AMD Ryzen 3 3300X And 3100 Review: Serious Quad-Core Value

Name: AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
Brand: AMD

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, May 07, 2020, 09:15 AM EDT

Performance Summary: The Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X performed relatively well throughout our battery of benchmarks. The Ryzen 3 3100 consistently outran the Ryzen 5 3400G (which, despite its branding, is based on a previous-gen Zen microarchitecture) and in multi-threaded workloads, it often competed well with a much more expensive Core i5. Due to its higher clocks, unified pool of L3 cache, and lower-latency 4+0 CCX configuration, the Ryzen 3 3300X performed considerably better across the board. In single and lightly threaded workloads, the Ryzen 3 3300X often performed in-line with much more expensive processors, and in multi-threaded workloads it was often in the same ballpark as the more costly Core i5-9600K.

Find AMD Ryzen 3 Processors @ Amazon

On the surface, these new Ryzen processors are simply AMD’s latest effort to further build-out its Ryzen 3000 family and address lower, entry-level price points. In that regard, they are obviously a success and offer excellent value propositions. If you step back and appreciate how AMD has affected the market these last few years, you may have a greater appreciation for these processors, however. Before Ryzen, for nearly a decade, Intel’s top-end mainstream processors were quad-core / eight-thread chips, all the way up to the Core i7-7700K. These $99 - $120 processors offer performance and CPU resources in-line with flagship mainstream processors from just 3 years ago.

In light of their strong performance and value in their price segments, we like AMD's Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X for all they bring to the table. Obviously they’re not benchmark barn-burners in comparison to their higher-end counterparts, but for anyone looking for a speedy, affordable processor for a low-power build, they’re obviously a great fit. If you’re running a quad-core / quad-thread processors from just a few years ago and want to step up into the world of eight-threads, PCIe 4.0, faster USB ports, etc. you can now do so on the cheap, especially if you wait a few more weeks for new B550 based motherboards to hit.


Excellent Value Strong MT Performance For The Segment Power Friendly 3300X Performs Like More Expensive CPUs In Lightly Threaded Workloads	B550 Not Shipping Yet Require Discrete GPUs

Tags: AMD, (nasdaq:amd), ryzen, zen 2, ryzen 3, ryzen-3-3300x, ryzen-3-3100

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com