Most people might think that the best thing about AMD's resurgence with Ryzen is the big performance gains in the high end. But for me, it is the trickle-down effect you see on the mid to low end. Quad-core CPUs were all you could get on the higher end of the mainstream lineups before Ryzen and now we have seen those end up in the mid-range and now the low end as well. Today AMD is launching their Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X which both have 4 cores and 8 threads in the $100-$120 range which is a huge step up for budget builds. Today I’m excited to see how they perform, especially compared to the high-end quad-core CPUs from just a few years ago.

Product Name: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X

Review Sample Provided by: AMD

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X

 

 

Specifications	Ryzen 33300X	Ryzen 33100
Boost Clock	4.3 GHz	3.9 GHz
Base Clock	3.8 GHz	3.6 GHz
Cores	4	4
Threads	8	8
L2+L3 Cache	2+16MB	2+16MB
TDP	65W 45W With Eco Mode	65W 45W With Eco Mode
Included Cooler	Wraith Stealth	Wraith Stealth
Chiplets	2	2
Process CCD/IOD	7nm/12nm	7nm/12nm
PCIe	24x PCIe® Gen 4	24x PCIe® Gen 4
Price	$120	$99

 

What are the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X all about?

So on a recent call with AMD, they went over the details on their new B550 chipset which I will hopefully be covering soon as well as both of the new CPUs. One of the parts that stood out to me was this slide where they talk about big changes in the Ryzen 3 lineup and you can see where back in 2017 they doubled the threads to 4 with dual-core CPUs, later added in Vega graphics, and now doubled up the thread count again as well as added PCIe 4.0.

So like I mentioned before both CPUs fall in the 100-120 range. Officially the suggested pricing for the Ryzen 3 3100 is $99 and the 3300X is $120. On base stats they are similar, both having 4 core and 8 threads and 18MB of L2 and L3 cache. They both have a 65-watt TDP and include the Wraith Stealth cooler as well. They are also on the Zen 2 architecture which includes being manufactured at 7nm which can make things a little confusing because the Ryzen 3 3400G is on the older architecture. The 3100 clocks at 3.6 GHz base and up to 3.9 GHz on boost where the 3300X is clocked higher with a 3.8 GHz base and 4.3 GHz for the boost. AMD was quick to point out however that they aren’t just reclocked versions of the same CPU. They are different in the CCD. The 3100 has a 2+2 configuration with two cores per CCX and the 3300X is a full 4 with all four cores on the same CCX. This cuts down on core to core latency and allows all of the cores access to the full 16MB L3 cache at once.

Now AMD didn’t send the full setup this time around like they sometimes do. So I don’t have any traditional packaging shots. They just set the two CPUs in their plastic clam-shells. Nothing has changed as far as the CPU package goes of course. They are still AM4 and like the other Zen 2 based Ryzen CPUs, there is some backward compatibility with normal 3000 series CPUs working on X470, X570, B450, and now B550. They also have PCIe 4.0 support as long as the chipset supports it. Which is just the X570 for full support and B550 with the GPU slot supported and other PCIe lanes are on 3.0.