Cost vs. Performance

Before wrapping things upward let'south accept a quick look at a few price vs. performance scatter plots. Please annotation that we are simply comparing CPU prices here, which doesn't take into business relationship additional costs similar the need for a libation with Intel's One thousand-series for example.

This graph is quite telling, isn't it? For those of yous wondering what you lot're looking at, the farther correct a plot is the better its performance, while the lower a plot goes the cheaper information technology is, which is to say that processors desire to be situated as far right and as depression as possible.

The overclocked R3 1200 achieves precisely that, costing half as much as the Core i5-7500 while beingness only a little bit slower, not to mention that it's cheaper than the Core i3-7350K yet much faster when comparing minimum frame rates. The overclocked 1300X was slightly faster merely as well more expensive, and then the 1200 is clearly the amend value choice here.

Moving to HandBrake we see that the besprinkle plot is again dominated by red dots in all the right spots -- sorry most that. Intel puts upwardly more of a fight this time only for quite a chip less cash than the Core i3-7350K, the R3 1200 delivers a smidgen more performance. Overclocked, the 12000 pulls well ahead of the i3-7350K. Of course you can also overclock the Intel flake but once you factor in the price of a libation and a motherboard with an overclocking-enabled chipset, the price vs. performance ratio favors AMD.

Lastly we have Premiere Pro CC and here the red squad comes out in force. At its stock settings the R3 1200 isn't especially impressive just looks considerably stronger once overclocked, particularly its render times. After being boosted, the R3 1200 isn't much slower than the Cadre i5-7500 and again at almost one-half the price that's a bully result. Looking at this scatter plot, it'due south pretty articulate that Ryzen is great for content creators.

Wrap Upwardly

Last week we checked out imitation Ryzen 3 functioning by disabling SMT on the R5 1400 and adjusting its clock speeds. At the time, we were working on the assumption that the leaked pricing info was accurate, which would come across the R3 1200 priced at just $110 with the R3 1300X coming in at $130. Equally fate would have information technology, those figures were indeed right.

Based on previous findings, I thought that Ryzen 3 looked similar information technology was going to be a decent proffer nonetheless I wasn't overly excited by what I saw. Sure, information technology crush Intel's Core i3 and locked i5 processors, only compared to SMT-enabled Ryzen 5 quad-cores, it seemed smarter to spend a little more on an 8-threaded part such equally the R5 1400.

I previously wasn't sure what kind of cooler we'd make it the bundle and what kind of overclocking performance we could look. However, nosotros now have all the facts. As it turns out, Ryzen three is packaged with the Wraith Stealth, which did a commendable job throughout testing and immune united states of america to achieve 3.9GHz on the 1200 and 4.0GHz for the 1300X.

The fact that these overclocks were doable using nothing more than than the humble box cooler is amazing and it certainly adds a lot of value to these fries, especially given that the Core i3-7350K doesn't come up with a cooler at all and currently retails for $150.

The Pentium G4560 still puts frontwards a strong case for budget builders at its $64 MSRP, but information technology's currently $fourscore in the US (a 25% markup) and out of stock in Commonwealth of australia. That's a shame because the flake is super efficient and enables playable performance in all the latest titles using an entry-level or mid-range graphics card.

To regurgitate a portion of our simulated Ryzen 3 article...

"If you lot are aiming for the cheapest possible gaming build with a basic B350 board, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a GeForce GTX 1050, a 500GB Seagate FireCuda forth with a cheap instance and PSU, you'd save 18% on the unabridged build toll by opting for the R3 1200 over the R5 1600 and you'd be getting half equally much L3 cache, two less cores and eight less threads.

For those wondering, the same system would exist just 10% cheaper with the R3 1200 versus the SMT-enabled R5 1400, so spending more seems worth it here. Overall, the Ryzen three 1200 should deliver relatively stiff results at $110 for those who are hellbent on spending every bit lilliputian as possible."

Given that 1300X only produced an boosted 100MHz overclock (probably a best case scenario over the 1200), I don't think spending an extra $20 is worth it. Folks because the 1300X might every bit well buy the Ryzen v 1400 for its SMT support, or the six-core R5 1600 on the pricier finish of things.

The 1200 is a ripper once overclocked, frequently delivering 1500X-like performance in games. Of course, you lot could overclock the 1500X for fifty-fifty more performance merely that's somewhat beside the betoken.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Ryzen three 1300X on Amazon
  • Ryzen 3 1300X on Newegg
  • Ryzen 3 1200 on Amazon
  • Ryzen three 1200 on Newegg

Closing out our official Ryzen 3 coverage, it still seems like the biggest challenge this serial faces is AMD'south ain Ryzen v lineup. On that note, there is much more testing to be done. Coming up soon, I want to benchmark a wider range of GPUs and I'm likewise keen to compare the R3 1200 against the R5 1400 in mid-range gaming with both clocked at 2.9GHz.

Pros: The R3 1200 overclocks well (even for a Ryzen CPU) and doing so put it nearly on par with the i5-7500. Overclocking is enabled by depression temps, depression power consumption along with a great box cooler. Beats anything Intel has at the same cost points.

Cons: The R3 1300X is less bonny than the 1200 because information technology costs $20 more and only overclocks another 100MHz.