Did I mess up? Ryzen 7 2700x vs Ryzen 5 3600

[CertifiedRipper]

• Sorry about the sloppyness, I just threw this together.
   

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I got my Ryzen 7 2700x for an insane 150 bucks off amazon. But I was considering a Ryzen 5 3600 which goes for almost 200. I was wondering if I had made the right choice in going with the R7 2700X or did I miss out? I play a lot of games but also like running a lot of stress tests and I have a tendency to push things. The R7 has 8 cores 16 threads as opposed the the 6-core 12 thread R5. I choose the R7 2700X for the fact that I knew I could run programs like chrome, Spotify, and have room for the dreaded windows updates, and not feel a slow down in the game, but would the R5 done it better? And if I wanted to stream, the 2700x kinda Made more sense, but would the R5 do it better? Did I mess up? Please let me know!

[DailyProcrastinator]

Nothing wrong with your choice especially because the R7 2700x was cheaper, good buy!

[Jurrunio]

with only a 1060 you wont feel any difference, it's only with 5700XT/2070S class cards at 1080p where you may feel some difference.

[Vejnemojnen]

I'd recommend 2700x, due to some facts:

- cheaper ~ 20 USD price advantage locally. 

- highly selected --> From Zen+ cpu-s, these were cherry picked to maintain the best clock speeds, whereas 3600 is the "very bottom" of the Zen2 range.

- you get a cooler, which can be sold for ~20USD, and perfectly suitable for lesser CPU-s.

- And ultimately: with midrange graphics card, esp. on 1440p& higher graphics settings, the 2nd gen Ryzen holds up just fine. See this GPU scaling benchmark:

 

https://www.techspot.com/review/1968-ryzen-3600-vs-2600-gaming-scaling/

 

2700x will get more FPS, than 2600, and, even the latter is not that bad option for a midrange GPU. 2700x is a great choice at this moment. 

[NineEyeRon]

Buyers remorse be gone!

[Tristerin]

The slight difference is easily beaten by a mild overclock on your 2700x.  I readily beat out R5 3600 on benches etc with my R7 1700 with aggressive OC.

[Archer20]

You made the right choice. The 2700X is excellent and beats the 3600 depending on workload.

[GDRRiley]

I just bought a 2700 over a 3600 don't feel bad it was the better buy

[kaiju_wars]

I bought my 2700 a couple months before Zen 2 launched, granted I got my 2700 at a decent discount at the time.  I don't feel like I messed up, I'm happy with it.

[Midnitewolf]

The numbers I have seen seem to indicate that overall the 2700x and the 3600 perform about the same, at least in general.  There will be some cases where one or the other will stand out as performing better than the other but not enough to really worry about it or have any sort of buyers remorse.

[Mister Woof]

2700x will be well worth your $150 even if the 3600 is faster.

 

$150 for that chip is a steal.

[Beerzerker]

You did fine, that comes from a 2700x user that also has a 3600x onhand to use.

Only real differences are the non-x 3600 would run a little cooler on average due to it's lower wattage rating and it's IMC can clock RAM higher but all that is not enough to have any remorse over. 

You made a good purchase - Enjoy!

[Guest]

2700X is the Zen+ Flagship. Total beast mode. 

 

4ghz is stock boost all core clocks.

4300mhz (on the right board) is the max PBO overclock all cores.

 

Maybe 10% lower IPC than a 3700X give or take depending on the application comparison.

 

Good purchase, I paid around double that at release time. Couldn't wait ya know? Had to have it. Do not regret it. 

[Xiee]

No you didn't mess up. You got a good processor.

 

I was contemplating with getting either the 2700X or a 3600 as well. I wanted to get the 2700X but I figured that I'm not gonna need the extra cores anyway so I went with a 3600 since I just wanted the latest from AMD.

[Whiro]

Well you can get 3950x , than you will be sure you didn’t mess up  

[Brent744]

Like most others, I personally believe you made the right choice. I was in the same exact dilemma when I was upgrading my system, The 2700X was cheaper with more cores. I'm happy with the choice I made and I would do it again. The price is incredible for a high performance 8 core / 16 thread chip and I believe it's more of a future proof choice. The 3600 only has a slightly higher base clock which you likely won't notice the difference. From what I understand the 2700X will perform better in 4k gaming with the extra cores, which will eventually be the standard.

[MittWaffen]

you did mess up, 

I have both, and the 3600 is drastically smoother in gaming not FPS wise but smoothness. 
I believe the game cache on the 3000 series fixes a long standing hitching issue with the first and second gen ryzens. 

I would have went newer as they fix alot of strange bugs like these in the design. 

[Brent744]

18 minutes ago, MittWaffen said:

you did mess up, 

I have both, and the 3600 is drastically smoother in gaming not FPS wise but smoothness.

How do you define "smoothness"?

Usually when we're talking about a game engine's performance we will talk Frames Per Second because the higher FPS, the better the experience or the "smoother" it will feel.

Maybe you mean less micro stuttering on the 3600 or something? The 3600 does have a higher base clock so you're less likely to experience frame drops.

[Mister Woof]

39 minutes ago, Brent744 said:

How do you define "smoothness"?

Usually when we're talking about a game engine's performance we will talk Frames Per Second because the higher FPS, the better the experience or the "smoother" it will feel.

Maybe you mean less micro stuttering on the 3600 or something? The 3600 does have a higher base clock so you're less likely to experience frame drops.

he probably means FPS lows; i can confirm that my 8700k (which is still faster than the 3600) has better FPS minimums and less "hitches" than my 1600 at 4ghz in many games that tend to dip hard in CPU intensive areas, like most MMOs and cities, raids, etc. In those cases generally the GPU is just chilling doing almost nothing waiting for the cpu network thread

[Midnitewolf]

8 hours ago, MittWaffen said:

you did mess up, 

I have both, and the 3600 is drastically smoother in gaming not FPS wise but smoothness. 
I believe the game cache on the 3000 series fixes a long standing hitching issue with the first and second gen ryzens. 

I would have went newer as they fix alot of strange bugs like these in the design. 

White I do think there is something to be said for newer processors with new tech being better, there was also a significant price difference between the 2700X and the 3600 so that has to be factored in as well.  Also we are moving toward a time when core counts are going to have significant impact on performance so the 2700X, with its larger core count may very well find itself in a situation where some games perform better on it due to core count.   This is also something else to consider.  Lastly, that smoothness is somewhat subjective based on each individuals ability to perceive the difference and would rarely be a game breaking issue.  I guess my point is, when you consider all those factors, telling someone they definitively messed up is probably not accurate. There is nothing wrong with a 2700x, hell, aside from somewhat higher frame rates with my Vega 56, I don't notice all that much difference between my previous Ryzen 1600 and my current 3800X and we are talking a two generation jump there.

 

 

[Zberg]

Youre good.

 

I had a 3700x at launch that was a dud.  After fiddling around with it for a while and RMAing I was at bestbuy (who always match amazon/newegg) and the 2700x had plummeted in price.  I do some editing of videos (vacations, cycling, skiing, what have you) and am super happy having an 8 core/16 thread CPU.  The huge price drop was too good of a deal to pass up.

 

Sure there was a nice improvement to power efficiency and IPC with ryzen 3000.  But the 2700x is sitting in the sweet spot right now (where the 2600 was previously sitting).  Its awesome price and capabilities are just too good of a deal, especially if you do anything else other than game.

 

And in terms of gaming, my main rig is a 9900k/2080ti, so that is what I am used to.  I use the 2700x in a 1080p setup and its just fine.  I have never been close to CPU bottle necked, and have not experienced issues at all.  I play everything from esports, AAA open world, FPS, and it can more than handle everything.  The 2700x is an awesome CPU and a really good deal.