Conclusion - Finally, Affordable Competition
Conclusion - Finally Affordable Competition
When approaching a review like this, check your expectations at the door; these budget-friendly processors won’t light the world on fire with extreme performance. But from AMD’s perspective they do stand a very good chance of upsetting Intel where it matters: in the key volume-focused system integrator market. Naturally, after seeing what the underdog Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors could achieve against the incumbent i7 / i5 lineup, expectations were high for Ryzen 3.
Since the days of Phenom, AMD has been trying to achieve something resembling parity with Intel by offering more processing threads for less money. That trend continued with Bulldozer’s various iterations and has been (though to a lesser extent) one of the hallmarks of Ryzen 7 / 5 too. Ryzen 3 on the other hand has the thankless job of matching Intel’s i3-7300 and i3-7100 thread for thread without a clock speed advantage. But what looks like a potential shellacking on paper actually turned into an AMD win from a number of key perspectives.
You see, as I mentioned in this review’s long-winded introduction Intel achieves their quad threads through HyperThreading on dies that have two physical cores. Ryzen 3 in comparison has four logical processing cores and that difference is actually quite a bit more notable that you may believe. In some situations HT’s presence is transparent but in many others Ryzen 3’s layout makes a world of difference. This leads to a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde effect when looking at comparative performance between these two distinct microarchitectures.
Let’s take the Real World testing as a great example of this behavior. The Ryzen 3 1300X is able to leverage both its frequencies and physical core count to remain comfortably ahead of Intel’s i3-7300 in tasks like rendering, video conversion and exporting 4K Adobe Premier projects. However, we see it come crashing back down to earth in compression and photo manipulation applications. Even with the latest AGESA updates, lightly threaded scenarios are evidently still a challenge for Ryzen.
The Ryzen 3 1200 falls into the same habits but it further struggles against the i3-7100 in situations where the 1300X proved to be the i3-7300’s superior. Its low clocks base / boost clocks and a lack of the 1300X's extra XFR "gear" contributes to a near-perfect storm. However narrow they may be, those losses in Corona and Blender hit AMD where it hurts most: scenarios where Ryzen 3 should be the superior option. Luckily applications like Adobe Premier, Handbrake and some others absolutely love the native quad core setup so the Ryzen 3 is saved from complete embarrassment.
Efficiency needs to be mentioned too since TDP tends to be a key factor for system integrators. In that respect Ryzen 3’s native quad core die fares poorly against the dual core i3’s even though performance per watt is nearly neck and neck (Intel still maintains a lead though). This should not dissuade DIYers, though system integrators may see this as a reason to utilize Intel's wares.
Gaming is another area where Ryzen has historically lagged behind but as with previous Ryzen 7 and 5 tests, the 1300X and 1200 don’t fall all that far behind their direct Intel competitors. But Ryzen 3's framerates aren't anything to celebrate either. Once again this disparity boils down to Zen’s inherent challenges with minimally threaded workloads and like it or not, games will remain CPU-light applications for the forseeable future.
On a personal note I think the gaming results for Ryzen 3 shouldn’t be consumed in a vacuum by comparing them solely to i3 CPUs. Due to the inherent nature of many game engines and their requirement for (at most) four threads, budget processors like the i3-7300, i3-7100, Ryzen 3 1300X and Ryzen 3 1200 provide a phenomenal value for entry level gamers. As a matter of fact, when paired up with a B350 motherboard Ryzen 3 ups that value quotient significantly by lowering the overall platform cost without sacrificing features like overclocking and forward-looking connectivity.
Speaking of overclocking I have to give AMD credit for not walling additional performance away like Intel is wont to do. However, my OC experience on Ryzen 3 was fraught with issues. First and foremost the AEGSA 1.0.0.6 update completely blocked any clock speed increases if a direct voltage input was used (offset voltage worked like a charm though) and actually underclocked both CPUs whenever their multipliers were changed. In addition, that hard cap on frequencies everyone has experienced with other Ryzen CPUs is back with a vengeance, shutting down the 1300X and 1200 at 4.0GHz and 3.7GHz respectively. While those clock speeds do boost benchmark results to some great levels, I found myself wishing there was a bit more left in the tank. Maybe I'm just getting greedy.
As you may have probably guessed I have divergent opinions about the Ryzen 3 1300X and 1200. There’s no doubt the 1300X is a darling of a processor; it consistently beats the i3-7300 while costing less money and in some cases it even competes against the outgoing 8-core FX-8370. Overclock it and you'll be looking at i5-7500 performance levels. If there was ever a CPU that personified the advances AMD made with Zen, this is it. To say I’m a fan would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Unfortunately, the Ryzen 3 1200’s situation is much less clear cut. While it did trade blows with Intel’s i3-7100 it also fell behind in some benchmarks that have been cornerstones of AMD’s recent successes. That made the comparatively low in-game framerate numbers impossible to ignore. I can certainly see the 1200 being a great choice for entry level prebuilt systems but I recommend DIYer’s spend the extra $20 and pick up a 1300X instead. For the price of four overpriced Starbucks Venti Lattes you can pick up a clearly superior processor.
One of the hallmarks of Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors was their versatility and that story marches on with Ryzen 3. While the 1300X takes the prize in my books, I nonetheless feel both of these CPUs rightly continue AMD’s market shakeup. It may have seemed that bringing great performance to lower price brackets was nothing more than a laudable goal but Ryzen 3 has taken that dream and turned it into a very tempting reality.
