RICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN
OPINION
I
n lastmonth’scolumnI lamentedthatAMDneeded
a Zen2 chipforaround£125inordertocompetewith
theIntelCorei5-9400F.TheRyzen5 3500Xisthat
chip,exceptyoucan’tbuyitintheUK.OuthereinEastAsia,
however,I justpickedoneupina retailboxwitha three-year
warrantyfortheequivalentofaround£125,whichI’vepaired
witha bargain-endGigabyteAurousB450M(micro-ATX)
motherboard.
I dugintomyboxofbitsandthrewina pairofold4GBDDR
DIMMs,alongwithanearlySamsungPM941256GBM.2SSD,
andtheresultisa veryresponsivesystemthatwillhandle
webbrowsing,officeworkand1080pgaming.
Ifyou’vebeenclingingontoanolderSandy
Bridge,IvyBridgeorHaswell-erachipand
you’reona tightbudget,a Ryzen5 3500Xand
B450setupoffersa greatupgrade,especially
whenDDR4pricesaresolowandevenlarge
M.2drivesarenowaffordable.
ComparedwiththeIntelCorei5-9400F,it
hasthesame6-core/6-threadsetup,similarclockspeedsand
lackofintegratedgraphics.Youcanalsooverclockthe3500X,
evenona cheapB450board.
WithPrecisionBoostOverdriveenabled,allthecoreshit
4GHz,andmanualoverclockingthepreferredcoreenabledit
toreach4.3GHz,givingit thesingle-threadedperformanceof
moreexpensivechips.ThehiccupwasthatI couldn’thaveone
4.3GHzcoreandalltheotherfivecoresat4GHz,asthesystem
keptautomaticallydownclockingtheothercores.
TestingCinebenchR15produceda multi-threadedscoreof
1,086atstockspeed(3.6GHz),increasingto1,104at4GHzonall
cores.Incontrast,theCorei5-9400Fscoresinthe980shere. The
massive32MBofL3cacheofferssomeadvantagesforAMD’s
architectureincertainbenchmarks.
YoumightbetemptedbythediscountsontheRyzen
2000 series,buttheZen2 performanceuptickmeansit’s not
reallyworthit.Meanwhile,theRyzen5 3600withdouble the
threadcountisstilla temptingbuy,andcertainlyworth of the
awardCustomPCgaveit,butat£185,youcouldalmost buy a
B450motherboardforthe£60pricedifferencebetween that
chipandtheRyzen5 3500X.Usinga B450motherboard isn’t
reallya downsideeither,despiteitslackofPCI-E4 support,as
PCI-E4 SSDsareoutoftheleagueofbudget
systemsanyway.
I pairedtheRyzen5 3500Xsystemwith
a RadeonRX 580 4GB,whichwasanother
bargainconsideringthatthesecardsnow
costalmosthalfthepriceofthe8GBmodels.
It’sthefirsttimeI’veeverbuilta ‘fullAMD’
PC.I oncepairedanATIRadeon 9700 witha
SocketAAthlonCPU,butthatdoesn’tcountbecauseitwas
severalyearsbeforeAMDboughtATI.
Pairinga Ryzen5 3500Xwitha RadeonRX 580 4GBhas
madea great1080pgamingrigforthemoney.Sofar,I’vetried
CitiesSkylines,Trine4 andevenTheOuterWorldsatveryhigh
settings,andmysonishappywiththenoticeableboostin
MinecraftJavaperformance.
AMDissupposedtobereplacingitsB450chipsetwitha
newerB550chipsetatsomepointsoon,andI hopeit usesthe
occasiontobringitsRyzen5 3500Xtotherestoftheworld,
otherwiseyouguysareseriouslymissingout!THE BEST BUDGET CHIP
YOU CAN’T BUY
Richard Swinburne tells AMD to bring the Ryzen 5 3500X to the UK
Richard has worked in tech for over a decade, as aUKjournalist,onAsus’ROGteamandnowasanindustryanalystbasedinTaiwan @ricswi
Out here in East Asia, I
just picked one up in a
retail box with a three-
year warranty