Review: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

Conclusion

The Ryzen 3000-series bandwagon keeps on rolling this July. Looking to appeal to the mainstream, it's interesting to see how Ryzen 5 chips perform.

Ryzen 5 3600X improves upon its immediate predecessor in every meaningful performance metric. It's routinely 15-25 per cent faster in CPU-centric tasks, offers a decent uptick in gaming potential, and is therefore a well-rounded chip that is able to go toe-to-toe against much dearer Intel Core processors. In most cases you won't be able to tell a difference between this and a Core i7-9700K, which retails for over 50 per cent more.

Such analysis ought to render the Ryzen 5 3600X a must-buy, right? There are a couple of flies in the AMD ointment - one that's temporary, the other permanent. You see, the Ryzen 5 2600X is patently not as good, but its current street price of £140 makes it even better in the bang-for-buck stakes. Sure, it won't last long, but it's heck of a value buy right now for those of you who don't need absolute performance.

The permanent issue is the very presence of the Ryzen 5 3600 (non-X). It's likely to benchmark within 10 per cent of the X-designated chip, is plumbed to consume less power, and at £190, is a full £50 cheaper than the review processor. That's a rather handy sum to have in reserve when speccing a new build.

Bottom line: Ryzen 5 3600X continues AMD's assault on the mainstream desktop PC market. A decent, well-rounded chip, it's only the availability of the closely-matched non-X part that stops it from getting a recommendation.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

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The AMD Ryzen 5 3600X is available to buy at Scan Computers.

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