New AMD Ryzen 3 CPUs Bring Big Performance At 'Affordable Price'

'We think that this is going to be a very compelling value-priced offering from AMD,' says one AMD partner, who thinks the new processors from Intel's rival will create new refresh opportunities for the channel in the enthusiast and commercial markets.

AMD has revealed two new Ryzen 3 processors in the chipmaker's third-generation Ryzen desktop lineup that one partner says provides a big boost in performance at affordable price points.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced this week that the four-core Ryzen 3 3300X and four-core Ryzen 3 3100 will launch in May for a suggested retail pricing of $120 and $99, respectively, expanding AMD's 7-nanometer Ryzen desktop lineup that launched in July 2019.

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Randy Copeland, CEO of Velocity Micro, a Richmond, Va.-based AMD system builder partner, said he sees a big refresh opportunity for the channel in the enthusiast and commercial markets because the processors are providing a "huge jump in performance at a crazy affordable price point."

"We think that this is going to be a very compelling value-priced offering from AMD," Copeland said.

He said the pricing will allow Velocity Micro to provide powerful PC and workstation systems under $1,000 that "are going to be as capable as anything we were building just a couple years ago."

With support for multi-threading for the first time in a Ryzen 3, the Ryzen 3 3300X comes with four cores, eight threads, a 3.8GHz base block speed, a 4.3GHz boost clock speed, an 18MB cache and a 65W thermal design power. The Ryzen 3 3100 also has four cores, eight threads and the same TDP and cache size but lower frequencies of 3.6GHz for base and 3.9GHz for boost.

Compared to Intel's ninth-generation Core i3 processors, the new Ryzen 3 processors provide up to 20 percent better performance for gaming and up to 75 percent better performance for content creation applications, according to AMD.

"We're extremely excited about the Ryzen 3, particularly the 3300 X, because for an MSRP of $120, you're getting four cores, eight threads, and a 4.3GHz [boost] clock speed," Copeland said. "That'll run nearly any game or any pro application you want near the fastest speeds, but at a whole lot different price point."

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing many people to work from home, Copeland said the new processors will help customers who need to run high-performance applications on a budget.

"We're seeing a lot of people who are for the first time ever working from home, and the junky old computer they had over in the corner to occasionally check a web browser is now what they're trying to make a living on. And people have got to find a more capable, but affordable home computer, which is just a market that has been fairly dormant for the past few years," he said.

Thanks in part to AMD's new third-generation Ryzen processors, the chipmaker's share in the x86 desktop processor market grew to 18.3 percent against rival Intel in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the latest figures from research firm Mercury Research.

Since AMD's 7nm Ryzen processors launched last summer, Copeland said AMD now accounts for close to 50 percent of the company's PC sales.

"Which is something we just wouldn't have expected a couple of years ago," he said.