The AMD Ryzen 3 3300X and 3100 CPU Review: A Budget Gaming Bonanza
by Dr. Ian Cutress on May 7, 2020 9:00 AM ESTTest Bed and Setup
As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
| Test Setup | |
| AMD Ryzen 3000 | AMD Ryzen 3 3300X AMD Ryzen 3 3100 |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro (1.12e) |
| CPU Cooler | AMD Wraith |
| DRAM | G.Skill FlareX 2x8 GB DDR4-3200 C14 |
| GPU | Sapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests) MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests) |
| PSU | Corsair AX860i |
| SSD | Crucial MX500 2TB |
| OS | Windows 10 1909 |
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.
| Hardware Providers | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Silverstone Fans |
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PeterCollier - Monday, May 11, 2020 - link
Did you really feel the need to add 40 comments a week later the article was published? And on a Monday? Please tell us what company, Intel or AMD, that you work for.Spunjji - Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - link
Yes, reading article comments five days "late" definitely indicates that I work for a tech company, and not that I only visit this place once or twice a week during my lunch break. But hey, basing trolls is what I do for amusement. What's your excuse for trolling in the first place?kepstin - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
I suspect that the 2600 was put into the charts as a stand-in for the 1600AF. The 1600AF should perform very close to the 2600 in most benchmarks - just a touch slower due to reduced clock speeds.rabidpeach - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
1600af is represented by the 2600. the 2600 is just slightly better than it. this is not a problem. also amazon is out of them. the only benchmarks these processors win are high core count. daily life the 100 3100 will be faster so why hobble yourself with the smaller cache and 12nm?DanNeely - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
Something I've been wondering about for a while, is that when the first Ryzen announcements were made I read articles saying that the inclusion of some SATA/USB on the CPU itself would allow for cheaper entry level mobos/systems that used the CPU as an SoC without a chipset at all. However I don't recall ever seeing anything built that way. I'm inclined to doubt that it is possible but that no one has ever done it because for a low end system without a discrete GPU the CPU appears to have enough IO to cover all the bases. Were the initial reports wrong? Is it something that's only shown up in cheap OEM systems but never DIY boards?neblogai - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
Deskmini A300 is made this way- althouth it has no dGPU slot and requires an APU. This also allows the PC to idle at just 8-10W, compared to ~20W(?) for PCs that use motherboards with chipsets.DanNeely - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
just one system by a single vendor. Kinda disappointing IMO since the CPU has enough connectivity for a basic no frills system, and would've been a reasonable option for a budget mITX board.Spunjji - Monday, May 11, 2020 - link
Agreed. I'd love to build a system in my existing USFF ITX case using something like an ITX version of the Deskmini A300 board, but for some reason nobody's doing it. I'm genuinely cluesless as to what "some reason" might be, too, as the A300 proves the concept just fine.Slash3 - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
ASRock's DeskMini A300 series systems are the closest configuration to this, lacking a secondary chipset.notb - Thursday, May 7, 2020 - link
A lot of focus in this text is about how 3300X ($120) compares to 7700K ($329, 3 years ago).Wouldn't it be nice to see how 3300X compares to high-end original Ryzen? ;)
The choice of CPUs is really weird. 8086K? 4790K? Really?
1600X, 1700, 1700X, 1800X - all probably beaten in most games and synthetic single-thread. In a lot of software as well (since 7700K used to beat 1800X occasionally).
1800X: $499