Meet the Ryzen 3000 Series
There are five new models to start with another making its way into the lineup later in September. Ryzen CPU’s based on this 3rd generation architecture will have 3000 series model numbers. The available models are: The Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600X, Ryzen 7 3700X and 3800X and lastly, the Ryzen 9 3900X. There is an upcoming Ryzen 9 3950X that’s already known to the public, but this CPU isn’t available today, so I won’t spend a lot of time talking about it. Its specifications are listed below, and it will be available in September, with the rest of the 3rd generation Ryzen family being available immediately.
Here is the 3rd generation AMD Ryzen desktop processor product stack. This table includes the cooler information as well as L2 and L3 cache sizes.
As you can see, AMD has Ryzen CPU’s competing directly with Intel at virtually every price point. AMD claims more performance per watt and or more cores at any given price point. There is a typo in the slide as the Ryzen 5 3600 non-X should appear at the bottom. AMD claims stronger content creation at each price point and at least comparable gaming. AMD is rather up front in its briefings that it doesn’t dominate Intel when it comes to gaming but, gets close enough “winning some and losing some” here and there. Even at a glance, there are a few standout items of note in the specs. Of course, the Ryzen 9 series will appeal to enthusiasts with a slightly larger budget and a concern for performance above all else. Another noteworthy item is the 65watt TDP parts that trade a little clock speed and 3MB of L3 cache for a lower TDP. These parts come in a little bit cheaper but, should offer very similar performance to their higher TDP brethren at stock speeds. If your only concern is gaming, you might want to look towards the larger cache models with the higher clock speeds.
The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Your new Ryzen CPU will most likely come in a retail package similar to this one. It’s no 12 sided plastic dice thing like Intel gives you, but the box protects the contents and you don’t need an engineering degree to open it.
Inside the box you’ll find a CPU cooler a case badge, and naturally a CPU. This example is an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. It is a 12 core and 24 thread part with a TDP of 105w. As a result, this comes with the big daddy of the included CPU coolers, the Wraith Prism.
