5 3600 vs 7 2700x - price parity now

DWD1961

[H]ard|Gawd
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I've noticed the price of the 7 2700x creeping up into the 5 3600 area today on Amazon:

2700x - 169.00
3600 - 174.00

Sounds like a no brainier, unless you need 8 cores, and do you? Unless that 2700x price drops a lot in the next few days, or anyone here can tell me why I should buy the 2700x over the newer 3600, it's 3600 for me. Looking at gaming tests, the 3600 is faster than the 2700x. Otherwise they are just about the same overall, even though the 2700x has 2 more cores.
 
3600 has faster single thread and benches significantly better in multi-thread tests than the 2700x. I can't find any compelling reason to choose the 2700x.

Edit: And it consumes a lot less power.
 
AFAIK but I could be very wrong -- the 3600 is faster in some multithreaded scenarios because it has some additional AVX instructions that the 2700X doesn't.

For apples to apples comparison excluding these additional instructions, the 2700X still wins out I think in brute force multithreaded apps.
 
AFAIK but I could be very wrong -- the 3600 is faster in some multithreaded scenarios because it has some additional AVX instructions that the 2700X doesn't.

For apples to apples comparison excluding these additional instructions, the 2700X still wins out I think in brute force multithreaded apps.

Yeah, it's slightly higher in Cinebench R20 (for example). But I don't know... they are still very close.
 
Without seeing benchmarks...

For very high IO DB applications though, I'd likely lean towards the 2700X.
 
Unless there is a real reason for using 8 cores instead of 6, the 3600 seems to do everything the 2700x can do, and when it doesn't, it is very close. However, in all of the synthetic and real world tests I have seen, including FPS in gaming, there is virtually no difference in the 3600 and 2700x, and uses less power. 2700x, for some reason, has priced itself as obsolete.

The only problem is that the prices look very similar, the 2700x comes with the Wraith Prism. I could probably live with that while I found a more quite cooler. People are reporting high 70s just gaming with the stock 3600 cooler, which is that shitty Wraith Stealth. However, it's really not worth buying the 2700x, except the cost is going to be around 50 dollars less - if one keeps the Wraith Prism. Not a very good reason to buy the 2700x though.
 
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After looking through benchmark after benchmark, I'm still going to give the edge to the 3600 which wins in the vast majority of all cases. But of course, I think the one we (you) want is really a 3900x.
 
The 2700x has 100 MHz higher clocks over the 3600, and pulls higher sustained all-core turbo (which erases some fo the IPC increase.) it's a tossup in multicore, but I'd still buy the 3600 if you're mostly gaming (10% faster), or heavily-using AVX2 (much faster).
 
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What about power consumption and overclocking?

Just curious, I currently use a 2600 that I got for cheap.
 
What about power consumption and overclocking?

Just curious, I currently use a 2600 that I got for cheap.


The 2700x uses about 50w more fully-loaded (all-core). Power consumption when lightly loaded is closer, but still higher (10w). So yeah, unless you have a corner case, the higher efficiency of thew 3600 is worth it.

Both overclock about the same (5% or less)
 
The 2700x uses about 50w more fully-loaded (all-core). Power consumption when lightly loaded is closer, but still higher (10w). So yeah, unless you have a corner case, the higher efficiency of thew 3600 is worth it.

Both overclock about the same (5% or less)

Thats what I thought... These chips are binned and tweaked from the factory that overclocking gains are not like the past.

I was considering going to the 7nm chips when building my new rig because of the power savings going to 7nm vs 12nm, since where I live electricity is close to $.34/kWh.

So I will probably end up going to the refresh of this gen when it comes out if it is enticing enough.
 
IMO unless you really NEED the extra cores, the 3600 is the better CPU because of the superior IMC(less finicky) and double the L3 cache.
Having said that, the Wraith Spire is a far better heatsink than the Stealth, so if you don't have a good aftermarket cooler the 2700x (at $130-$140 Microcenter pricing) is better bang-for-your-buck. With a price of $169 vs $174 the 2700x loses most of that value.
If it were me and I did not have a good CPU cooler on hand I think I would probably go for the 2700x. If you already have a good heatsink, the $5 savings isnt worth it and I'd grab the 3600.
Remember with next gen Ryzen around the corner (possibly Q3 or Q4 of this year) the 2xxx and 3xxx series pricing will still see nice discounts.
...just my .02
 
After looking through benchmark after benchmark, I'm still going to give the edge to the 3600 which wins in the vast majority of all cases. But of course, I think the one we (you) want is really a 3900x.
LOL, no way. I learned a long time ago that for me needs, which are typing in this web browser and playing games, I only need a CPU that will run the video card I need to play games w/o bottle necking. Going as cheap as possible to get that is the way to go. I had a 2008 Bloomfield 920 running at 3.8Ghz that I am still using, although I jsut came back to gaming and have MMO accounts on onlde graphics engiens. Point biing is that I upgraded my Video card in late 2012 to a Power Color 9750, and the only 2008 i7 had plenty of headroom to run it full FPS. The real point is that I could ahve bought the 999.00 dollar Bloomfield i965 running at 3.33 Ghz, or the 920 at 240 bucks running at 2.6 Ghz, and I chose the 920 (Yeah, not a fair comparison, since I did clock the 920 to 3.8Ghz stable, but you get my point).

I mean if you have the money, yea, go for it. While you're at it, buy a home In Malibu, CA and a new Porsche Tycan too.

Porsche Tycan starting at 103, 000 USD
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Budget House in Malibu, CA Starting at 75, 000, 000.00 (yeah, that's million: Malibu Home

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LOL, no way. I learned a long time ago that for me needs, which are typing in this web browser and playing games, I only need a CPU that will run the video card I need to play games w/o bottle necking. Going as cheap as possible to get that is the way to go.

But a lot of gamers are constantly upgrading. So... buy a $200 CPU every 2 years. Or buy a $600-700 CPU every 5 years. Just an observation.

Edit: Quite often, that person that spent a lot ended up with a CPU that even after 5 years is outpacing the "new" $200 CPU by quite a bit, btw.
 
IMO unless you really NEED the extra cores, the 3600 is the better CPU because of the superior IMC(less finicky) and double the L3 cache.
Having said that, the Wraith Spire is a far better heatsink than the Stealth, so if you don't have a good aftermarket cooler the 2700x (at $130-$140 Microcenter pricing) is better bang-for-your-buck. With a price of $169 vs $174 the 2700x loses most of that value.
If it were me and I did not have a good CPU cooler on hand I think I would probably go for the 2700x. If you already have a good heatsink, the $5 savings isnt worth it and I'd grab the 3600.
Remember with next gen Ryzen around the corner (possibly Q3 or Q4 of this year) the 2xxx and 3xxx series pricing will still see nice discounts.
...just my .02

Good point on the new reeases, but I can't wait that long.
 
But a lot of gamers are constantly upgrading. So... buy a $200 CPU every 2 years. Or buy a $600-700 CPU every 5 years. Just an observation.

Edit: Quite often, that person that spent a lot ended up with a CPU that even after 5 years is outpacing the "new" $200 CPU by quite a bit, btw.
You missed my point. I bought the cheapest i7 in 2008, and it was still plenty of horsepoer to run the latest graphics card in 2012 with no FPS bottle necking. I'm still running that same rig for the MMOs I have subs on, which have older graphics engines and still getting high FPS at 1080p. That was almost 5 years, and even triple a games, I'm getting 70-100 FPS on lower graphics settings. Sure, when I upgrade my monitor to 244Hzand can get 200+ FPS I'll need more power,but already, I've stretched my last system over 12 years with one graphics card update in the middle.
 
You missed my point. I bought the cheapest i7 in 2008, and it was still plenty of horsepoer to run the latest graphics card in 2012 with no FPS bottle necking. I'm still running that same rig for the MMOs I have subs on, which have older graphics engines and still getting high FPS at 1080p. That was almost 5 years, and even triple a games, I'm getting 70-100 FPS on lower graphics settings. Sure, when I upgrade my monitor to 244Hzand can get 200+ FPS I'll need more power,but already, I've stretched my last system over 12 years with one graphics card update in the middle.

You are right, a lot of AAA games, since the new console generation is x86, have been fairly optimized on "lower end" hardware, which benefits people running old hardware as well.

Honestly, I upgraded my X58 system because of efficiency upgrades, with equivalent core count, and more performance, without a huge cost. And I believe Ryzen fits the bill. Also I was able to go to a very small form factor ITX case that is a sandwich layout, so no longer a big tower.

The same mindset goes for smart phones, there was a time when there was big leaps and bounds in the hardware around 2010-2015, but phones have stagnated, and not a lot of practical difference in phones. (I use the LG V20 currently, and that came out late 2016)

Thats why I try to buy things used, that is a few years old. It allows me to upgrade, without paying full price.
 
Thats why I try to buy things used, that is a few years old. It allows me to upgrade, without paying full price.

I also am a big believer in buying the top of the line of years past. That thing that cost so so so very much, that was the unachievable ultimate setup... now affordable and with plenty of life left. Obviously there are cases where "newer" might be more important. But usually not in my case anyhow.
 
I also am a big believer in buying the top of the line of years past. That thing that cost so so so very much, that was the unachievable ultimate setup... now affordable and with plenty of life left. Obviously there are cases where "newer" might be more important. But usually not in my case anyhow.

Especially for tech, since it depreciates so fast and becomes out of date.

Buying new is mainly for convenience, warranty, customer service, and the mental assurance that you are the first to use it...
 
You are right, a lot of AAA games, since the new console generation is x86, have been fairly optimized on "lower end" hardware, which benefits people running old hardware as well.

Honestly, I upgraded my X58 system because of efficiency upgrades, with equivalent core count, and more performance, without a huge cost. And I believe Ryzen fits the bill. Also I was able to go to a very small form factor ITX case that is a sandwich layout, so no longer a big tower.

The same mindset goes for smart phones, there was a time when there was big leaps and bounds in the hardware around 2010-2015, but phones have stagnated, and not a lot of practical difference in phones. (I use the LG V20 currently, and that came out late 2016)

Thats why I try to buy things used, that is a few years old. It allows me to upgrade, without paying full price.
Yep I too went ITX this time. I'll post a thread on my new system shortly and you can comment. I was going to use my oold x58 system as well. I was going to buy a used Xeon X5675 6 core that is still as fast as some of the newer CPUs. It drops right into the x58. You can get them for 25-50 bucks. I was going to do that and run it another several years. Look up specs and it will run any card out there no bottle necking. I had MB problems though so I decided not to do that (I think the caps and suppressors are not too good anymore). If it weren't for that old X58 MB RAM missing problem, I would be running that rig right now with 12GB of RAM. Shame too because the entire upgrade would have cost me 50 bucks. It still would have been in my Rosewill Thor v2 case, which is about a football field long. But, it would have allowed me to seriously startlooking for a 144hz or 244hz motitor to repolace my old ASUS 25.5 60Hz model, or upgrading my video card.

Anyway, I'll post my new parts soon.
 
Given the improvements to the Ryzen 3000 series, I would generally opt for the Ryzen 5 3600 over the Ryzen 7 2700X.
 
Yep I too went ITX this time. I'll post a thread on my new system shortly and you can comment. I was going to use my oold x58 system as well. I was going to buy a used Xeon X5675 6 core that is still as fast as some of the newer CPUs. It drops right into the x58. You can get them for 25-50 bucks. I was going to do that and run it another several years. Look up specs and it will run any card out there no bottle necking. I had MB problems though so I decided not to do that (I think the caps and suppressors are not too good anymore). If it weren't for that old X58 MB RAM missing problem, I would be running that rig right now with 12GB of RAM. Shame too because the entire upgrade would have cost me 50 bucks. It still would have been in my Rosewill Thor v2 case, which is about a football field long. But, it would have allowed me to seriously startlooking for a 144hz or 244hz motitor to repolace my old ASUS 25.5 60Hz model, or upgrading my video card.

Anyway, I'll post my new parts soon.


I jumped on the Xeon train around 2015, with an $80 x5650. I overclocked that CPU to about 3.8 with very mild voltage. I had some finicky issues getting it run my 24gb of ram.

Overall my P6T Deluxe was very flaky and finnicky. I meant to try out a P6T that I bought. But never got around to it.

Still the most fun overclocking experience I have had hands down.

I am super happy with my Ryzen system, and with it's disruptive pricing the Westmere 6 core time is long gone, along with the meltdown and specter updates nerfing performance on these systems adding insult to injury.

Just this week I impulse bought a Ryzen 1600 for $65 on eBay, with the intention of upgrading my old tower.
 
Generally the 3600x is significantly better in single threaded stuff and but is not far off been the same speed as a 2700x in multithreaded loads (much faster if its AVX)

on multicore the 3000 can hold a higher auto multi core boost then the 2000 and lower ryzen cpus (but it is possible to do 4.3-4.4ghz all core boost overclock)

had one streamer who went from a 2700x to a 3700x went from max cpu load with some dropped frames to 55-60% load no frames dropped (but yes that is AVX loads and good sign that doing AVX loads in one cycle instead of 2 is working extremely well)

i wouldn't recommend anything less then a 3000 cpu but you can pick up 2000 used cpus very cheap (with the right motherboard maybe upgrade path to a 4000 cpu at later date) i wouldn't buy a 1000 cpu
 
I bought an open box 2700x for $118. Sold game codes and will sell cooler. So about $50 eventually plus motherboard. I’ll sell it and upgrade to whatever final AMD chip gets supported by the motherboard. At 1440p it didn’t seem like the 3600 was faster than the 2700x. I have to admit Inreally liked the AMD prism cooler, but I am getting of LEDs at this point.
 
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