AMD Ryzen 3 3300X Review – The Best Value 1080p Gaming CPU

Ryzen 3 3300X – The Most Awaited Budget CPU

Last April, AMD announced two new CPUs under the Ryzen 3 series, which caught the eyes of enthusiasts, reviewers, and fanboys. The announcement made some noise, which prompted a 5% stock increase from the company – Another win for the red team after the Ryzen 3000 series launch. It’s no secret that the Ryzen 3000 series processors are the talk of the town when building a new PC. The new Ryzen 7-nanometer CPUs now dominate almost every price point with older SKUs discounted as a cheaper option for enthusiasts. However, entry-level Ryzen CPUs didn’t receive much recognition from enthusiasts as both the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G are both APUs with a different target market. These CPUs are basically refined versions of the previous 14-nanometer Ryzen 3 2200G and 2400G. This time, AMD’s new Ryzen 3000 CPUs takes up the mantle of its older brothers.

SPEC SHEET

The Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X are the long-awaited entry-level processors built on AMD’s Zen 2 architecture under the 7nanometer FinFET process. Based on the specs table, the new Ryzen 3CPUs seem to be in an awkward position considering the older CPU’s updated store prices. Last generation processors are way cheaper than before, while older Ryzen 3000 series procs are now priced slightly lower than their SRP. The Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X are also in an awkward position when the rest of the specs taken into account. In this review, we’ll be focusing on the relevance of these new processors versus the rest of the stack rather than comparing it to Intel’s offering.

Ryzen 3 3100 vs. Ryzen 3 3300X: What’s the difference?

The spec sheet summary only tells the difference in boost clock between the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X as both processors have four cores and eight threads. What the spec sheet tells you is the main difference between the two Ryzen 3 processors lies underneath their dies. Ryzen 3000 series or Zen 2 processors use a chipset style layout that contains CCD or a Core Chiplet Die,  shared L3 Cache, also referred to as “Game Cache.” Each CCDs contain a set amount of CCX up to four cores depending on the configuration of the CPU SKU. These CCDs or CCX are linked via the Infinity Fabric interconnect. That said, the Ryzen 3 3100 uses a 2+2 CCX configuration inside a single CCD. The Ryzen 3 3300X, on the other hand, uses a 4+0 CCX configuration, meaning all of its cores are in one single CCX. Having all cores in a single CCX means that these cores don’t have to rely on the infinity fabric to work together. The Ryzen 3 3300X doesn’t suffer a heavy “core-to-core” latency compared to the Ryzen 3 3100X’s 2+2 CCX configuration, let alone other X+X configs from other Ryzen SKUs.

The Ryzen 3 3300X overall specifications merit all the attention as the most-awaited and possibly most coveted Ryzen processor under Php 10,000. Its pricing breaches the Ryzen 5 territory and challenges AMD’s older offerings, namely the Ryzen 5 2600, Ryzen 5 3400G, and Ryzen 5 3500X. Unfortunately, we only have processors slightly higher and lower of those mentioned, the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 3 3200G against the Ryzen 3 3300X in our benchmarks.

Benchmark Setup and Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the component or device being tested.

We use CapFrameX as our FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 10 and WHQL certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draw are recorded using HWMonitor and HWInfo64 as well as other relevant software used for cross-checking.

Benchmark list

• Cinebench R20
• V-Ray
• HWBot x265
• Handbrake
• Blender
• Corona Renderer
• DOTA 2
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Far Cry 5
• Apex Legends
• Battlefield V
• Assassins Creed: Odyssey
• Valorant

Our benchmark list and methodology may change in the future, depending on the industry trend. For now, enjoy our benchmark results of the AMD Ryzen 3 3300X processor.

3300X CPU Benchmarks

CINEBENCH R20

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench R20 uses the latest rendering architectures, including Intel’s Embree ray tracing technology and other advanced features from AMD and Intel that allows users to render the same scene on the same hard. Cinebench R20 uses a larger and more complex testing scene than Cinebench R20 by about 8x computational power and requires 4x the memory.

We’ve repeated the test countless times to confirm that the Ryzen 3 3300X’s single-core performance is higher than that of the Ryzen 5 3600. The Ryzen 3 3300X seems to boost more aggressively thanks to PBO, and it has fewer cores resulting in a bigger thermal headroom. Nonetheless, the Ryzen 5 3600 wins in the multithreaded run thanks to 2/4 extra cores and threads over the 3300X.

V-RAY

V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. 64-threads do not limit V-Ray unlike most applications as it supports multi and mega threading.

V-Ray shows the superiority of the Ryzen 5 3600 in terms of overall core count with a 10,082 score. Though the for 33% fewer cores, the Ryzen 3 3300X scored an impressive 7502 Samples, only 25% less than its 6-core brother.

HWBOT x265 Benchmark

HWBOT x265, developed by Czech overclocker Havli, is a multithreaded application that takes advantage of modern CPU instruction sets with support for older CPUs.  HWBOT x265 benchmark uses the x265/HEVC encoder that renders a video in 1080p or 4K resolution.

HWBot x265 tells the same story with the benchmark app taking advantage of more cores. The gap between the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 3 3300X narrows at the 4K resolution render.

HANDBRAKE

Handbrake is a very popular open-source video conversion software that is used by professionals, enthusiasts, and even reviewers as a reference point mainly because of its wide variety of media codecs. The rise of streaming and blogging makes video content, both encoding, and transcoding important for these people, regardless if they’re seasoned professionals or just starting out. Handbrake also takes advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of media codecs. Our Handbrake benchmark converts a 500MB MP4 video to H.264 to measure the processor’s performance.

The Ryzen 3 3300X’s render time lags behind the Ryzen 5 3600 by a mere minute in Handbrake. It’s also twice as face compared to the 3200G’s 6:03 transcode time.

BLENDER

Blender is a widely used, free, opensource 3D creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline process from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and even motion tracking. Blender has become a standard for CPU benchmarks with the BMW27 and Classroom scene most used. This prompted the company to release Blender Open Data Benchmark in 2018, a benchmark-specific version which allows users to run a preset benchmark and share the results online similar to 3D Mark.

Blender’s heavy Classroom scene showed a more significant disparity between the Ryzen 3 and 5 processors compared to other benchmarks. The Php 1,000 difference in terms of pricing between the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 3 3300X is as much as a fifty percent efficiency in rendering time.

CORONA RENDERER

Corona Renderer is an unbiased photorealistic render available for Autodesk 3Ds Max, Maxon Cinema 4D, and as a stand-alone application. Its popularity, similar to Blender led Chaos Group to develop a benchmark version of the app which runs using Corona Renderer 1.3. Workstation systems, especially CPUs, can utilize Corona Benchmark as up to 72 threads can be used in the benchmark, making it very suitable for CPUs with various price segments.

Results for Corona Renderer is the same as other productivity benchmarks with the Ryzen 3 3 3300X taking half of the time needed by the 3200G to render the scene while not lagging behind the Ryzen 5 3600.

Gaming Benchmarks

TEST BENCH

3DMARK

3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online. We used Time Spy DX 12 benchmark and Fire Strike DX 11 benchmark and opted out of Port Royal since all the GPUs used in this review do not support Ray Tracing.

The Ryzen 5 3600 dominates both Firestrike and TimeSpy sequences, although the Ryzen 3 3300X manages to keep up with a formidable score.

DOTA 2

Most gamers play at least one of the following free-to-play titles: League of Legends, CS: GO, Dota 2, and/or Fortnite.  Dota 2 is a good representation of the F2P titles as it is the most demanding game in the spectrum. The benchmark will give you an idea of the laptop’s relative performance on other lesser demanding titles. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Liquid in the TI9 grand finals from the team fight that happened on 28:30 to 29:30.

While the Ryzen 5 3600 outputs higher average frame rates, the Ryzen 3 3300X wins by having better 5% and 1% Lows resulting in a smoother gameplay experience. The Frametime graph shows fewer spikes indicating a more stable gaming experience.

Far Cry 5

FarCry 5 is an FPS game published by Ubisoft and uses the Dunia engine. It heavily relies on and takes advantage of DirectX 11 to render a realistic environment that makes it taxing to both the CPU and GPU.

The same story holds in Far Cry 5 with the Ryzen 5 3600 leading the pack in a minimal margin. However, Ryzen 3 3300X has tighter frame times, which makes gameplay smoother.

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Seige is one of the few popular AAA games that’s still popular in 2020 due to its competitive gameplay mechanics. R6S uses the AnvilNext game engine, which is developed by the game’s publisher, Ubisoft. As of writing, Rainbow Six Siege is currently the most popular Tom Clancy title beating out Wildlands, Breakpoint and even, Division 2.

Rainbow Six Siege is not a taxing game to run despite being an AAA title. While the 3300X wins in average FPS, the Ryzen 5 3600 turns the table with better 5% and 1% lows.

Valorant

Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends, launched their first competitive FPS game dubbed Valorant. Valorant is a character-based tactical shooter with mechanics similar to both Overwatch and CounterStrike Global Offensive. Valorant uses Unreal Engine and is frankly a poorly multithreaded game with the minimap, HUD, and parts of the UI offloaded to other threads while a single core handles the rest.

There’s not much gap between the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 3 3300X. Multithreading on Valorant does not seem to take advantage of more than four threads, as seen with the Ryzen 3 3200G getting so close with the 3300X compared to other benchmarks with more than half differences between the two.

Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a character-based Free-to-play battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment, the makers of Titanfall and Titanfall 2. It utilizes a modified version of Valve’s Source Engine.

Despite losing in average FPS, the Ryzen 3 3300X outputs 1% Lows, indicating better stability. The frame time graph shows shorter and consistent render times at about 10ms.

Battlefield V

The Battlefield series is an iconic FPS title in our generation matching Halo and Call of Duty. Battlefield V, set in WW1, is the latest installment in the franchise developed by DICE using the popular Frostbite engine. It’s also the first game to incorporate DX 12, Ray Tracing, and DLSS making it a great choice in our game bench library.

The Ryzen 5 3600 barely takes the top spot with higher frame rates as well as better 5% and 1% lows.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the latest franchise installment from Ubisoft. It’s by far the most popular and stable Assassin’s Creed title since AC IV: Black Flag. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine, an updated version of Rainbow Six Siege’s game engine, and uses the DirectX 12 API.

The difference between both the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen 3 3300X is minuscule and can only be noticeable as far as stuttering goes with the Ryzen 5 having the better 1% lows.

Temperatures and Power Draw

Idle and Peak temps are recorded using HWMonitor, and HWInfo with Ryzen Master opened for cross-checking during our benchmark run. Despite having lesser cores that output heat, the Ryzen 3 3300X peaked at 73°c compared to the Ryzen 5 3600’s 71°c max temp. The Ryzen 3 3300X also idles at a lower temperature. Nonetheless, the Ryzen 3 3300X temps show a decent room for overclocking, granted paired with a decent cooler.

CPU Power Draw is recorded the same with our temp readings. In spite of the high max temp of the Ryzen 3 3300X, the CPU only drew 72.02 watts compared to the Ryzen 5 3600’s 85.9-watt power draw with two extra cores.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, the Ryzen 3 3300X is a very impressive processor in terms of productivity, gaming, and pricing. We’ll break down our conclusion with three segments

Gaming…

The Ryzen 3 3300X is more than enough to play the latest titles in 1080p resolution. As of writing, the Ryzen 3 3300X goes for an average of Php 8,000 while the Ryzen 5 3600 retails for an average Php 12,000. In terms of just gaming, the Php 4,000 difference is negligible as far as 1080p resolution goes. Pair it with a decent 1080p GPU such as the RX 5600XT or a GTX 1660 Super, and you are guaranteed to get more than 60FPS on AAA games at high settings.

Productivity…

The AMD Ryzen 3 3300X is also a competent processor for productivity. Our CPU benchmarks show about a 25 to 30% difference in rendering completion time compared to the Ryzen 5 3600 while beating the incumbent Ryzen 3 3200G by at least 50% faster. Paying 33% more to get 25-30% faster render times with two more cores on the Ryzen 5 3600 is a choice to make depending on the user.

Pricing…

The Ryzen 3 3300X is a well-rounded processor both in gaming and productivity granted that you do not do both at the same time. The 4c/8t setup is indeed more than enough for some applications, but streaming or and game-recoding requires a more capable CPU such as the Ryzen 5 3600. The few bucks saved over the Ryzen 5 processors, mainly the Ryzen 5 3500X and 3600, can be reallocated to either faster ram, which will benefit the CPU, especially in productivity, a solid-state drive, or a better GPU for a balanced CPU build.

The Ryzen 3 3300X is the best value 1080p gaming CPU. Previously, users had to spend at least Php 10,000 for an i5 or a Ryzen 5 to get a decent 60FPS gaming machine. The 3300X’s price at Php 8,000 means users can build a Php 25K 60FPS AAA Gaming PC, which previously required a budget of around Php 40k to achieve 60FPS on AAA titles. Frankly, the only reason people should go for the Ryzen 5 3600 over the Ryzen 3 3300X is because of the rise of streaming and, ofcourse, budget 1440p gameplay.

That said, First-time PC builders and enthusiasts looking for a budget CPU that offers the least compromise possible should definitely consider getting the Ryzen 3 3300X because of its price to performance. The Ryzen 3 3300X is more than enough for the average joe’s needs in gaming and productivity, provided you don’t do it all at once at the same time.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.