AMD Ryzen 5 3600X CPU Review
Multimedia, Compression, Synthetic, and Gaming
Handbrake
HandBrake is a free and open-source video transcoder, originally developed in 2003 by Eric Petit to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier. Essentially, it can convert video to almost any modern format. HandBrake is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The workload video file is a file that I’ve used for years called Sintel. It is a 1.09-gigabyte file that is full HD. I used the Apple 240p preset for this test.
The 8700k gets edged out slightly as the Ryzen 5 3600 finished the scene in 86 seconds whereas the 8700K took 99 with an average FPS for the Ryzen 5 3600X at 248 and 240 FPS for the 8700K.
7-Zip
The 7-zip benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with results of Intel Core 2 CPU with multi-threading option switched off. So, if you have modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency. There are two tests, compression with LZMA method and decompression with LZMA method. Once the total passes reach 100, the score is taken. 7-Zip gives the resulting score for decompressing, compressing and an overall score.
The Ryzen series of CPUs perform well in the 7 ZIP tests. The Ryzen 5 3600X scores 53153 MIPS in compressing and 69663 MIPS in the decompressing tests.
PCMark 10
PCMark 10 is a system benchmark for Windows PCs which focuses on common tasks performed in the office. PCMark 10 offers a variety of workloads categorized into four groups. The Essentials group includes web browsing, video conferencing, and app start-up time. The Productivity group includes tests based on spreadsheets and writing. The Digital Content Creation group includes photo editing, video editing, and a rendering and visualization test. The final group, Gaming, includes tests for real-time graphics and physics. It has three different benchmarks, PCMark 10, PCMark 10 Express and PCMARK 10 Extended.
When looking at the two six-core CPUs, the Ryzen 5 3600x loses to the 8700K but just a very little bit. This happens as well between the 3900x and the 9900K. Still, AMD’s performance here is commendable as the results are extremely close.
3DMARK
3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool created and developed by Futuremark used to determine the performance of a computer’s 3D graphic rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities. It does this through a series of graphics and physics and or CPU tests. I ran the extreme and ultimate version as I wanted to see how well AMD could handle the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080ti and keep the testing platform consistent. It’s not inconceivable to think someone would purchase a 6 core CPU and a 2080 TI GPU.
In the 3D Mark test, the results are a tie between the Ryzen 5 3600X and the Intel i7 8700K. Performance is impressive on both systems and runs right in the middle of the pack with the comparison CPUs.
Gaming
For gaming, I chose to mix it up a little bit from what we’ve done in the past. Most games we test are first-person shooters, so I chose to throw a flight simulator in the mix. Xplane 11 depends heavily on single-thread performance, even more so than newer modern games. Games are slowly starting to use more and more cores. I also used the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm AI benchmark.
When it comes to gaming, ANY of the CPUs on the chart above will do well. However, the Intel i7 8700K edges out the Ryzen 5 3600X in terms of performance although, not by much. We talking range of between 5 and 10 frames per second depending on the game. That’s not a large difference and as graphic fidelity and resolutions increase, these numbers rely more on the GPU rather than the CPU.
The last gaming test I chose was Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 and the Gathering Storm Benchmark. This benchmarks the artificial intelligence portion of the game and measures the time it takes to complete each turn.
As far as the Civilization 6’s AI benchmark goes, it’s a dead tie between the two six-core CPUs. Both CPUs turned in an average time of 35 seconds.
