Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a good investment now?
Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a good investment now?
There's an offer currently running at scan.co.uk where I could get a ryzen 5 3600 bundled with Horizon Zero Dawn PC for £170. Considering that I will be buying the game anyway and it will probably cost at least £30 at launch that means the price of the 3600 will be about £140, if not less. I currently own a ryzen 5 2600X which I reckon I could probably sell for £100, bringing the cost of the new CPU down to only £40. This is obviously an insane deal for what I gather would be a good bump in performance. However, and this is where I need some advice, apparently there might be a new set of upgraded ryzen 3000 chips followed by the new 4000 chips coming out really soon? Do you think it would be worth it to take the deal now or wait and see if I can get a used ryzen 3000 once the new chips are out and perhaps get an even better deal? Is it even worth the upgrade?
Your perspective matters. Should I charge 40 now or double it for a bit more later if it improves?
It makes sense to save up for the 8-core model beforehand. Prices have risen a lot, but both CPUs are still around 6 cores, which won’t make much of a difference for your needs. I’m not sure how much the 4th generation will improve, but by then you’ll likely have enough money for a 3rd-gen 8-core and can judge performance from reviews. Even the 3rd gen should handle 144fps in most games, so upgrading strictly isn’t necessary.
We're only looking at these two CPUs under heavy workloads. Yes, I agree they both have six cores, but the difference in IPC won't make much of a difference. The 3600 offers a noticeably stronger FPU, which could be beneficial for certain tasks.
It seems like the CPU upgrade might not be as significant as it appears, but it still offers a reasonable boost. I mainly use SolidWorks and Inventor for CAD work, and my current tasks aren’t particularly demanding. Gaming remains the main focus of my PC. I doubt I’ll upgrade to the 4th generation anytime soon, especially not for a while. My requirements aren’t very high. The big concern is whether the 3600 would be a better option when the 4000 series launches, though that’s hard to say. If it improves over the 2600X and lasts a few more years, it might make sense. Also, I haven’t managed to get much success with overclocking my 2600X, but the 3600 could help a bit more.
Both models are 6C/12T CPUs, which makes the upgrade seem unnecessary. It might be wiser to hold off and switch to an 8-core 4000 series processor eventually. The stock cooler in the 2600x is superior to the 3600. Plus, the 2600x delivers better performance than the Haswell/Broadwell 6 cores. You could invest £40 now and receive a 3600 later, but if the 4000 series offers even higher performance per clock and you decide to upgrade again, that £40 could end up being wasted.