RYZEN 5 3500

[testcy]

Is RYZEN 5 3500 still worth considering for a new inexpensive build? This is the only choice I have supporting PCIe 4.0 other than the RYZEN 5 5600X at twice the price. Or should I forget about AM4 altogether?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Whats the rest of the build? Budget? Country?

 

Generally I'd say its fine, but don't use pcie gen 4 as a major feature as its unlikely to make a big difference.

[Eigenvektor]

17 minutes ago, testcy said:

This is the only choice I have supporting PCIe 4.0

What use case do you have that requires PCIe 4.0, but doesn't also require a powerful system?

[testcy]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Whats the rest of the build? Budget? Country?

 

Generally I'd say its fine, but don't use pcie gen 4 as a major feature as its unlikely to make a big difference.

Still thinking about the rest, but are you saying that I could stick to PCIe 3.0 and SATA for storage without much performance loss?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, testcy said:

Still thinking about the rest, but are you saying that I could stick to PCIe 3.0 and SATA for storage without much performance loss?

yea generally thats the case, might want to keep a eye out for those x4 and x8 gpus that might have a decent performance jump on gen 4.

[Eigenvektor]

3 minutes ago, testcy said:

Still thinking about the rest, but are you saying that I could stick to PCIe 3.0 and SATA for storage without much performance loss?

Depends on your use case, but generally absolutely yes. There is very little benefit to a PCIe 4.0 NVMe for general system usage and gaming

[testcy]

29 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

yea generally thats the case, might want to keep a eye out for those x4 and x8 gpus that might have a decent performance jump on gen 4.

 

28 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Depends on your use case, but generally absolutely yes. There is very little benefit to a PCIe 4.0 NVMe for general system usage and gaming

Would even RYZEN 5 4600G be a good choice if not much into gaming then?

[Eigenvektor]

22 hours ago, testcy said:

Would even RYZEN 5 4600G be a good choice if not much into gaming then?

Sorry if I appear to be repeating myself, but what is your use case? What is your performance expectation for the system?

 

If you aren't gaming, it's probably fine, but if you expect to do productivity tasks such rendering videos or similar, it's likely undersized. If all you do is surf the web and watch the occasional video stream, the CPU and its iGPU should be a perfect match. It helps if you mention what you want to do, rather than what you don't want to do.

[testcy]

On 8/9/2024 at 4:45 PM, Eigenvektor said:

Sorry if I appear to be repeating myself, but what is your use case? What is your performance expectation for the system?

Simple tasks, like internet, office, watching and some video editing (up to 4K). I am not into gaming in general, but I would still get something capable of light gaming, in any case. Ideally something that would last for the next few years. I am still using DDR3 and SATA, so the plan was to go for DDR5 and PCIE4 NVMe (AM5),  but if these would not offer a noticeable performance benefit, I am also thinking of other options (AM4).

[toasty99]

Not sure why you'd consider a 3500. It tends to be a $50 cpu and it's only 6 cores and 6 threads. If I remember right the 3500 also has half the cache of the 3500x which further hurts performance.

 

You can typically find a Ryzen 3600 for basically $5-10 more and a Ryzen 5600 for $25 or so more on AliExpress.

 

If it were me, I'd just spend the $75 and get a Ryzen 5600. You can get a basic thermalright 120mm tower cooler for like $15-20.

 

As for pci-e 4.0, I wouldn't care if a CPU supports it because there's absolutely no way I'm pairing a low end CPU like this with a b550 motherboard. Get a cheap b450 board and save $20. Pci-e 4.0 doesn't really make much difference in real world SSD usage scenarios, especially with a crappy budget drive you'd presumably be buying based on the rest of the build.

 

The only reason 4.0 matters is if you get a GPU that only has 4x lanes or 8x lanes. The rx 6600 loses a little performance with only 8 lanes but it's not a big deal. The 6600xt/6650xt loses a little more, and should probably be avoided. The rtx 4060, rtx 4060ti, Rx 7600(and 7600xt), RX 6500xt, and RX 6400 should be absolutely svoided on 3.0 boards.

 

At first glance that looks like a bigger deal than it is because the 6700xt, 3070, 3060, 3060ti, pretty much the entire Rtx 20 series, the 5700/5700xt, and quite a few other gpus all have plenty of lanes. It's pretty easy to avoid problematic gpus as long as you research. Down the road, it may be a bigger issue if newer cards limit pci-e lanes, it may not but realistically a Rtx 4090 isn't really bottlenecked by Pci-e 3.0 so as long as any card you buy has 16 lanes you'll realistically move on from this build long before it's an issue.

[Lurking]

PCI 3 Nvme SSD runs circles around any SATA SSD. I wouldn't make PCI4 a deciding feature on a older design lower performance system. 

 

State what software you use for 4K editing and budget and someone can give better advice on complete hardware.

[testcy]

22 hours ago, toasty99 said:

Not sure why you'd consider a 3500. It tends to be a $50 cpu and it's only 6 cores and 6 threads. If I remember right the 3500 also has half the cache of the 3500x which further hurts performance.

 

You can typically find a Ryzen 3600 for basically $5-10 more and a Ryzen 5600 for $25 or so more on AliExpress.

 

If it were me, I'd just spend the $75 and get a Ryzen 5600. You can get a basic thermalright 120mm tower cooler for like $15-20.

 

As for pci-e 4.0, I wouldn't care if a CPU supports it because there's absolutely no way I'm pairing a low end CPU like this with a b550 motherboard. Get a cheap b450 board and save $20. Pci-e 4.0 doesn't really make much difference in real world SSD usage scenarios, especially with a crappy budget drive you'd presumably be buying based on the rest of the build.

 

The only reason 4.0 matters is if you get a GPU that only has 4x lanes or 8x lanes. The rx 6600 loses a little performance with only 8 lanes but it's not a big deal. The 6600xt/6650xt loses a little more, and should probably be avoided. The rtx 4060, rtx 4060ti, Rx 7600(and 7600xt), RX 6500xt, and RX 6400 should be absolutely svoided on 3.0 boards.

 

At first glance that looks like a bigger deal than it is because the 6700xt, 3070, 3060, 3060ti, pretty much the entire Rtx 20 series, the 5700/5700xt, and quite a few other gpus all have plenty of lanes. It's pretty easy to avoid problematic gpus as long as you research. Down the road, it may be a bigger issue if newer cards limit pci-e lanes, it may not but realistically a Rtx 4090 isn't really bottlenecked by Pci-e 3.0 so as long as any card you buy has 16 lanes you'll realistically move on from this build long before it's an issue.

I would get a 3600 if I could find one or a 5600 if the price difference is not big where I buy from, but I have very few options in B450. So I would probably have to buy a B550 and unless I get one of the cheapest I can find, it could cost almost as much as a B650. And if I was to buy a GPU, I would obviously want one that takes advantage of the motherboard supporting PCIE 4.0, so what would work best? Overall, is it worth investing in such a setup or consider AM5?

[toasty99]

On 8/12/2024 at 7:31 AM, testcy said:

I would get a 3600 if I could find one or a 5600 if the price difference is not big where I buy from, but I have very few options in B450. So I would probably have to buy a B550 and unless I get one of the cheapest I can find, it could cost almost as much as a B650. And if I was to buy a GPU, I would obviously want one that takes advantage of the motherboard supporting PCIE 4.0, so what would work best? Overall, is it worth investing in such a setup or consider AM5?

No GPU actually takes advantage of PCI-E 4.0 x16. Yes, even a Rtx 4090 will perform basically the same on 3.0 vs 4.0.

 

Some gpus are limited to 4.0 x4 and 4.0 x8 and are bottlenecked on 3.0 for that reason.

 

B450 for that reason is really no worse than b550, and if it's cheaper is a better buy on a budget. If they are the same price, then yes might as well get b550.

 

As for not being able to find a Ryzen 3600 or Ryzen 5600 that's unusual as those are two of the most popular cpus worldwide. What region is this? Can you not import from AliExpress?

[testcy]

4 hours ago, toasty99 said:

No GPU actually takes advantage of PCI-E 4.0 x16. Yes, even a Rtx 4090 will perform basically the same on 3.0 vs 4.0.

 

Some gpus are limited to 4.0 x4 and 4.0 x8 and are bottlenecked on 3.0 for that reason.

 

B450 for that reason is really no worse than b550, and if it's cheaper is a better buy on a budget. If they are the same price, then yes might as well get b550.

 

As for not being able to find a Ryzen 3600 or Ryzen 5600 that's unusual as those are two of the most popular cpus worldwide. What region is this? Can you not import from AliExpress?

I can now find both Ryzen 3600 and Ryzen 5600, but B450 motherboards I am considering with similar specifications as B550 motherboards are only about 20% cheaper. I don't think anything cheaper will be a good choice.