Smart Access Memory : How Does It Boost Ryzen 3000 Performance?
Smart Access Memory is AMD’s marketing term for their implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
What does that mean exactly?
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.
Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.
This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.
Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
While this AMD graphic above suggests that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path (and thus memory bandwidth) between the CPU and GPU, that is not true.
Smart Access Memory / Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.
What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.
Smart Access Memory For Ryzen 3000 : Requirements
This is what you currently require to enable AMD Smart Access Memory for Ryzen 3000 desktop processors :
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To sweeten the deal, AMD is offering a FREE copy of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with every purchase of a Ryzen 9 XT or Ryzen 7 XT processor, from 7 July until 3 October 2020!
Unfortunately, the Ryzen 5 3600XT does NOT qualify for the free game… 🙁
AMD Ryzen XT : Specifications Compared!
In this table, we compare the new Ryzen 9 3900XT against the Ryzen 9 3950X and Ryzen 9 3900X processors.
Specifications
Ryzen 9
3950X
Ryzen 9
3900XT
Ryzen 9
3900X
Fab Process
7 nm (CPU) + 12 nm (I/O)
Cores / Threads
16 / 32
12 / 24
Base Clock
3.5 GHz
3.8 GHz
Boost Clock
4.7 GHz
4.7 GHz
4.6 GHz
L2 Cache
8 MB
6 MB
L3 Cache
64 MB
PCIe Support
PCIe Gen 4 (24 lanes)
TDP
105 W
Bundled Cooler
NA
Wraith Prism
RGB
Launch Price
$749
$499
$449
And here is the Ryzen 7 3800XT compared to the Ryzen 7 3800X and Ryzen 7 3700X.
Specifications
Ryzen 7
3800XT
Ryzen 7
3800X
Ryzen 7
3700X
Fab Process
7 nm (CPU) + 12 nm (I/O)
Cores / Threads
8 / 16
Base Clock
3.9 GHz
3.6 GHz
Boost Clock
4.7 GHz
4.5 GHz
4.4 GHz
L2 Cache
4 MB
L3 Cache
32 MB
PCIe Support
PCIe Gen 4 (24 lanes)
TDP
105 W
65 W
Bundled Cooler
NA
Wraith Prism RGB
Launch Price
$399
$399
$329
Finally, we compared the Ryzen 5 3600XT against the Ryzen 5 3600X and Ryzen 5 3600.
Specifications
Ryzen 5
3600XT
Ryzen 5
3600X
Ryzen 5
3600
Fab Process
7 nm (CPU) + 12 nm (I/O)
Cores / Threads
6 / 12
Base Clock
3.8 GHz
3.6 GHz
Boost Clock
4.5 GHz
4.4 GHz
4.2 GHz
L2 Cache
3 MB
L3 Cache
32 MB
PCIe Support
PCIe Gen 4 (24 lanes)
TDP
95 W
65 W
Bundled Cooler
Wraith
Spire
Wraith
Stealth
Wraith
Spire
Launch Price
$249
$249
$199
AMD Ryzen XT : Our First Impressions
To be honest, the AMD Ryzen XT processors don’t really excite us that much, and here’s why…
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT
The Ryzen 9 3900XT has a slightly faster boost clock and loses its bundled cooler. Yet it costs $50 more than the Ryzen 9 3900X.
It would be better to stick with the cheaper Ryzen 9 3900 – you won’t notice the difference. And in case it’s not “fast enough” (seriously?), you can just overclock it.
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
This is the second-best Ryzen XT model of the trio, offering a 200 MHz faster boost clock than the Ryzen 7 3800X at the same price point.
You are basically trading the bundled Wraith Prism RGB cooler for a 200 MHz faster boost clock.
Frankly, unless you are planning to use water cooling, it might be a better idea to just buy the Ryzen 7 3800X and overclock using its Wraith Prism RGB cooler.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
This is really the best Ryzen XT model, offering a slightly faster boost clock with a better Wraith Spire cooler, at the same price as the Ryzen 5 3600X.
That makes the Ryzen 5 3600X completely pointless. We wouldn’t be surprised if AMD drops price on the Ryzen 5 3600X, or removes it from the line-up.
AMD Ryzen XT : Free Game Changes Dynamics!
AMD’s surprise announcement that they will bundle a free copy of the upcoming AAA game – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – changed everything.
If you are a gamer planning to buy this game, then it’s a great deal, because the game costs US$59.99 / £49.99 / RM 189.99!
Unfortunately, the Ryzen 5 3600XT does NOT qualify for the free game… 🙁
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The AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) is a slightly faster variant of the Ryzen 5 3600X, with a better CPU cooler.
Find out how it fares against the other processors, and why it left us quite perplexed…
AMD Ryzen 3000XT : Turbocharged? Not Quite…
The Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 5 3600XT are higher-speed variants existing 3rd Gen Ryzen processors. These XT variants are slightly different in their performance and the cooler they come with.
While the XT postfix implied these are turbocharged processors, that depends on the model :
3900XT vs 3900X : 100 MHz faster boost clock + $50 higher price tag, no Wraith Prism RGB cooler
3800XT vs 3800X : 200 MHz faster boost clocks, no Wraith Prism RGB cooler.
3600XT vs 3600X : 100 MHz faster boost clock, Wraith Spire instead of Wraith Stealth
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT Specifications Compared!
In this table, we compare the Ryzen 5 3600XT against the Ryzen 5 3600X and Ryzen 5 3600.
Specifications
Ryzen 5
3600XT
Ryzen 5
3600X
Ryzen 5
3600
Fab Process
7 nm (CPU) + 12 nm (I/O)
Cores / Threads
6 / 12
Base Clock
3.8 GHz
3.6 GHz
Boost Clock
4.5 GHz
4.4 GHz
4.2 GHz
L2 Cache
3 MB
L3 Cache
32 MB
PCIe Support
PCIe Gen 4 (24 lanes)
TDP
95 W
65 W
Bundled Cooler
Wraith
Spire
Wraith
Stealth
Wraith
Spire
Launch Price
$249
$249
$199
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT : Price + Availability
Here are the official prices for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) processor, which will be available for purchase starting 7 July 2020.
The AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) comes in a large retail box, bundled with an AMD Wraith Spire cooler inside.
When you fully unbox it, this is what you will find inside :
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT processor
AMD Wraith Spire CPU cooler
AMD Ryzen 5 case badge
AMD desktop CPU installation sheet
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT Hands-On Experience!
The AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) has six Ryzen processor cores, with a 3.8 GHz base clock, and a 4.5 GHz boost clock.
It supports SMT (simultaneous multi-threading), and can therefore handle 12 threads simultaneously. It also has a 95W TDP.
Like the previous generations, it has 512 KB L2 cache per core, with a total L2 cache size of 3 MB. But thanks to a larger transistor budget, it has a very large 32 MB L3 cache – twice that of the last-generation 2nd Gen Ryzen processors!
Like all other 3rd Gen Ryzen desktop processors, AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT still uses the AMD AM4 socket, and is drop-in compatible with existing AM4 motherboards.
You can just swap out your existing 3rd Gen Ryzen processor and drop in this processor without a BIOS update. If you are upgrading an older motherboard, make sure first update its BIOS to support the 3rd Gen Ryzen processor.
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AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at the work and gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, comparing it to 6 other processors :
CINEBENCH R20 is a real-world 3D rendering benchmark based on the MAXON Cinema 4D animation software.
It is a great way to accurately determine the actual performance of a processor in 3D content creation.
CINEBENCH R20 Single Core Performance
This Single Core test is not reflective of real world performance, but it is useful to find out the performance of the individual core.
Its high base clock and large L3 cache appears to give the Ryzen 5 3600XT an advantage over the other processors in the single core test, besting the Ryzen 7 2700X by 22.7%.
CINEBENCH R20 Multi Core Performance
The Multi Core test shows the processor’s real-world 3D rendering performance.
This is very good performance for a 6-core processor, performing just 4.4% slower than the Ryzen 7 2700X, which is an 8-core, 16-thread processor.
But note that it is just 2.2% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600X. Its performance advantages are mainly due to microarchitecture improvements in the 3rd Gen Ryzen.
Multi-Threading Boost
This is not a CINEBENCH benchmark result. The Multi-Threading Boost is our calculation of the performance boost that the processor’s Multi-Threading capability provides.
While performing better than the Ryzen 7 2700X, the Ryzen 5 3600XT does not do as well as the Ryzen 3 3300X, which has all of its processor cores in the same CCD (Core Chipset Die).
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT : Transcoding Speed
HandBrake is a free, open-source video transcoding utility, which converts a video file from one resolution / format to another.
As you can imagine, it’s very compute-intensive, which makes it a great benchmark for multi-core processors. In our test, we converted a 4K video of 1.3 GB in size into a 1080p video (HQ1080p30).
Despite having just six cores, the Ryzen 5 3600XT is 91.3% as fast as the Ryzen 7 2700X, which has 8 cores.
But notably, it’s just 1.4% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600X.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT : Radial Blur Speed
The radial blur filter adds the perception of motion to a picture. This is a compute-intensive operation that benefits from multiple processing cores.
This radial blur test was performed on Photoshop CC 14 using a single 13.5 megapixel photo, with a filesize of 4,910,867 bytes.
As a 6-core processor, the Ryzen 5 3600XT did well, coming within 17.6% of the 8-core Ryzen 7 2700X.
It also had a slightly wider 4% performance advantage over the Ryzen 5 3600X..
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Synthetic Game Test : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which supports DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
Time Spy – 2560 x 1440
The AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT was just 5.2% slower than the Core i7-8700K, and 16.9% slower than the Ryzen 7 2700X.
Of course, the CPU only has a slight influence on a game’s performance, so its effect on the overall gaming score is less significant.
Surprisingly, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT actually edged out the Core i7-8700K, and was just 2% slower than the Ryzen 7 2700X.
Time Spy Extreme – 3840 x 2160
At the higher 4K resolution, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT was just 3.2% slower than the Core i7-8700K, and 5.4% slower than the Ryzen 7 2700X.
Now check out the processors’ effect on the overall gaming score…
At 4K, it was neck-to-neck with the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 2700X. Obviously, CPU performance only has a small effect at this resolution.
F1 2019
F1 2019 is a relatively recent racing game by Codemasters, released on 28 June 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
1080p Gaming Resolution
Look at that. This is why the number of CPU cores don’t really matter when it comes to games. CPU performance has only a small effect on the frame rate.
1440p Gaming Resolution
At the higher 1440p resolution, the importance of CPU performance was even smaller.
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World War Z
Based on the 2013 movie, World War Z is a relatively recent third-person shooter game, released in April 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
1080p Gaming Resolution
The AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT did well, tying with the Core i7-8700K and Ryzen 5 3600X. But as you can see, the effect of CPU performance on frame rate is small, even at 1080p.
1440p Gaming Resolution
When we bumped the resolution up to 1440p, it really didn’t matter that much which processor you used.
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a 2016 game that supports multi-core processing and asynchronous compute.
In this game, the single core CPU performance has a significant effect on the actual frame rate.
We tested it on three resolutions using the DirectX 12 API at the High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
1080p Gaming Resolution
Showcasing the importance of single-core performance, the Ryzen 5 3600X came within 7% of the Core i7-8700K.
But note that it was just 1.5% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600X, and just 3.5% faster than the Ryzen 3 3300X!
1440p Gaming Resolution
At the higher 1440p resolution, the Ryzen 5 3600X was just 6.2% slower than the Core i7-8700K, and just 1.8% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600X, and 6.7% faster than the Ryzen 3 3300X.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT : Our Verdict!
Built around the Zen 2 microarchitecture, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) uses a chiplet design which combines 7 nm and 12 nm parts to deliver a more powerful, and power-efficient processor at a great price point.
The end result is significantly better single-core and multi-core performance over previous generation Ryzen processors.
There is no doubt that this 6-core, 12-thread processor offers great performance at a great price point, with a better Wraith Spire cooler to boot.
That said, we cannot understand why AMD would bother coming up with it in the first place.
On paper, it only offers a 100 MHz faster boost clock and a better Wraith Spire cooler over the existing Ryzen 5 3600X.
In real life, that translates into a negligible 1%~4% performance advantage over the Ryzen 5 3600X that no one will really notice.
Think of the Ryzen 5 3600XT as the Ryzen 5 3600X with a better Wraith Spire cooler… and a FREE game!
So who should, or should NOT, buy the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY)?
Buy : If it is the same price as the Ryzen 5 3600X, or at most 5% more expensive
Consider : If you are upgrading from a first-generation or second-generation Ryzen.
Avoid : If you are already using a 3rd Gen Ryzen processor, especially for a gaming system
Another alternative would be to purchase a Ryzen 5 3600X, especially if it is 10-15% cheaper.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT : Where To Buy?
Here are the official prices for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT (US | UK | AU | SG | MY) processor, which will be available for purchase starting 7 July 2020.
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