AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Review: Why Is This Amazon's Best Selling CPU?
by Dr. Ian Cutress on May 18, 2020 9:00 AM ESTTurbo, Power, and Latency
Turbo
As part of our usual test suite, we run a set of code designed to measure the time taken for the processor to ramp up in frequency. Recently both AMD and Intel are promoting features new to their processors about how quickly they can go from an active idle state into a turbo state – where previously we were talking about significant fractions of a second, we are now down to milliseconds or individual frames. Managing how quickly the processor fires up to a turbo frequency is also down to the silicon design, with sufficient frequency domains needing to be initialized up without causing any localised voltage or power issues. Part of this is also down to the OEM implantation of how the system responds to requests for high performance.
Our Ryzen 5 3600 jumped up from a 2.2 GHz high-performance idle all the way to 4.2 GHz in 16 milliseconds, which coincides exactly with a single frame on a 60 Hz display. This is right about where machines need to be in order to remain effective for a good user experience, assuming the rest of the system is up to scratch.
Power
With the Ryzen 5 3600, AMD lists the official TDP of the processor as 65 W. AMD also runs a feature called Package Power Tracking, or PPT, which allows the processor to turbo where possible to a new power value – for 65 W processors that new value is 88 W. This takes into account the power delivery capabilities of the motherboard, as well as the thermal environment. The processor can then manage exactly what frequency to give to the system in 25 MHz increments.
As part of my new test suite, we have a CPU power wrapper across several benchmarks to see the power response for a variety of different workloads.
For an AVX workload, y-Cruncher is somewhat periodic in its power use due to the way the calculation runs, but we see an almost constant 90 W peak power consumption through the whole test. The all-core turbo frequency here was in the 3875-3925 MHz range.
Our 3DPMavx test implements the highest version of AVX it can, for a series of six 10 second on, 10 second off tests, which then repeats. In this case we don’t see the processor going above 75 W in the whole process.
Photoscan is our more ‘regular’ test here, comprising of four stages each changing between single thread, multithread, and variable thread. We see peaks here up to 80 W, but the big variable threaded scenario bounces more around the 60 W mark for over 1000 seconds.
On the per-core power side, using our ray tracing power load, we see a small range of peak power values
When one thread is active, it sits at 12.8 W, but as we ramp up the cores, we get to 11.2 W per core. The non-core part of the processor, such as the IO chip, the DRAM channels and the PCIe lanes, even at idle still consume around 12-18 W in the system.
Latency
Our latency test is a simple core-to-core ping test, to detect any irregularities in the core design.
The results here are as expected.
- 7.5 nanoseconds for threads within a core
- 34 nanoseconds for cores within a CCX
- 87-91 nanoseconds between cores in different CCXes
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Xex360 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
Aren't the "10th"gen CPUs launching 20/05?Mobile-Dom - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
ooft, thats a slaughterBedfordTim - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
You are right. The 3300X is a clear winner.Koenig168 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
There's also the 3600X to consider. On launch, the price difference between 3600 and 3600X is USD50. That has now narrowed to USD15 as of 18 May on Amazon (USD189.99 vs USD204.99).crimson117 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
$50 was way too much, but $15 for slightly more MHz and a better cooler is a fantastic deal.Spunjji - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
That's nuts!GreenReaper - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
In the UK it's £152.00 vs. £184.24 (vs £260.98 for the 3700X).On the plus side, that makes the 3600 cheaper than the USA!
You have to be careful who you're buying from, though - some sellers don't have good feedback.
flyingpants265 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
The 3600 is $172.myself248 - Monday, May 18, 2020 - link
On the general theme of "once in a while, a truly great CPU comes along and dominates the market", check out this beautiful trip down memory lane from Australia's Red Hill Consulting:https://www.redhill.net.au/iu.html
It's a long read, but for those of us who were building PCs back in the Socket 3 through Socket 7 era, it's a neverending stream of "Oh yeah I remember when that came out!" and "Whoah, those actually existed?" and "I think I still have one of those in the basement..."
Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - link
Aww, heck yeah! More 486es and K6-2s and Athlons than you can shake a stick at!