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Is the Ryzen 5 3600X good for gaming?

We take a look at the Ryzen 5 3600X and decide weather or not it's still good for gaming after all these years.

Updated: Oct 11, 2022 9:44 am
Is the Ryzen 5 3600X good for gaming?

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The answer is yes. Coming from the family of AMD processors, the Ryzen 5 3600X proves to be the best CPU that one can have for gaming in 2022. The Ryzen 5 3600X was released by AMD in July 2019, as a part of their Ryzen processors series. From then to date, it stands out as one of the best value processors ever created for gaming.

Now read: Ryzen 5 7600X review.

The Ryzen 5 3600X is getting on a bit in years now, but this could make a perfect introductory CPU if you’re a first-time PC builder or just getting into PC gaming and don’t want to splash the cash.

Opting for the older generation can save you a lot of money, especially when a new CPU generation is released. Check out our deals article on Ryzen 5000 series CPUs.


Ryzen 5 3600X AMD Processor

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

Ryzen 3600x packaging 50

Speed

3.8GHz/4.4GHz

Core (threads)

6/12

Socket

AM4

TDP

95W


Why is the Ryzen 5 3600X good for gaming?

ryzen 5 5600x vs 3600x

Firstly, Ryzen 5 3600X is great because it comes from the family of widely trusted AMD processors. The CPU’s affordability and power make it one of the best CPUs for gaming you can pick up on a budget. A lot of games aren’t massively CPU demanding and never really use more than four cores at a time.

This makes the Ryzen 5 3600X ideal, however, we’d recommend steering clear of the 3600X if you have a lot of multi-core reliant apps or workloads you need to run, this is where you will see the 3600X struggle.


Ryzen 5 3600X specifications

Here are the specifications of the Ryzen 5 3600X.

  • 6 cores
  • 12 threads
  • Base clock 3.8GHz
  • Boost clock 4.4GHz
  • L3 cache 32MB
  • Default TDP 95W
  • iGPU: N/A

Features of the Ryzen 5 3600

Here we will go over some of the features of the Ryzen 5 3600X and show you why it still holds up as one of the world’s best-value processors for gaming.

Cores

Multi-core processing is taken to another level on the Zen 2 platform with the Ryzen 5 3600X. It contains six Cores which makes the CPU great for minor multitasking and gaming workloads. The more CPU cores you have, then the better your CPU will be at multitasking natively. Six CPU cores aren’t bad, but it’s not the most we observe on the Zen 2 architecture.

Threads

Ryzen 5 3600X contains 12 Threads, threads are the name given to a CPU core’s secondary instruction. When a CPU is multithreaded, it’s not really given much more physical resources, rather an ability is unlocked, to process two instructions per CPU core simultaneously instead of just one.

Socket:

The socket of the Ryzen 5 3600X processor is the same as all of the Ryzen processors up to the 7000 series. The Ryzen 5 3600X belongs to socket AM4.

The socket can be thought of as a jigsaw piece, only a piece with a corresponding cutout will fit the other, the CPU socket can be thought of in the same way. You cannot put a Ryzen 7000 series CPU into an AM4 motherboard, as their sockets or (cutouts) are not the same.

Architecture

The Ryzen 5 3600X is built upon the Zen 2 architecture, which offered massive improvements over the Zen and Zen + architectures that preceded it. Zen 2 moved away from the bundled chiplet design and separated the I/O from the CPU die itself.

This new multi-module chip offered benefits to manufacturability and scalability, also offering performance improvements of up to 12% with a 15% average higher IPC over Zen +.

Manufacturing process:

Ryzen 5 3600X has a 7nm manufacturing process. A considerable improvement over Zen +’s 12nm process. Decreasing the size of the transistors inside the CPU means that you can pack more of them into the same footprint.

This measurement is something known as IPC, IPC stands for instructions per clock, and it is the measurement of how many instructions a CPU can calculate in a single clock cycle. The more transistors present the more instructions the CPU is able to calculate.

Clock speed

The clock speed ranges between 3.8 GHz and 4.4 GHz. The highest point of clock speed is achieved through this processor. Higher clock speeds are better for gaming because the CPU is completing instruction cycles faster. An instruction cycle consists of mainly three actions, these are fetch, decode, and execute. The faster your CPU can do this, then the more instructions it can process more quickly.

Capacity

Ryzen 5 3600X has a 32 MB L3 cache which is much more than the previous Ryzen 5 entries. A CPU cache is a form of volatile memory constructed close to the CPU cores for speed and efficiency. The closer this cache is then the faster it can be accessed.

A cache is where the CPU stores all of its computations and instructions before and after execution, it then goes to ram to be used by other components of the CP, so as you can imagine cache plays a pivotal role in CPU operation.


Final Word

All in all, this upgraded generation of Ryzen processor offers increased performance in terms of processing capacity, speed, and power, especially over Zen +. All of this is affordable, and the prices are reasonable since the Ryzen 5 3600X is a couple of years old at this point.

At the time of release, the price was roughly below $200. So if you fancy picking one up a few years later, it might very well be a great introduction to PC gaming if you don’t want to splash on an expensive overkill CPU.

Of course, the 3600X is superseded by the 5600X, which can be had for a great deal now too, thanks to the Ryzen 7000 series release. If you want to know more on the 5600X you can read our article on it. We hope you enjoyed this article.



Jack is a Tech and News Writer who has a vast and proficient knowledge of CPUs, Motherboards, and Computer technology.

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