AMD Ryzen 5 3500X Reviewed: Beats Intel’s Core i5-9400F in Gaming and Content Creation

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    People always want things that they can’t have. That’s especially true in the tech space. It’s why there are so many reviews and videos out there of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and 4K gaming when barely a few percent of gamers have hardware in that ballpark. Today, we’re going to share something that’s so out of reach, you probably won’t be able to buy it even if you had the money. The folks over at Tom’s Hardware summarized a Chinese-language review of the Ryzen 5 3500X.

    This is a real unicorn of a processor. It’s the only Ryzen 3000 model with 6 cores and 6 threads–something that brings it to parity with the i5 9400F. The Ryzen 5 3600 is an excellent option for gaming, but pricing has made it ever so slightly out of reach for mainstream buyers. The 3500X goes up against the $150 Core i5-9400F, making it a no-brainer. Well, except for the fact that it’s only available as an OEM part in China. You’re probably never, ever going to see one of these. Nevertheless, let’s have a look at how it performs.

    According to Tom’s, the Ryzen 3500X edges out the 9400F in productivity tasks. Over a compiled list of productivity benches, including PCMark 10, among others, the 3500X scored 4.3 percent higher than the 9400F. Meanwhile, it trailed the 3600 by just 5.3 percent. This score is interesting because it indicates that the 3600’s extra threads don’t really play a big role: the 5.3 percent deficit is more in line with the 100 MHz clock speed back between the 3600 and 3500X. Cinebench multithreaded scores take a hit though, naturally. We’re looking at 2650 compared to 3696, with the 3600. It’s still better than the 2380 that the i5-9400F musters.

    Meanwhile, in gaming, all three parts are neck-and-neck. The two Ryzens are within the margin of error, here, with some games in the suite actually doing better on the 3500X. The CPU-intensive Assassin’s Creed Odyssey delivers identical results. All this points to the 3500X being of immense value to gamers, since it offers Ryzen 5 3600 gaming performance for APU money. Which would be great if it actually saw wider release than the Chinese OEM market. We can always dream, though.

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