Discussion What's the Point of the Ryzen 5 3600X?

[TechyInAZ]

After looking at benchmarks from Gamers Nexus, seems the 3600X is a waste of money. Boosts to the same frequencies (albet 50mhz higher but 50mhz is nothing) as the Ryzen 5 3600.

Seems to me like the 3600X's only benefit is the Wraith Spire RGB cooler. If you buy the 3600X and intend to use the beefier heatsink, that's the only way it is more valuable over the 3600.

What do you guys think?

 

[logainofhades]

I don't see the point of it either, unless you really want that cooler, or have severe cooler height limits. $50 an get you a decent cooler, that is probably better, though, for most builds.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

Just for providing a 50 dollar bonus to AMD.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Sure seems fairly pointless to me. The 3800X seems to be in a similar position compared to the 3700X, except that the price difference is even greater and you don't even get a better cooler.

 

[rigg42]

I own both. I only bought the 3600x because the new CPU's were limited to one per customer and I wasn't sure how long the $50 motherboard discount was going to be around at Micro Center. I'm thinking about exchanging the 3600x for a 3600. I already did this with the 3700x that I bought on launch day. I didn't have an appropriate GPU to mate with it and expensive builds take forever to sell. I had fun testing it for a week.

There is not a $50 performance difference between the new R5's even when factoring in the better cooler. I recommend the 3600 with a $30-$40 air cooler instead. Considering any old b450 with VRM heatsinks and decent bios will squeeze all the performance you could possibly want out of it, I find it hard to recommend anything but the 3600 in this price range currently.

 

[rigg42]

Sure seems fairly pointless to me. The 3800X seems to be in a similar position compared to the 3700X, except that the price difference is even greater and you don't even get a better cooler.

I look at both R7's as niche CPU's. They are specialist CPU's for streamers and those hedging bets against future game thread usage IMO. I think the vast majority are better served by the ryzen 5's and 9's for gaming and productivity respectively. In my view the 3900x and 3600 SKU's are the standouts of the lineup.

 

[logainofhades]

I went 3700x, as I intend to keep this one possibly for up to 5yrs.