I'm planning to upgrade from my current Intel Core i5-6500 and am deciding between a Ryzen 5 5500, Ryzen 7 3700X, or possibly a Ryzen 5 3600. My main games are BeamNG.drive, Ready or Not, PC Building Simulator 2, the Jedi games, and Hitman: World of Assassination. I'll be using a GTX 970 4GB for a few months before upgrading the graphics card, and I'm buying the parts in New Zealand. Which processor would make the most sense for gaming and overall value?
3 Answers
For gaming, I’d lean toward the Ryzen 5 5500 if it costs about the same as the 3700X. Its individual cores are a little faster, it generally performs at least as well in games, and it uses less power. The 3700X’s extra cores are useful for heavier multitasking, but they don’t usually provide a major gaming advantage. A Ryzen 5 3600 is also still usable, though I’d only choose it if it’s noticeably cheaper.
The 3700X and 5500 are fairly close in gaming performance, so the better deal depends on their prices. The 3700X has 8 cores and 16 threads, while the 5500 has 6 cores and 12 threads but slightly stronger per-core performance. For a system focused mainly on gaming, I’d still pick the 5500 unless you also do regular rendering, streaming, or other heavily threaded work.
I’m getting a DeepCool AG200 as part of a motherboard deal, since larger 120 mm coolers may not fit properly in my case.
The GTX 970 will be the main limitation in many newer games, especially with its 4GB of VRAM, so the difference between these CPUs may not be obvious until you upgrade the graphics card. Both processors use the same AM4 memory and platform ecosystem, and the GTX 970 itself runs over PCIe 3.0, so choosing the 3700X does not give it extra graphics-card bandwidth. Either CPU would be a substantial improvement over an i5-6500, but the 5500 is the better gaming-focused choice at an equal price.
I can’t find a Ryzen 5 5500X3D locally, and the other X3D options are outside my budget because they require a newer platform.