AMD Ryzen 3600XT, 3800XT and 3900XT Review

Subsequently some speculation and anticipation, today we're taking a expect at AMD'southward Ryzen 3000XT series. These are technically new processors and yous'll want to know if they're worth buying. But allow's just stop correct there to say, spoiler alert: they're a big fat cipher-burger that yous should avoid. Simply purchase the models we already had.

Those of you who want more information, feel gratuitous to read on. Let's start with the 3900XT and compare that side-past-side with the original Ryzen 9 3900X released a twelvemonth ago for $500. Information technology's a nifty CPU that sold for effectually that MSRP throughout 2022. In January 2022 it dropped to $470 and past March it was hitting $420 (see our price tracker here). Pricing will of course vary, merely around $420-430 appears to exist a common asking price right now, which means the 3900XT is coming in at a 16% cost premium, pushing support to the original $500 asking price.

Blender twenty min run: 3900X vs 3900XT

In exchange for that price premium, you lot get basically nothing. A 2% increase to the max turbo clock and the removal of the Wraith Prism box cooler. Before we get to all the heady criterion graphs that we're 100% non going to cover in detail, hither's how they two compared in the Blender Gooseberry workload.

Yes, the 3900XT clocked an unabridged 11 MHz higher for a sustained clock frequency of 4155 MHz. That resulted in the same height and average CPU temperatures and despite rumors of a strict binning process, we're looking at basically the same voltage and power consumption.

The Ryzen 7 3800XT comes in at the original MSRP of $400, while the 3800X is now down around $340, making the XT version xviii% more expensive. The difference? They are taking abroad the Wraith Prism libation and in return giving you marginally better silicon that clocks a mere 4% higher.

In our Blender exam we found that the 3800XT clocked 1% college on average, resulting in a sweet 56 MHz frequency boost. That operation "improvement" did come at the toll of increased thermals and power consumption though. The 3800XT ran five to 6 degrees hotter and consumed around 12% more than power.

And finally, here'southward a peak at the Ryzen five 3600XT coming in at the original MSRP of $250, or ~11% more than the current 3600X asking cost, but as well but over 40% more than than the R5 3600, which is the flake to get right at present. At to the lowest degree this time AMD keeps the cooler, albeit simply a Wraith Spire, plus a 2% increase in operating frequency.

We saw a three% increase in all-core clock speed in the Blender stress test, which had a huge impact on power consumption and operating temperatures. We're looking at a 5 to 10 degree temperature increase with a ~20% increase in power consumption. Then you're buying an overclocked 3600X with slightly better silicon, that's a few percent faster.

Nosotros've tested the CPUs and you can check out all the graphs below, only we're just going to cakewalk through information technology as it'south a non-event. For testing all CPUs we paired them with four 8GB DDR4-3200 CL14 modules for a full 32GB capacity and used the Corsair Hydro H150i Pro 360mm AIO liquid cooler.

Benchmarks

Looking at Cinebench R20 multi-core scores and given what we just saw with Blender, this looks to be near as good as the performance gains volition get. We're seeing a 2% increase for the 3600XT over the 3600X, 2% for the 3800XT, and near half a percent for the 3900XT.

We meet a 4% margin for the unmarried core performance, just equally AMD promised, and so that's good I approximate. This volition probably help them rank amend in the UserBenchmark comparisons, but that'southward well-nigh it.

Looking at power consumption, if you lot were hoping to meet some 3950X-like efficiency improvements, these fries are extremely disappointing. They expect like slightly overclocked versions of the original chips.

Gaming Benchmarks

Overclocking

Fourth dimension for some overclocking to meet what this higher quality silicon tin practise. Through manual overclocking we're again looking at 100 to 200 MHz more, at least when compared to our early production chips.

Interestingly, the 3900XT was the worst overclocker peaking at iv.iv GHz, only so it does have more than cores so the chances of all 12 cores being capable of 4.5 GHz is more remote. It'southward certainly possible though and we're sure other reviewers may take gotten improve chips. Ours maxed out at 4.4 GHz no matter how high we pushed the voltage, making information technology just 100 MHz meliorate than our former 3800X.

The only trouble with manually overclocking third-gen Ryzen processors, at least using this method, is that you lot shave off some of the unmarried core performance and there'due south no escaping that fact, fifty-fifty with the new XT fries.

Cost per Frame

Taking a quick expect at toll per frame using the i% low data from our Battlefield V benchmark. When comparing the X variants to the XT models nosotros see that the 3600 is 9% more than expensive per frame, the 3800 is 16% and the 3900, 15% more costly.

However, if you care about value, we don't recommend neither the 3600X nor the 3800X. Since twenty-four hour period one nosotros've recommended the vanilla 3600 and the 3700X. So if we compare the value of the XT range confronting the Ryzen CPUs you should really exist buying, things expect much. We're talking well-nigh a 36 - 39% increase in cost per frame when compared to the base models. Pretty brutal stuff in the value department.

What Simply Happened?

That brings united states of america to the end of ane of the strangest CPU reviews nosotros've written. Information technology appears every bit though AMD decided to release three 'new' CPUs that offer zippo new and no 1 should consider buying them at launch prices. Possibly mad overclockers who want to juice every concluding bit they can out of a 3rd-gen Ryzen processor? Merely even that'd be a stretch.

It'southward our stance that AMD is taking a folio out of the Intel playbook and copying what they did with the Core i9-9900KS. We mean, they're cashing in on improved yields, binning the amend silicon, and selling information technology at a marked upward toll, while also removing the box cooler to maximize turn a profit margins.

Personally I'yard not a fan, but I don't see an issue with this move as long equally nothing changes with existing Ryzen processors. In the 9900K example, both parts later sold for more than than the intended toll range. So in AMD'south case, if they go on offer the original Ryzen five, seven and nine parts below the MSRP, then nosotros couldn't care less about these XT versions.

We're not going to delve deeper into possible motive, merely yous could say AMD is hoping to milk Zen two one concluding time before rolling out Zen three later this year -- fingers crossed. On that note, given that we are expecting new CPUs shortly, information technology doesn't make sense to pay a premium for a Ryzen 3000 serial CPU right at present. If you lot need something like the 3900X or 3950X, and pricing is bonny, and then past all means buy them, they're astonishing processors, simply know you're tardily in the product cycle.