I remain amazed by the performance of Zen 2 efficiency.
I remain amazed by the performance of Zen 2 efficiency.
I recently got a Ryzen 5 3600 for my Xbox sleeper setup, and because the cooler was so small I had to lower its voltage. Now I’m familiar with both undervolting and overclocking, but what impresses me most is how much better this chip performs compared to a similar Intel processor. I have to admit, adjusting the clock speeds on Ryzen is trickier than what I’ve seen with Intel lately—especially for the U-series, H-series, and K-series models in the 14nm range. I wish I could control each core individually, but that’s not the goal here. The key takeaway is clear: when benchmarking, the 3600 consistently scores higher than the i7-8750H, pulling in around 3520/462 for Cinebench and 2568/404 for multi-threaded tasks. It also uses less power—averaging about 57W PPT versus roughly 60W+ on the i7 (which is a big improvement). To match the i7’s performance would require swapping to a higher-end model like the 8700K or 3700X, which could free up more resources for other activities.
It doesn't necessarily underclock more—it just shows up as a stronger underclocker thanks to the IPC and overall efficiency of Zen using its 7nm process. Finding a Ryzen chip that drops below 0.8v is unlikely, since most Intel chips, particularly mobile ones, usually hit around 0.6v and scale very well.