We were amid the kickoff publications to review the Ryzen 5 3600 and at $200 we found the half dozen-core, 12-thread processor a crankin' good deal. In short, it murders the 9600K in core-heavy productivity benchmarks and is correct in that location for gaming, offering better 1% low performance ofttimes, all while costing notably less.

Simply without question the most popular question we received afterward was: should you buy the Ryzen 5 3600 or the 3600X?

Not for nil this series of AMD processors have been our picks for the best all-round value since release and they're also amongst the best selling CPUs on Amazon. Nosotros're not into guessing games at TechSpot, so we've run some hard benchmarks to determine.

Before going into in-depth testing though, here'southward a quick run down in regards to how these two CPUs compare on paper. The Ryzen 5 3600 comes clocked at 3.half dozen GHz for the base of operations and 4.2 GHz for the boost, the 3600X runs 200 MHz faster at 3.eight GHz and 4.iv GHz, so a 6% base of operations clock increase and a 5% boost clock increase. The but other modify in specification is the TDP, the R5 3600 is a 65 watt part and the 3600X a 95 watt part. As such the 3600 gets the 65w Wraith Stealth and the 3600X the 95w Wraith Spire.

The base of operations model R5 3600 currently comes in at $175, while the 3600X costs 14% more at $200. The original $l markup has been lowered since AMD released the CPUs in mid 2022.

TL;DR

Having tested both R5 3600 models (see all of that farther downwardly below), here'due south the tale of the tape:

  • The Ryzen v 3600 is the better choice at $175 for most people trying to relieve some money.
  • At stock, we found the 3600X to offer a very mild performance increment (five% or less) compared to the vanilla 3600. This small difference does not justify an actress $40+, just with the current dissimilar at just $25, yous tin really get either mode.
  • Both CPUs tend to overclock to similar levels, and the heave offers negligible operation advantages.
  • As shown in our full review, the Ryzen five 3600 offers tremendous value and will piece of work on fifty-fifty the most basic B350/B450 motherboards.
  • The 3600X gets you lot a better cooler out of the box, this is somewhat justifiable for the actress ~$25 on the 3600X. However we'd generally recommend to simply buy the 3600 and if you desire to reduce the operating book and squeeze a tiny bit more performance, grab something like the Cooler Primary 212 for $thirty that will exist more effective anyway.
  • Misleading TDP ratings: The but thing that makes the R5 3600 a 65 watt TDP part, is the 65 watt cooler, while the 3600X is a 95 watt TDP part because it comes with a 95 watt cooler. The CPUs themselves are otherwise identical.
Ryzen vii 3700X Ryzen 5 3600X Ryzen 5 3600 Ryzen v 2600
Price $300 $200 $175 $120
Cores / Threads 8 / 16 6 / 12 6 / 12 six / 12
Base Frequency three.6 GHz 3.viii GHz iii.6 GHz iii.4 GHz
Boost Frequency 4.four GHz 4.4 GHz 4.two GHz iii.9 GHz
L2 Cache 4MB 3MB 3MB 3MB
L3 Enshroud 32MB 32MB 32MB 16MB
Memory Config Dual-Channel
Max Mem Support DDR4-3200 DDR4-2933
TDP 65 W 95 W 65 W 65 Due west
Box libation Wraith Prism RGB Wraith Spire Wraith Stealth Wraith Stealth

Both CPUs were tested on the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme with 16GB of One thousand.Skill's FlareX DDR4-3200 CL14 retentiveness and a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on the graphics side.

Too read: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X vs. 3700X: What's the Difference?

Benchmarks

The Cinebench R20 multi-core shows a very mild 2% increase in performance for the 3600X over the vanilla 3600. Very underwhelming difference -- just could this be a good thing? -- that doesn't justify the 25% price increase.

Meanwhile the single cadre performance sees an increase of just 3%, going from 481 pts to 497 pts.

Moving on to Adobe Premiere we see the biggest performance gain yet every bit the 3600X reduced the render time by 5%, taking 513 seconds opposed to 539 seconds. Non a big deal though.

This time the 3600X reduced the render time by just 4% when testing with Blender, at this indicate you're probably starting to question why nosotros need two half dozen-core/12-thread Zen 2-based CPUs.

Gaming Benchmarks

Moving on to games and… not much to say here either. The 3600 and 3600X basically delivered identical functioning in Assassinator's Creed Odyssey, the 3600X was ~2% faster which equates to a 2 fps divergence at nearly.

We meet the same in Battleground 5, the 3600X was only up to two fps faster than the non-Ten model, so about the aforementioned functioning.

We only run across a 1 fps difference in The Division ii and we should also note that the 3600X and 3600 match the 3700X in this championship and nosotros saw a like thing when testing with Battlefield V and Assassin'southward Creed Odyssey.

The 3700X does offer a pocket-sized performance boost over the 3600X in Shadow of the Tomb Raider but the 3600X was but upwards to three% faster than the 3600. And so information technology'south pretty clear past this bespeak that in terms of performance the 3600 and 3600X are basically the same.

Power Consumption

Even when information technology comes to ability draw there'due south virtually no divergence. The 3600X increased total system consumption past just 4% when measuring power draw from the wall. That's interesting given the thermal watt rating increased by 46% for the 3600X, surely it'due south not chucking out that much more heat.

Operating Temperatures

Speaking of oestrus, allow's look at how the 3600X compares with its 95w Wraith Spire box cooler to the 3600 with the 65w Wraith Stealth, when running Blender. Stock the 3600 hit lxxx degrees whereas the 3600X ran 2 degrees cooler at 78 degrees, simply it did so while clocking 100 MHz college, a 2.five% increase in frequency.

And so with PBO+AutoOC enabled, the 3600 striking 84 degrees but only ran 25 MHz faster, while the 3600X also hit 84 degrees but ran 50 MHz faster for a 3% increase over the 3600.

Out of interest we tested both CPUs with the Wraith Spire and Stealth to meet how temperatures compared. In short, using either cooler the 3600X ran 6 degrees hotter and you can expect some throttling with the Stealth cooler, and then lets re-run this test over again with the Corsair H115i Pro installed.

With a quality all-in-ane liquid cooler installed we observe something very interesting: almost no deviation betwixt the ii CPUs. Temperatures were exactly the aforementioned and clock speeds were also basically identical, in fact the R5 3600 maintained a slightly better PBO frequency in our test, though we wouldn't read into that too much, there'due south a proficient take a chance if we ran this enough times with enough CPUs we'd discover that on average at that place'd be no deviation in operating frequency.

Before wrapping this up let'due south take some other await at power usage, this time focusing on CPU package power and core electric current.

Using the included box cooler we see virtually no divergence in ability describe between the 3600X and 3600 and the aforementioned is also true when using an aftermarket libation.

Wrap Up

Is the Ryzen v 3600X worth purchasing over the 3600? Not at all. Other than to ameliorate AMD's margins in that location'south no reason for the 3600X to exist. Yes, you get a better cooler out of the box, but usually the asking price premium is not worth it. $ten sure, but not more that.

The vanilla R5 3600 has proved the more popular CPU since launch (cheers to our recommendation and many others'), and that'south the reason the 3600X'due south price is lower than at launch. If you want to reduce the operating volume and squeeze a tiny chip more than performance out of this dandy-value Ryzen v processor, we recommend you take hold of something similar the Cooler Master 212 for virtually $xxx.

Nosotros doubtable the reason so many of you asked for this comparison is once again the misleading TDP ratings. The only thing that makes the R5 3600 a 65 watt TDP part, is the 65 watt cooler, while the 3600X is a 95 watt TDP office because it comes with a 95 watt cooler. Y'all can basically swap the coolers around and reverse the results. The 3600 becomes a 3600X with the Wraith Spire and the 3600X becomes a 3600 with the Wraith Stealth.

AMD explains how they calculate the TDP for Zen ii processors in the review guide, but it doesn't help address the result as at that place are variables we don't know, such as the optimal operating temperatures for each part. While we could ask AMD for those figures, in the finish information technology doesn't really matter as both CPUs are essentially the aforementioned, the only deviation existence the base and boost clock speeds which on paper differ by up to six%.

We oasis't discussed manual overclocking. Some might argue the 3600X is a binned office and therefore volition overclock better than the 3600. Our two samples were bought on retail and from this tiny sample that wasn't the case, both were limited to 4.2 GHz at one.35v and both could kick into Windows at iv.three GHz, but even with 1.4v failed even a basic stress examination.

Whatever we learned in years past with the 1600 and 2600 series does not apply here. The terminate result is a expert 1, yous can save money. Nosotros recommend avoiding the 3600X and instead buy the more affordable $175 Ryzen 5 3600. If y'all detect it necessary, upgrade the box cooler to something better.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen ix 3900X on Amazon
  • Intel Cadre i5-9400F on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2070 Super on Amazon
  • GeForce RTX 2060 Super on Amazon
  • GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on Amazon