Consider the trade-off between the two sizes to decide if saving a bit makes sense.
Consider the trade-off between the two sizes to decide if saving a bit makes sense.
The promise of the Am4 socket lasted until next year’s end, and the Ryzen 4000 series was the final supported model. However, waiting another two years to upgrade my aging Q9550 feels unappealing. My performance will stay around 60 FPS at 1080/1440p, with games like Ace Combat 7 running smoothly. I won’t stream or render—just play and keep GPU usage low (70-80%).
I’m planning to run modern titles at full resolution without any extra work. I have a B450 MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard with two 8GB DDR4-3200 modules, but finding the right RAM pair is tricky. A R5 3600 from a trusted seller would cost about $24.60 extra, or I could opt for a R5 2600X from a reputable online store for now. Buying a R5 3600 Retail price is around $232.60, and used Ryzen 3600 chips are hard to locate.
I’m considering waiting to see if the 3600 model drops in price, but many shops now advertise 30-day lowest-price guarantees. In the meantime, I’m leaning toward getting the R5 2600X ($304 with the board). It’s cheaper than the B450 Tomahawk MAX with R5 3600 ($14 less), though the latter has fewer rear I/O ports and average audio/network gear. The Carbon AC offers better power delivery, which could help me extend the AM4 lifespan if I install a top-tier R9 or 4000 series CPU later.
What do you think? Should I go with the third-party seller or choose the R5 2600X?
I chose the 3600 for its improved single-threaded speed, which would be helpful. I’m unsure of the precise prices you’re checking for the motherboard, but I recall the gaming pro ac was quite costly for a b450 board. The x470 gaming plus max might be more affordable, though I’m not sure if that’s actually available.
The mosfets match between the B450 Tomahawk and Gaming Pro Carbon.
The update brings a significant boost compared to the previous version. It's nearly as powerful as 2700x multicore, despite having two fewer cores. The single-thread speed matches those of any Intel K chips.