How To Pick The Right AMD Ryzen CPU For Your PC [Guide]

[Music] amd has won gamers over with its ryzen series of cpus this cpu lineup marked amd's return to form and more importantly provided intel with some much needed competition by offering higher core counts at lower prices in short verizon cpus are now the go-to option for many gamers and to be frank it doesn't seem like this is going to change anytime soon it's taken intel a long time to bounce back and start offering specs that are on par with amds by this time the ryzen series has picked up momentum and it's just going with it that's why the topic of today's video isn't whether or not you should get a ryzen cpu but which one it should be so stay tuned because all of the info you'll ever need to know about ryzen cpus is coming right up much like the intel core series the ryzen lineup is divided into the following brands ryzen 3 ryzen 5 ryzen 7 and ryzen 9. these numbers don't actually mean a thing by the way intel's marketing team just figured out that 3 5 7 and 9 sounds a lot better than 1 2 3 and 4. and amd just copied this ryzen 3 cpus are affordable solutions that offer the lowest core counts that said these cpus are still perfectly capable of running the latest aaa titles pair them with mid-range graphics cards like the gtx 1660 and some speedy ram and you could be running assassin's creed odyssey just shy of 60 fps on ultra high settings bump the settings down a bit and a stable 60fps becomes quite doable that said the best value is still found in the ryzen 5 cpus these are mid-range solutions that strike the best balance between price and performance more importantly verizon 5 cpus are the more future-proof option for reasons we'll list when we discuss the individual specs the ryzen 7 cpus are quite pricier than their ryzen 5 cousins making them less cost efficient this is offset by the fact that you don't really need a ryzen 7 cpu unless you're building a high-end pc or workstation these are performance-oriented cpus that far exceed the requirements of most gamers and finally we have ryzen 9 cpus we'll be honest you don't really need a ryzen 9. not unless you're building a pc with the new rtx 3080 graphics card these graphics cards may have been released at super consumer friendly prices but 500 for a graphics card is still a little bit too much for most gamers plus the capacitors in these graphics cards have been causing some serious issues lately so perhaps it's best to wait for the dust to settle on the new nvidia 3000 series graphics cards before committing to them in any case the point here is that ryzen 9 cpus are simply overkill unless you're making the most high-end gaming pc ever there are also ryzen threadripper cpus but these don't have much in common with the standard ryzen lineup we prefer to think of them as their own series just like the epic cpus if you'd like to hear what the threadripper and epic cpus are all about and how they compare to the standard ryzen lineup check out the link in the description it'll take you to a video that's all about this topic for now let's take a look at cpu specs you should be familiar with and how impactful they are as we've already mentioned core counts are what brought amd back from depth and obscurity and what propelled the company into greatness just looking back at what the standard for core counts was in the years prior to the ryzen lineup gets us shivering at the time of this video's release the ryzen 3 cpus feature four cores and eight threats the ryzen 5 cpus come with 6 cores and 12 threads the ryzen 7 cpus pack 8 cores and 16 threads and the ryzen 9 cpus sit comfortably at 12 cores and 24 threads except for the ryzen 9 3950x which features a grand total of 16 cores and 32 threads now core counts are one of the most marketable spec cpus have precisely because they're so quantifiable everyone knows that six cores is better than 4 cores even if they don't know what it's better for the short answer is multitasking each core and thread can only do one task at a time so having access to more cores and threads enables your pc to juggle more tasks at any given time but how impactful are cores and threads really and more importantly how impactful are they for gaming well as we've mentioned you can still get by on cpus that have only four cores this is why the ryzen 3 cpus are genuinely a good option for budget builds the main reason we don't recommend using them for mid-range builds as well is because they lack future proofing in 2020 the sweet spot for core counts is 6 cores that's why we recommend ryzen 5 cpus to all gaming pc builders ryzen 7 cpus with their 8 cores and 16 threads are simply overkill for now another hugely important cpu spec as far as performance is concerned is the clock speed this specification measured in gigahertz tells you how many operations a single core can carry out in a second so the higher the clock speed the better the performance although having the cpu operate at higher clock speeds will also result in more heat generation when it comes to gaming the clock speed is arguably more important than the core count which is why intel cpus still tend to win out in terms of in-game performance the latest ryzen 5 cpus feature base clock speeds of anywhere between 3.6 and 3.9 gigahertz while their boost clock ranges from 3.9 to 4.7 gigahertz now here's the thing unlike the intel core cpus all ryzen cpus can be overclocked meaning you can set them to operate at clock speeds that are higher than the normal conversely their overclocking potential is lower than that of an unclocked high-end intel core model so if you're looking to do some serious overclocking maybe don't get a ryzen cpu but this isn't a problem for most users why well overclocking just isn't that big of a deal for casual gamers overclocking voids the warranty and it can cause the system to become unstable what's more the performance boost you can get through overclocking typically isn't all that noticeable especially not for gaming it's more of a hobby that some pc enthusiasts are into than something that's necessary or even advised if all you're interested in is gaming and you're about to buy a new ryzen cpu then you absolutely do not need to overclock your cpu all modern cpus are good enough to run all the aaa titles out of the box next up we have a spec that isn't all that popular among gamers and that is cache memory simply put this is a small amount of memory that the cpu uses to store important data that it may need to access quickly to say that cache memory doesn't play a role in the overall performance and stability of a cpu wouldn't exactly be right but we can safely say that it doesn't matter for gaming and since most ryzen cpus come with similar cache sizes anyway this is a spec you can safely overlook when deciding on the right cpu for your build the ryzen lineup isn't comprised entirely of cpus it also features a couple of apus what are apu's we have a whole video dedicated to this question that you should look up if you're interested in the long and detailed answer the short version is this apu is just a fancy term for a processor that features the cpu and gpu on the same die in other words apus come with integrated graphics and can be used in builds without a discrete graphics card and with the recent advancements in the apu fields these integrated graphics can finally be used for some true gaming granite builds with apus will never reach fps council builds with discrete graphics cards but this is to be expected nevertheless they are still capable of reaching perfectly playable frame rates you may have to lower the resolution or graphics in some games to get there but you can get there for example both the ryzen 3 3200g and the ryzen 5 3400g can run fortnite at well over 60 fps at 72p on medium graphics so if you're working with a really tight budget this may be an answer just remember that apus have lower core counts than regular ryzen cpus so if you're not planning to make use of the integrated graphics then getting an apu can be detrimental to overall performance compatibility is one of the most important factors to keep in mind when shopping for a new cpu after all not every cpu is compatible with every motherboard the two components need to use the same socket if they are to work together here's the good news excluding the threadripper models all ryzen cpus use the same am4 socket which makes our lives so much easier when building however not all chipsets support all cpus so you still need to make sure that the cpu you want to get is compatible with the motherboard's chipset for a list of all of the am4 chipsets you should check out the link in the description you've probably noticed over the course of this video that certain cpus we've mentioned end in letters rather than numbers when this is the case the letter can tell us a lot about the cpu in question models that end in an x like the ryzen 5 3600x feature a higher clock speed and better overclocking potential than others without the x designation these cpus still don't measure up to the unlocked intel core models in terms of their overclocking potential in case you were wondering models that end in a g like the ryzen 5 3400g are apu's there are some other letter designations as well but these are very rarely used for an explanation of what they mean please refer to the article linked in the description lastly we need to ask ourselves whether getting the newest cpu is even necessary and surprisingly the answer is yes at least in most cases this isn't to say that you need to upgrade your cpu every time a better one comes out far from it a good cpu can easily last you 5 years before it starts to struggle running the latest games but if you already need to buy a cpu then getting the newest one is often your best bet the thing is cpu prices don't depreciate all that much with age so what little money you'd save by opting for an older cpu often isn't indicative of the performance you're losing out on this is under the assumption that you're purchasing the cpu from the store even though it's a last-gen model as for purchasing second-hand cpus that's a different matter entirely this can be worth it from a financial standpoint especially as cpus are some of the safer pc components to get used but you should still follow all the guidelines we've prescribed in our video on buying second hand hardware additionally you should look at how big of a performance gap there is between the current and last-gen cpus the third generation of ryzen cpus offered a sizeable performance boost when compared to second gen ryzen cpus but this isn't the case with the second and first generation of ryzen cpus the fourth generation ryzen cpus that are set to release shortly will utilize the new zen3 architecture so if you aren't in a hurry it's best to wait for the reviews to come out before committing to a 3000 series cpu on the other hand we also know that this will be the last generation of ryzen cpus to utilize the am4 socket so if future proofing is something you value a lot you might want to skip the ryzen 4000 cpus and wait for the ryzen 5000 cpus in conclusion different ryzen cpus will appeal to different users for different requirements so there's no one answer that we can give that will hold true for everyone however we can generalize and in general the ryzen 5 cpus stand out as the most cost effective of the bunch they have enough course to run all of the latest aaa titles smoothly and some left over for the sake of future proofing and unless you're getting a high-end gpu they won't cause a bottleneck either so for most users the right pick will be ryzen 5. but for those on a tight budget ryzen 3 still presents great value as do the new amd apus just make sure not to get an apu if you're already going to buy a discrete graphics card for your pc ryzen 7 and especially ryzen 9 cpus are more geared towards professionals than gamers but a ryzen 7 will not feel out of place in a high-end gaming rig either as for which generation of ryzen cpus you should opt for you can never go wrong with the latest gen products those who skipped the ryzen 2000 series and patiently waited for the ryzen 3000 series certainly got their money's worth but not every generational gap is going to be this huge and that about does it for this video we hope you found it helpful you can let us know if you have by liking it sharing it with friends and leaving a comment and if you want to see more content like this make sure to subscribe to our channel and enable notifications so that you never miss a new video we upload a new one every week so it shouldn't be long now until the notification bell brings up in the meantime may your games be fun and your losses view and as always we'll see you next time on gaming scan

Channel: GamingScan

Views: 483,349

Keywords: gaming, which ryzen, which amd ryzen, which ryzen cpu, which amd cpu, amd cpu guide, ryzen 3 vs ryzen 5, ryzen models, amd ryzen 3 vs 5, ryzen 5 or 7, ryzen x, amd ryzen comparison, ryzen cpu comparison, which ryzen to buy, ryzen x vs non x, ryzen generations, ryzen 5 vs 7, ryzen 7 vs 9, ryzen 5 vs 9

Id: hb345ItpHwA

Length: 13min 47sec (827 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020