Introduction

AMD today announced its 3rd generation Ryzen 3 desktop processor family based on the 7 nm "Zen 2" microarchitecture designed to compete with Intel's 10th generation Core i3 desktop processors at highly competitive price points. These include the Ryzen 3 3300X we're reviewing here and the entry-level Ryzen 3 3100, which is today's second review. This series is not to be confused with the Ryzen 3 3200G, which is a 12 nm APU based on the "Picasso" silicon and the "Zen+" microarchitecture. Both the 3300X and 3100 are 4-core/8-thread parts and see the introduction of SMT to the Ryzen 3 brand.

The Ryzen 3 3300X is based on the same "Matisse" multi-chip module design as the rest of the 3rd gen Ryzen processor family. While the higher-end models above the Ryzen 7 3800X use two chipsets, Ryzen 3 3300X uses a single 7 nm "Zen 2" chiplet paired with the same exact I/O die as the rest of the family. What this means is that the 3300X and 3100 offer the same I/O feature set as the $750 Ryzen 9 3950X.



AMD's Ryzen 3 3300X introduces segment-first PCI-Express gen 4.0 support. When paired with an AMD B550 or X570 chipset motherboard, these chips offer a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 port for graphics, at least one M.2 NVMe slot with fast PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, and support for significantly faster DDR4 memory standards than previous generations of Ryzen. These chips are practically as feature-rich as a Ryzen 5 3600 or 3700X, or 3950X, but with four cores (and eight threads).

The processor in this Ryzen 3 3300X review is clocked at 3.80 GHz nominal and has a max boost frequency of 4.30 GHz, as well as an unlocked multiplier that lets you overclock it further. Its four "Zen 2" CPU cores are localized to a single CCX inside a 7 nm chiplet (CCD), and it hence has a cache hierarchy of 512 KB L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of L3 cache uniformly shared between all four cores. This takes the "total cache" count, as AMD likes to call it, to 18 MB. The processor's TDP is rated at 65 W.

AMD is surprising both buyers and its competition with pricing. The 3300X is priced at just $120, a price at which Intel's cheapest Core i3-10100 starts. The Ryzen 3 3100 is even cheaper at just $100. At these prices, AMD is giving you unlocked multipliers for effortless overclocking and the in-box Wraith Stealth cooling solution. The TDP of both chips is rated at 65 W. The processor is compatible with AMD X570, B550, and older 400-series chipsets for which BIOS updates are needed.

In this review, we take the Ryzen 3 3300X for a spin across our refreshed CPU bench, where we pit it against a broad spectrum of rivals.