AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Review. Where to buy ryzen 3

There are many choices for RAM, but not all of them are optimized or work well with Ryzen processors. You should make sure the clock frequency is around 3200MHz, especially for the latest generation of processors such as the Ryzen 3 3100. Corsair’s 16GB Vengeance LPX Kit is an excellent option for this processor.

AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Review

/wp-content/uploads/7/amd-ryzen-3100-53BE0E8.jpg

The Ryzen 3 3100 is a stellar processor for budget gamers and content creators who have a dedicated graphics card providing multi-threaded impact on the $ 99 price point. Still, many buyers will be better off buying another Jackson for the great Ryzen 3 3300X from AMD.

PCMag editors independently select and review products. If you buy through affiliate links, we can earn commissions that support our testing. Learn more.

  • great gaming performance on a tight budget
  • Four cores and eight threads for under $ 100
  • Interesting content creation potential for the price
  • No graphics on the matrix
  • A bit too close to the price of the excellent Ryzen 3 3300X

AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Specs

Number of cores 4
Number of threads 8
Fundamental clock frequency 3.6 GHz
Maximum boost timer 3.9 GHz
Unlocked Multiplier? Yes
Compatibility of sockets AMD AM4
Lithography 7 miles
L3 cache amount 16 MB
Assessment of design heat output (TDP 65 watts
Integrated graphics Thread
Radiator included AMD Wraith Stealth

If the AMD Ryzen 3 3300X is a desktop processor that blurs the line between a great budget gaming processor and a solid, budget content authoring engine, the $ 99 Ryzen 3 3100 is the “lite” version. It’s a chip that strengthens the lower end of the AMD Ryzen stack as a solid choice for PC gamers who are missing Jackson for what could be spent on the 3300X. Does it have to exist? Maybe not, but it still has its own rare charm and is the first: a quad-core / eight-thread processor for under $ 100, which is a great deal no matter how you slice it. We generally recommend that you go for the Ryzen 3 3300X instead, but if that $ 20 difference between the two chips is yours, the Ryzen 3 3100 is a thrifty little beast that almost gets the job done as well. Just knowthat a graphics card is required next to it; it does not have integrated graphics, unlike its Intel counterparts.

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and evaluated thousands of products to help you make better purchasing decisions. (See how we test.)

The Ryzen 3 3100, like the rest in the family, fits in the AMD AM4 socket that has been used since the first generation of Ryzen. It should work with any AM4 motherboard that has a BIOS update that specifically supports it. (Not every retailer will offer this compatibility on every old disc, so check first.)

Overclocking the Ryzen 3 1300X – How far can it go?

The entire line of Ryzen processors is designed to withstand a certain level of overclocking. We’ve managed to push the Ryzen 1300X down to 3.95GHz, 250MHz higher than the Turbo Core specs. Moreover, the frequency of 3.95 GHz was achieved on all 4 cores simultaneously. Note that these tweaks are only achieved using the factory cooler. Anything above, the system will not be stable enough to run the Prime95 CPU Stability Test. The RAM frequency also remained at 2,933MHz during our testing.

Performance Benchmarks

We used the Cinebench R15 to evaluate the overall performance of the processors. The two-year-old Intel Skylake processor was still able to withstand and perform slightly better than the Ryzen 3 1200 processor in the single-threaded test. However, it turned out that a real quad-core CPU just performs much better than a dual-core CPU with 4 logic threads. The Ryzen 3 series simply suppresses Intel Core i3 in multi-threaded benchmarks.

What’s more, thanks to overclocking done on the Ryzen 3 1300X, we managed to get an additional 8.5% performance in multi-threaded applications. This shows that Ryzen processors can really scale well at clock rates and that these processors can achieve even higher performance at higher clock rates.

The PCMark 10 Producticity test suite simulates multiple real-world applications while comparing system performance. You can see that the Intel Core i3 6100 has an advantage over the Ryzen 3 1200 due to higher clock speeds and better single-threaded performance. However, when it comes to the Ryzen 3 1300X, which has a higher core frequency than the Ryzen 3 1200, it seems the performance was better compared to the Core i3.

Note that the Intel Core i3 6100 was used in our testing to simply show the performance of the base Intel Core i3 processor. The Intel Core i3 7300, priced similar to the Ryzen 3 1300X, should be around 15% faster than the Core i3 6100.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

AMD has its own place in the mid-price range, which is where the Ryzen 5 5600X is. It is more expensive than our previous recommendation – the Ryzen 5 3600 – although it has an “X” tag, which translates into higher clock rates. This six-core, 12-thread part is clocked at a 3.7GHz base clock and can boost the frequency to 4.6GHz, giving it plenty of power for gaming, video and photo editing, and even light 3D modeling.

Price is the biggest limiting factor right now, with AMD releasing the 5600X for $ 50 more than the 3600X. You can save anywhere from $ 50 to $ 100 (depending on sales) by opting for the last generation of AMD parts and you’ll get most of the 5600X’s performance. Both processors have the same number of cores and threads, and the 3600X base clock is even slightly higher. However, the 5600X uses the new AMD Zen 3 architecture that offers memory and IPC upgrades over the 3000 series processors.

However, we don’t recommend going back further than the 3000 series. The third generation of Ryzen processors brought Zen 2, greatly improving the performance and stability of the AMD platform. If price is an issue, you can save with 3600X, or you can buy a higher-end CPU from the previous generation. The Ryzen 7 3700X – our previous pick to the next section – is available from most retailers for around $ 300.

Not that you have to buy too much. At $ 300, the Ryzen 5 5600X is an absolute powerhouse that can handle the burdens of gaming and productivity without breaking a sweat. Note, however, that the 5600X is unavailable at the end of 2020, as are all 5000 series processors. If you need a processor now, we recommend the Ryzen 5 3600X or the Ryzen 7 3700X in this price range.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

The Ryzen 5 5600X is great for games with some side performance. If productivity is closer to your main course, you’ll want the Ryzen 7 5800X. The Series 7 part has eight cores and 16 threads while offering the same IPC and memory improvements as a more affordable CPU. It also requires significantly more power – from 105 watts to 65 watts – and higher with a 3.8 GHz base clock and a maximum boost clock of 4.7 GHz.

it’s easy to see why the 5800X also requires so much power. In gaming, the 5800X deftly beats Intel’s best, matching the more expensive parts of the Ryzen 9 series. If you’re using a last-gen GPU such as the 5700XT or RTX 2080 – a likely case given Nvidia’s persistent 30 series inventory issues – no you’ll notice a big difference between the 5800X and, say, 5900X in games. CPU-based games like Civilization VI show a slight advantage over the 5900X, although most games are GPU-based, and without Nvidia or the latest AMD, you won’t see a significant difference between the two CPUs.

However, there are quite a few differences when it comes to other tasks. In some multi-threaded workloads, the last-gen Ryzen 9 3900X can outperform 5800X (and you can find 3900X for roughly the same price). However, the 5800X, along with all the 5000 series chipsets, wipes the floor with the Ryzen 3000 when it comes to single-core performance.

If you need a processor right now, the Ryzen 9 3900X is a great choice with its recent price drop to $ 400. However, if you don’t mind waiting a bit, the 5800X shows a significant improvement in single-core performance while at the same time equaling or slightly exceeding the 3900X in non-gaming workloads.

While we wouldn’t explicitly recommend the Ryzen 3 3100 as the perfect authoring engine, it still shows that it knows how to go about it, ranking here between the Intel Core i3-9100 and the six-core / 12-thread Ryzen 5 3600.

Gaming Performance (dGPU)

Here’s how the Ryzen 3 5300G works in tandem with the GeForce RTX 3090. Granted, no one is going to mix the two, but it’s all about showing limited CPU performance in games, so if you were to buy a more powerful graphics card in a few years, the 5300G would work in compared to other parts under limited CPU game conditions.

The F1 2020’s performance is certainly not bad with an average of around 200fps and a 1% low 160fps, almost twice the size of the 3400G, so it’s a huge update. The 5300G also beat the R5 2600 quite convincingly and wasn’t much slower than the R5 3600, so overall I would say it’s a pretty good figure.

Then we have the Rainbow Six Siege, in which the 5300G outperformed the R5 2600, making it one of the slowest CPUs tested, and with some margin. While it was 42% faster than the 3400G, it was also 27% slower than the 5600G and 18% slower than the R5 3600. Overall, many frames were pushed here, despite the fact that the 5300G was significantly slower than modern 6c / 12t parts.

Moving on to Horizon Zero Dawn, which is not very CPU demanding, at least by today’s standards, we can see that the 5300G is capable of matching the R5 3600, which allows it to overtake the 3400G by as much as 36%. It was also only 12% slower than the Ryzen 5 5600G, so one of the better performances for the quad-core 5300G.

The 5300G seems to perform well in Borderlands 3 when looking at the average frame rate, however if we look at the 1% slow performance you’ll see that it’s much slower than the R5 2600 and really everything except the 3400G.

We’re only talking about a 13% improvement in the 1% low performance of the 3400G making the 5300G 35% slower than the 5600G.

Performance in Watch Dogs: Legion is more similar, the 5300G is only able to match the R5 2600, and while this meant it was still 50% faster than the 3400G compared to 1% low performance, it was also 27% slower than the 5600G.

The Ryzen 5 3400G completely refueled in Death Stranding, dropping to 41 fps, a 1% low figure. This meant that the 5300G was over 2.5 times faster, once again matching the Ryzen 5 2600, though it was just over 20% slower than the 5600G.

The 5300G had problems with the 6c / 12t processors in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, overtaking the R5 2600 by a 9% margin and beating the 3400G by only 12%. Then there is a 30% drop in performance compared to the Ryzen 5 5600G.

In the Hitman 2, the 5300G was able to overtake the R5 2600, allowing an average of 104 fps, making it 15% slower than the 5600G. Still, there’s a huge 65% increase in performance compared to the old 3400G.

What We Learned

The Ryzen 5 5300G won’t blow your socks off, but it was never the intention or the expectation. Compared to the Ryzen 5 3400G, which is based on the 2nd Gen Zen + architecture, the 5300G is a huge upgrade on the CPU side, thanks to the faster Zen 3 cores.

For gamers, the 5300G is a nice entry-level CPU, even though it only offers 4 cores with SMT support, the performance was overall good and much better than the older quad-core like the 3400G. There were still a few instances where frame-time performance wasn’t great, but you’ll likely be very eager to live with it at the right price.

It’s hard to give the 5300G a value rating considering it’s an OEM-only product, but if it were retailed at $ 150 to $ 170 – in the same price range as the 3400G and about $ 100 lower than the 5600G – then it is. ” would be a decent offer. It’s true that the Core i3-10100F can often be purchased for as little as $ 110, but it’s a slower processor and the iGPU is basically useless for gaming, making the 5300G a more versatile product.

Unfortunately, we’ll never get the chance to get excited about the 5300G as you’ll have to buy it in an entry-level OEM machine, and those usually aren’t very good. The HP Pavilion 2021 I purchased to get my hands on the 5300G is the same desktop we bought for an early 5700G review, and technically it’s not great.

Aside from dealing with proprietary motherboard power connectors and a custom PSU, the components aren’t very good. The motherboard has a weak 5-phase VRM with no cooling whatsoever, so expect a limited upgrade path on this board. If you could buy the 5300G and put it on a B550 base motherboard that would make a great combination with a decent upgrade path for a more powerful CPU or graphics card in the future.

With four cores and eight threads each, these processors aren’t designed for high-performance gaming platforms, but if you’re looking to keep the cost of your next PC down, they offer a surprisingly good foundation for gaming at 1080p. But which one to buy? Here’s how the Ryzen 3 3100 fares against the competition.

AMD Ryzen 3 1300X specs

AMD Ryzen 3 1300X specification

The Ryzen 3 1300X uses exactly the same Zen architecture as all of the other AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 chips we reviewed in this sacred corner of the interweb, except that a few cores are turned off. Consequently, it has the same Dual Zen Core Complex (CCX), each communicating with each other via an Infinity Fabric connection, featuring four separate cores in each CCX module.

But the Ryzen 3 1300X is definitely a quad-core design, meaning AMD had to turn off a pair of Zen cores in each of these CCX modules to keep the balance – in other words, the chip is set up in a 2 + 2 design mode. And since it’s a simple quad-core processor for the budget market, AMD has also disabled simultaneous multithreading (SMT). We can only hope that there will be some little tech loophole that will allow us to re-enable it, but don’t hold your breath.

The 1300X gets a pretty healthy 3.5 GHz base clock speed, with all the 3.6 GHz Turbo cores. And due to the suffix ‘X’, this new Ryzen 3 chip also has a massive Extended Frequency Range (XFR). It’s rated up to 200MHz more compared to the 3.7GHz dual-core Turbo if the chiller installed would keep it headroom, but I was initially skeptical if the 1300X ever hit 3.9GHz as it seemed unseen on previous Ryzen processors. This is not the case here, as the XFR frequency regularly appears in CPU-intensive applications, with one of the four cores boosting to 3.9 GHz.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in any of our test games, as the clock speed was kept at 3.6 GHz throughout all benchmark tests. What makes the game difference, however, is the new AGESA 1.0.0.6 motherboard BIOS update – now we see much wider memory support and our Crucial kit has no problem reaching the nominal frequency of 3200MHz. It’s also not limited to 3 Ryzen Chips; all Zen-based AMD processors now use a higher clock speed of RAM. This makes it free to provide a slight increase in the game’s FPS.

AMD has also been typically generous across its Ryzen lineup, offering overclocking support across all Zen-based processors, depending on the motherboard’s chipset. So yeah, don’t worry too much that the 3.9 GHz XFR clock speed doesn’t show up when gaming… overclocking really isn’t that hard.

AMD Ryzen 3 1300X benchmarks

AMD Ryzen 3 1300X testing

AMD Ryzen 3 1300X performance

We can’t really talk about the performance of the Ryzen 3 1300X without first providing a price context. It is absolutely the cheapest of all CPUs in the benchmarks above, and relatively high. The closest is the $ 165 Core i3 7350K (152), the first K-series i3 capable of delivering impressive FPS in gaming thanks to its extremely high clock rate and overclocking headroom.

But this Intel chip is still a dual-core processor, and gone are the days where we would recommend such a processor even for inexpensive gaming hardware. And it’s more expensive than that original AMD quad-core processor, which has much more impressive processors and either hardly stands a chance or just better gaming performance.

Above it is $ 189 (£ 170) Ryzen 5 1500X from the same AMD stable, which is a lot more cash and doesn’t really reflect that in its relative gaming performance. As it uses AMD SMT technology, its four cores are able to split into eight simultaneous processing threads, increasing its multi-threaded performance in CPU intensive applications.

In terms of specs, however, it is the K-series Intel Core i5, which is most similar to the Ryzen 3 1300X. Both are definitely quad-core processors, but the Intel chip has much higher single-threaded performance and general gaming chops. The Intel K-series i5, whether it’s Skylake or Kaby Lake versions, is almost $ 100 (£ 100) more expensive, which is the kind of price difference that would make a huge difference if you took that cash and dropped it a better graphics card instead.

AMD Wraith Stealth CPU cooler included

We also tossed the gorgeous Ryzen 5 1600X into benchmarking – again another $ 100 (£ 100) more than the new Ryzen 3 – but this is to highlight just how much more advanced the AMD chip is compared to what Intel has when seated at the same price. As we said since we first threw it on our test platform, it’s now virtually impossible to pretend an Intel Core i5 is worth building your gaming hardware when you can choose a CPU with three times as many threads and essentially the same gaming performance in same price.

But what our testing really shows is that in the under $ 200 CPU market, there’s little to separate the displayed CPUs in terms of gaming performance. As you’d expect, the Core i5 and the Ryzen 5 1600X are the leaders in this regard, but below them you really don’t get much more from the eight-thread 1500X or the extremely overclockable i3 7350K money.

In terms of overclocking, the Ryzen 3 1300X is solid, if not particularly stunning. We managed to surpass the 3.9 GHz XFR rating to ensure all-core clock speeds are just over 4 GHz. This provides much better processing performance, almost comparable to the K series i5 with a stock clock. It also offers some minor gaming tweaks, without much of the load on the included cooler. It’s also worth pointing out that this was achieved using the B350’s second tier platform, albeit in our pick of the best AMD motherboards on the market.

Moving on to the iGPU testing, we’ll start with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with the lowest quality settings possible at 1080p. Here, the base 5300G was good at just 26fps on average, which is basically on the same level as the old 3400G.

Speedy RAM : Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB Kit

Corsair does make some reliable PC RAM, and the Vengeance LPX series is very good. We chose a 16GB 3000MHz kit, which will work fine with a Ryzen 3 3100 CPU. They’re not the fastest modules on the market, but they offer great value.

Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO

RGB RAM : Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO

If you like the Vengeance LPX Kit but want some lighting to set your PC apart from everyone else, the Vengeance RGB PRO is the kit you should consider. It has similar speeds and the same capacity with 16GB but with fancy RGB LEDs.

G.Skill Trident Z Royal Gold 16 GB set

In the Hitman 2, the 5300G was able to overtake the R5 2600, allowing an average of 104 fps, making it 15% slower than the 5600G. Still, there’s a huge 65% increase in performance compared to the old 3400G.

AMD Ryzen 3 3100 review: get the 3300X instead

The AMD Ryzen 3000 processors made a huge impression when they came out last year, and many of them sped up in my top gaming processor rankings, while the Ryzen 5 3600 is still my pick in the RPS kit. The only things that were missing from their original lineup last year were their entry-level Ryzen 3 processors. After all, AMD is finally filling its budget rankings today with two new processors – the Ryzen 3 3100 tested here for $ 99 and the slightly more expensive Ryzen 3 3300X for $ 120. USD.

With four cores and eight threads each, these processors aren’t designed for high-performance gaming platforms, but if you’re looking to keep the cost of your next PC down, they offer a surprisingly good foundation for gaming at 1080p. But which one to buy? Here’s how the Ryzen 3 3100 fares against the competition.

Built using the same Zen 2 architecture and 7nm manufacturing process as the rest of the AMD Ryzen 3000 family, the Ryzen 3 3100 is the new addition to the AMD desktop processor family. It may have four cores and eight threads at its disposal, like its sibling Ryzen 3 3300X, but it’s definitely a more modest processor when it comes to overall gaming performance. As you’ll soon see below, those looking for a cost-effective gaming processor will be much better off now going for the slightly more expensive Ryzen 3 3300X as it offers a much higher frame rate for another $ 20.

Of course, installing all kinds of AMD Ryzen processors at the moment might seem a bit ahead of time considering that the new 10th Gen Intel Comet Lake processors are just getting closer to the horizon. These include the full suite of budget Core i3 processors, but I believe those looking to build a PC right now will be quite safe following AMD’s path. After all, only the higher-end Intel Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 Comet Lake processors will be launched later this month, and currently it’s not known how long we’ll have to wait for their Comet Lake Core i3 to break down. As a result, we can twist our thumbs for a while before we see exactly how they compare.

AMD Ryzen 3 3100 review

Still, while even the cheapest Comet Lake Core i3 is expected to cost $ 122 in the US, the Ryzen 3 3100 for $ 99 and the Ryzen 3 3300X for $ 120 already have an edge in terms of overall value. Indeed, the only real competition the Ryzen 3 3100 has at the moment is the older Intel Core i3-9100F, which is a version of their Core i3-9100 processor that doesn’t have integrated graphics (and therefore needs to be paired with a graphics card to work) . Currently, this can be purchased for as little as $ 75 at the time of writing, which is quite a bargain compared to the regular Core i3-9100 which costs closer to $ 130.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to test neither the Core i3-9100 nor the 9100F yet, but if their gaming performance is similar to that of Intel’s Core i3-8100 (which I suspect will likely be given as my 2nd Generation vs 9th Generation Processor Tests have been played so far) so probably the Ryzen 3 3100 is still a better buy. Probably (though, as I said above, you should probably save up on the Ryzen 3 3300X if you can, as it just blows all those CPUs out of the water).

Tagged With

Katharine is the editor-in-chief of the RPS, which means she is now to blame for it all. After joining the team in 2017, she spent a lot of time in the mines of RPS gear testing all the components that are in our computers, but now she can write about all the cute games we play as well. She will play pretty much anything she can get her hands on and is very biased in JRPG games and quest downloads.

Support Rock Paper Shotgun

Subscribe and access members only articles, ad-free reading, free gifts and game discounts. Your support helps us create more great content about PC games.

Rate article