Custom PC - UK (2020-08)

A

MD hasn’t released to the masses any CPUs

with fewer than four cores since 1st-gen Ryzen,

where we saw the likes of the Ryzen 5 1500X.

Since then, only AMD’s APUs have offered very affordable

ways of owning an AMD CPU, but that’s all changed with

therelease of the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X.

Retailing for £99 and £120 respectively, they’re

considerably cheaper than the Ryzen 5 3600, offering

those who don’t need huge multi-threaded grunt a

cheaper way to get a 3rd-gen Ryzen system.

However, the Ryzen 3 3300X seems to be a bit of a wolf

insheep’s clothing. It has a peak boost frequency 100MHz

higher than the Ryzen 5 3600 at 4.3GHz, and a 200MHz

higher base frequency too, reaching an all-core boost of

4.2GHz.Underthehoodthere’sa singleenabledCore

ChipletDie(CCD),andonlyoneenabled

CoreComplex(CCX).Thismeansthat,

ratherthanhavingeightcores,justfour

areenabled,limitingtheL3cachesizeto

16MBcomparedto32MBfortheRyzen

5.However,youdostillgetSimultaneous

Multithreading,sothosefourcorescan

executeeightconcurrentthreads.

TheRyzen3 3300Xalsoenjoyslower

latencycomparedwiththeRyzen3 3100,

asitsfourcoresaren’tspreadacrosstwo

CoreComplexes,sothe3300Xis likely

tobequickerevenatsimilarfrequencies.

ThesepricesmeantheCPUsundercut

Intel’spopularCorei5-9400FandCore

i3-9350KF,soit willbeinterestingtosee

justhowAMD’snewbudget-conscious

CPUsperform.

Tostart,weoverclockedbothCPUsto

seeif they’remadefrompoor-performing

Zen2 diesthathavebeenspeed-binned

accordingly.However,wehit4.6GHzon

bothCPUs,withtheRyzen3 3100needing

1.3625VandRyzen3 3300Xat1.375V,so

they’reclearlystillplentyoverclockable.

Atstockspeed,theRyzen3 3300Xwas

fasterthantheCorei5-9400Feverywhere

exceptourgamebenchmarks,whereits

99thpercentileminimumframerateinFar

CryNewDawnwas15fpsoffthepaceof

AMDRYZEN 3 3300X / £120 inc VAT

SOCKET AM4 CPU

theIntelchips.However,theoverclocksawthe AMD CPU

massivelyoutstriptheIntelCPU outsideofgames, and saw

it leapfrogit inMetroExodus, andcomewithin 6fps in the

FarCryNewDawntest,whereit wasalsoquicker than the

similarlyclockedRyzen3 3100.The3300X was also quicker

thanthe 3100 ina numberofcontentcreation tests, both at

stockandoverclockedspeeds.

Conclusion

TheAMDRyzen3 3300Xis a stunningCPUfor the cash, and

evenmodestaircoolersshouldenableyouto achieve a decent

overclock.It needstobetweakedtoclosethe gap on the Core

i5-9400Finsomegametitles,whereFarCry New Dawn

sawmassivespeedboosts,butwithlesspowerful graphics

cardsormoredemandingsettings,the

CPUhaslessofanimpactanyway.The

lowerlatencyalsomeansit’sa better

buythantheRyzen3 3100.If you’reon

a tightbudget,theRyzen3 3300Xis

muchcheaperthantheRyzen5 3600,

andbeatscheaper6-corechipsin lightly

threadedsoftwaretoo.

ANTONYLEATHER

REVIEWS / PROCESSORS

SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

FOUR CORES

• 
  

  Beats Core
  i5-9400F in
  content creation

  
  


• 
  

  Blistering
  overclocked
  lightly threaded
  performance

  
  


• 
  

  Great price

  
  

FOUR CANDLES

• Intel CPUs faster in
  some games


• B450 boards may
  need EFI update

OVERALLSCORE

86 %

PERFORMANCE

38 / 50

FEATURES

14 / 15

VALUE

34 / 35

SPEC

Base frequency

3.8GHz

Max boost frequency

4.3GHz

Core

Zen 2

Manufacturing process

7nm

Number of cores

4 x physical (8 threads)

IGP

None

Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT)

Ye s

Cache

16MB L3 cache, 2MB L2 cache

Memory controller

Dual-channel DDR4, up to

3200MHz

Packaging

AMD Socket AM4

Thermal design power (TDP)

65W

Features

Precision Boost 2, Precision Boost

Overdrive, FMA3, F16C, SHA, BMI /

BMI1 + BMI2, AVX2, AVX, AES, SSE4a,

SSE4, SSSE3, SSE3, SSE2, SSE

VERDICT

A stunning, highly overclockable CPU

for a surprisingly generous price.

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