z suffix processor soon.

For gaming, it is all about the graphics card, more than the processor.
I doubt I can upgrade my old mobo, its a Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3. With dd3 ram
Good tip on the motherboard. I wasn't sure if it would have any impact on an unoverclockable cpu but I'm guessing it only makes sense to get a Z mobo if you can overclock the cpu.
This is currently in my cart:

MSI B460M-A PRO
Intel Core i5 10400F
Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3200 C16
 
I agree, there is not much sense on upgrading such an old pc,

Good new parts.
You can save a bit by buying 2666 speed ram which is the fastest supported by the i5 on your motherboard.

The speed difference makes no difference in performance.
If 3200 speed is a bargain, ok, it will run at 2666 just fine.
 
10400f is the one of best budget range cpu for gaming in my opnion.Its better than the 3600 which was previously the best budget range,but thats only in gaming.Definitely go with 10400f.Do you need help choosing ram and motherboard?
I wouldn't say it's "better" than the 3600. Even in gaming, the two tend to offer nearly identical performance (with the Ryzen being slightly faster when given faster RAM), and in applications the 3600 tends to be a little faster still. Unlike with Intel's higher-end chips, the clocks rates of the 10400 are limited to where Intel doesn't really hold an advantage over the Ryzen 3000 series. At those prices though, a 10400 at 155 euros definitely seems like a much better value than a 3600 for 255, since again, they perform fairly similar.

Good tip on the motherboard. I wasn't sure if it would have any impact on an unoverclockable cpu but I'm guessing it only makes sense to get a Z mobo if you can overclock the cpu.
Note that Intel also restricts RAM speed on non-Z-series boards though. So, you can't run RAM at DDR4-3200 speed on a B460 board, and will be limited to DDR4-2666 speed. As mentioned above, this can make the 3600 slightly faster in games, but the differences are quite small, and likely imperceptible in practice.
 
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Dec 2, 2020
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I agree, there is not much sense on upgrading such an old pc,

Good new parts.
You can save a bit by buying 2666 speed ram which is the fastest supported by the i5 on your motherboard.

The speed difference makes no difference in performance.
If 3200 speed is a bargain, ok, it will run at 2666 just fine.
So if I understand this correctly I could get a Z type mobo, put in 3200mhz ram and get better performance than if i would put the same ram in a B type mobo. From the benchmarks on Youtube it looks like this gives +- 10 fps.
But on the other hand it doesn't make sense to get a Z type mobo if you can't OC the CPU
 
Dec 2, 2020
7
0
10
I wouldn't say it's "better" than the 3600. Even in gaming, the two tend to offer nearly identical performance (with the Ryzen being slightly faster when given faster RAM), and in applications the 3600 tends to be a little faster still. Unlike with Intel's higher-end chips, the clocks rates of the 10400 are limited to where Intel doesn't really hold an advantage over the Ryzen 3000 series. At those prices though, a 10400 at 155 euros definitely seems like a much better value than a 3600 for 255, since again, they perform fairly similar.


Note that Intel also restricts RAM speed on non-Z-series boards though. So, you can't run RAM at DDR4-3200 speed on a B460 board, and will be limited to DDR4-2666 speed. As mentioned above, this can make the 3600 slightly faster in games, but the differences are quite small, and likely imperceptible in practice.
So if I understand this correctly I could get a Z type mobo, put in 3200mhz ram and get better performance than if i would put the same ram in a B type mobo. From the benchmarks on Youtube it looks like this gives +- 10 fps.
But on the other hand it doesn't make sense to get a Z type mobo if you can't OC the CPU
 
Dec 2, 2020
7
0
10
I agree, there is not much sense on upgrading such an old pc,

Good new parts.
You can save a bit by buying 2666 speed ram which is the fastest supported by the i5 on your motherboard.

The speed difference makes no difference in performance.
If 3200 speed is a bargain, ok, it will run at 2666 just fine.
So if I understand this correctly I could get a Z type mobo, put in 3200mhz ram and get better performance than if i would put the same ram in a B type mobo. From the benchmarks on Youtube it looks like this gives +- 10 fps.
But on the other hand it doesn't make sense to get a Z type mobo if you can't OC the CPU
 
I wouldn't say it's "better" than the 3600. Even in gaming, the two tend to offer nearly identical performance (with the Ryzen being slightly faster when given faster RAM), and in applications the 3600 tends to be a little faster still. Unlike with Intel's higher-end chips, the clocks rates of the 10400 are limited to where Intel doesn't really hold an advantage over the Ryzen 3000 series. At those prices though, a 10400 at 155 euros definitely seems like a much better value than a 3600 for 255, since again, they perform fairly similar.


Note that Intel also restricts RAM speed on non-Z-series boards though. So, you can't run RAM at DDR4-3200 speed on a B460 board, and will be limited to DDR4-2666 speed. As mentioned above, this can make the 3600 slightly faster in games, but the differences are quite small, and likely imperceptible in practice.
i agree,they are similar,but as you said,in this situation when the cpu that will perform similar (10400) to the one which is 100e more expensive (3600) you gotta go with the intel option.Plus you can cheap out on the mobo and ram since intel doesnt benefit as much as ryzen when it comes to fast ram and you dont need to buy a Z mobo since 10400f is not overclockable.
 
Buy the Z490 motherboard only if you plan on upgrading the processor soon.
Otherwise, spend that part of the budget elsewhere.
Here is an older study on DDR4 ram speed scaling:

The takeaway is that for intel, speed benefits accrue to integrated graphics and not much else.


 
This 10400 review tested performance at both DDR4-3200 and 2666 speed to show the difference going with a non-X board would have...


And yeah, the differences are fairly minor overall, and probably not worth paying a big premium for. Especially considering they were performing their gaming tests with a 2080 Ti, as performance will tend to be more graphics-limited with something like a 5600X. The difference is enough to make the processor either slightly faster or slightly slower than a Ryzen 3600 at gaming though, as AMD doesn't restrict RAM speeds on their lower-end boards, and 3200 RAM tends to cost about the same as 2666.

Of course, since that review was made, prices of the Ryzen 3600 have been climbing higher than their original MSRP, likely as AMD shifts to Ryzen 5000 production, making the 10400 a better value for the time being. And while the new Ryzen processors improve gaming performance quite a bit (at least in CPU-limited scenarios) the lowest-priced 5000-series chip available so far is the 5600X, which costs quite a bit more. A more value-oriented 5600 (non-X) should be coming eventually, but it too will likely cost more than a 10400, and it might still be a couple months or so before that comes out.
 
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