AMD’s Ryzen 3 has arrived. The company has expanded its Ryzen family this morning with two new processors, the 4-core, 4-thread Ryzen 3 1200 and 1300X. We were given the opportunity to learn more about these mainstream chips prior to their release, of which AMD promised greater experiences and performance gains for less money than the competition.
The first processor discussed was the Ryzen 3 1300X. Its base/boost clock speeds are 3.5 GHz and 3.7 GHz respectively. It has an XFR, or eXtended Frequency Range, of 200 MHz, allowing it to automatically overclock itself up to 3.9 GHz. According to AMD’s benchmarks comparing it to Intel’s Core i3-7300, the 1300X is up to 29% faster in multicore applications and 10% to 13% faster in select titles such as The Division (131 vs 120 FPS), Overwatch (151 vs 134 FPS), and DOTA 2 (106 vs 96 FPS). Said benchmarks were run with a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti at a resolution of 1080p. The Ryzen 3 1300X has an MSRP of $129.
The Ryzen 3 1200 has base/boost clock speeds of 3.1 GHz and 3.4 GHz with an XFR of 50 MHz. Its direct competitor is the Intel Core i3-7100. Gaming performance between the two is comparable, but Ryzen muscles ahead in video encoding benchmarks and other content creation tasks by 23% to 25%. For example, the 1200 completed a 1080p video encode via Handbrake in 689 seconds, whereas the i3-7100 took 901 seconds. The Ryzen 3 1200 retails for $109.
All Ryzen 3 processors include the quiet, low profile Wraith Stealth cooler. If you want something with a bit more color, AMD also announced that the programmable, RGB lighting-equipped Wraith MAX will be available for individual retail sale on July 27th.
The Ryzen 3 1200 and 1300X are built using the same efficient Zen architecture and processor die as in the Ryzen 5/7 lineups. Both have a low TDP of 65 watts. And as with their higher-cored siblings, Ryzen 3 processors are unrestricted. They’re multiplier unlocked, giving the end user full control over performance tuning and overclocking. AMD SenseMI Technology (Pure Power, Precision Boost, XFR, Neural Net Prediction, Smart Prefetch) is enabled on the entire lineup, as well. Virtual reality isn’t left in the dust with these mainstream processors, either. The entire Ryzen lineup is VR ready, though AMD does recommend at least the 1500X for a premium VR experience.
“Innovation and competition have returned to the PC market in the form of Ryzen,” AMD told us. Their goal is to provide consumers with a real choice of aggressively priced, true multicore processors. If Ryzen 3 performs as well as the numbers given, then system builders have yet another reason to be excited this year.
