The Invisible Hand of the Free Market: Why the Ryzen 5 3600 is the Indisputable Sweet Spot

When it comes to high-performance CPUs these days, the focus has shifted from clock speeds to processing cores. A single core with a higher frequency may not be as powerful as a multi-core processor with lower clock speeds. However, just three short years ago, four cores was all that was needed on the desktop, mainly because of a single company's decision for consumers. In this installment of "Why," we're going to explore why the Ryzen 5 3600 is considered the best bang for the buck.

The Ryzen 5 3600 is currently the number one bestseller on Amazon.com with third-gen Ryzen in general making up seven of the top ten, which is an unbelievable coup for AMD. It's a similar story on Newegg, where third-gen Ryzen is only eclipsed by previous-gen chips from both AMD and Intel that frequently end up on clearance specials. So, how did these multi-core rising CPUs come to dominate the market in the first place? To answer this, we have to go way back to the mid-2000s.

The last time AMD was a competitive threat to Intel was back in the mid-2000s when AMD had the Athlon X2 and Intel had the Core 2 Duo. However, that period is long gone, and now AMD has caught up with their Ryzen series of processors. The Ryzen 5 3600 is one such example of this resurgence in performance and affordability. With its impressive specifications, the Ryzen 5 3600 is no wonder it's become the go-to choice for many budget-conscious buyers.

AMD's older CPUs are still strong contenders, so it all comes down to compatibility. No matter what generation of Ryzen motherboard you have, you can actually run any of these CPUs. This means that if you're waiting for Zen 3, you can buy a Ryzen 5 2600 and save a buck today with the option of upgrading later on. And the cool thing is it works both ways too; if you've got a first-gen Ryzen system, you can actually get a significant increase in performance by upgrading to a Ryzen 5 3600 today and then just drop it in with a simple BIOS update.

This is a huge advantage for AMD right now because Intel's Z370 chipset broke compatibility on older CPUs with their Z490 successor. The Ryzen 5 3600 works seamlessly on any compatible motherboard, making it an excellent choice for those looking to upgrade or build a new system. By the way, AMD is due to launch fourth-gen Ryzen very soon, so get subscribed so you don't miss our review.

The Performance of the Ryzen 5 3600

There's a reason why our budget 4K video editing PC used a Ryzen 5 3600. Taking advantage of a compatible previous-generation motherboard, we got the cost of our whole workstation down below a thousand dollars and without any overclocking, impressed the heck out of Dennis who usually edits videos on a workstation that costs twice as much.

And don't take just our word alone; Steve over at Gamers Nexus found that in general productivity, the performance of this chip is roughly in line with Intel's Core i5-10600K, a CPU that costs nearly a $100 more and doesn't even have a cooler in the box. The Ryzen 5 3600 will handle gaming too, albeit with performance that is below but not far below team blue, especially at this price point.

This combination of acceptable gaming performance and stellar productivity has attracted tinkerers, content creators, and of course thrift-seeking gamers. It just straight up is the best all-rounder, do everything CPU. It's not the star of the show at anything, but it doesn't have to be; it can go wherever you need it, and it comes with every thing you need to run.

Salesforce Essentials: Making it Easy for Your Business to Adapt

This portion of this video was sponsored by Salesforce. Salesforce Essentials makes it easy for your business to adapt to your customer's needs in an increasingly digital work-from-anywhere world. By using Salesforce Essentials, you'll be able to generate new business and develop relationships with customers right from your CRM.

You can send messages to a specific list of recipients getting as broad or targeted as you like. You can create a help center page for your customers and assist them in getting the answers they're looking for. And you can leverage lead capture forms that are available in Salesforce, on your site. With Salesforce, you can meet your customers where they are to better assist them by connecting your email, phone, and social channels.

Just head to the link in the description to learn more about Salesforce Essentials. Thanks to Salesforce for sponsoring that portion of the video.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- A portion of this videois sponsored by Salesforce.Watch till the end to learn more.When we think of a highperformance CPU these days,it's all about the processing cores.I mean sure, 5.3 gigahertzis more than five gigahertz,but if you've only gotfour cores versus eight,you're getting left behind.But that's not how things used to be.Just three short years ago,four cores was all youneeded on the desktop,mostly because a singlecompany decided that for you.So in this installment of why- Theadvertiser friendly content.are you all buying this?We're gonna see why theinvisible hand of the free marketthinks that the Ryzen 5 3600is the indisputable sweet spot.(techno music)It's because it's thebest bang for the buck.Video over. Thanks for watching guys.If you're looking forsomething else to watch,keep watching this video.The Ryzen 5 3600 iscurrently the number onebestseller on amazon.com withthird gen Ryzen in general,making up seven of the top 10,which is just anunbelievable coup for AMD.It's a similar story on Neweggwith third gen only eclipsedby previous gen chipsfrom both AMD and Intelthat frequently end upon clearance specials.But how did these multi-core rising CPUscome to dominate themarket in the first place?To answer this, we have togo way back to the mid 2000s.The last time that AMD was acompetitive threat to Intel.AMD had the Athlon X2 andIntel had the Core 2 Duo.And even back then the advantagesof having more CPU coresin those cases, two, weremostly in making sure thatbackground tasks wouldn'tsuddenly spike your CPU and grindwhatever you were doing in the foregroundto a screeching halt.When Phenom II flopped andAMD's disastrous FX CPUs failedto provoke a response out of Intel,the industry kind ofsettled into quad coreas the top of the linewhile software continuedto play catch up.That meant that despite multi-threadingbecoming more mainstreamas older single core CPUs became obsolete,most software could onlyreally count on there beingtwo to four cores in the typical computersold at your local Best Buy.So that is what mostgames and desktop softwaregot optimized for.Now Intel kept goingwith the easy to produceand easy to remember productlineup all the way until 2017when generationalimprovements became so meagerthat something had to give.Enter AMD Ryzen with upto double the CPU coresfor roughly the same price.I mean sure, early software struggledto take advantage of the new coresnot to mention AMD's unique core layout,but today this has been mostly resolvedand AMD has not only caught up with Intel,but have actually surpassedthem in many ways.Not that it was easy.At the root of the trouble,was GlobalFoundries,AMD chip production partnerwho struggled with 14 nanometerand later 12 nanometer productionthat led to stability issuesdue to poor quality Siliconand even consumers who wanted Ryzen CPU,couldn't always find one on the shelfdue to product shortages.Unlike lttstore.com whereyou never even see a shelfcause it's online.With today's third gen rises though,AMD has two big things going for them.First, is TSMC's much improvedseven nanometer process.This is big. Well,metaphorically speaking.While nanometers aren't always relevant,seven nanometer was a major leap forwardand provided a much neededshot in the arm for Ryzenand enabled the second big improvement,the chiplet design that'sused throughout the lineup.Chiplets are Core Complex Dies or CCDs,are made much smaller thantraditional all-in-one processordies because what they do isthey move all the complex I/Oto a separate die all together,allowing AMD to essentiallyjust produce one typeof small CCD and then thanksto the magic of binning,bundled them withwhichever I/O die they needsince they're essentiallythe same physical designacross the entire product stack.This means that overallperformance, stability,and yields, all improveand the number of corecombinations increases.So a single CCD chip like our Ryzen 5 3600can have anywhere fromfour to eight cores,and those exact same CCDs canbe combined and rearrangedin an array of up to eight of themto create up to a 64 core thread ripper.That's very streamlined froma production standpoint.Now back to the 3600 for a moment though,this is a CPU that kindof straddles the linebetween the old and the newwith six reasonably fastmultithreading capable coresand with very attractiveprice, about $205.Not to mention, that it comeswith a cooler in the box.Although we wouldn't recommend using thatif you wanna over clock,which of course though,you're free to do on all Ryzen CPUs.AMD's older CPUs are stillstrong contenders though,so it all comes down to compatibility.No matter what generation ofRyzen motherboard you have,you can actually run any of these CPUs.So if you're waiting for Zen 3,you can buy a Ryzen 52600 and save a buck todaywith the option of upgrading later on,and the cool thing is it worksthe other way around too.If you've got a first gen Ryzen system,you can actually get a significantincrease in performanceby upgrading to a Ryzen 5 3600 today,and then just drop it inwith a simple BIOS update.This is a huge advantage for AMD right nowbecause Intel Z370 chipsetactually broke compatibilityon older CPUs with their Z490 successoron a completely new socket.So if you're like most people,you'll probably feel a bitburned about only getting twogenerations of compatibilitywith team blue for all these years,when for the past several years,AMD has done a muchbetter job of maintainingintergenerational compatibility.By the way, AMD is due to launchfourth gen Ryzen very soon,so get subscribed so youdon't miss our review.As for the performance of this puppy,well, there's a reason whyour budget 4K video editing PCused a Ryzen 5 3600.Taking advantage of a compatibleprevious generation motherboard,we got the cost of our whole workstationdown below a thousand dollarsand without any overclockingimpressed the heck out of Dennis,who usually edits videos on a workstationthat costs twice as much.And don't take just our word alone.Steve over at Gamers Nexusfound that in general productivity,performance of thischip is roughly in linewith Intel's Core I5, 10600K,a CPU that costs nearly a $100 moreand doesn't even have a cooler in the box.And it's no secret that the Ryzen 5 3600will handle gaming too, albeitwith performance that below,but not far below team blue,especially at this price point.This combination ofacceptable gaming performanceand stellar productivityhas attracted tinkerers,content creators, and ofcourse thrift seeking gamers.It just straight up isthe best all-rounder,do everything CPU.It's not the you know, starof the show at anything,but it doesn't have to be, itcan go wherever you need it,and it comes witheverything you need to run.It's just great value.This portion of this videowas sponsored by Salesforce.Salesforce Essentials makesit easy for your businessto adapt to your customer's needsin an increasingly digitalwork from anywhere world.By using Salesforce Essentials,you'll be able to generate new businessand develop relationships with customers,right from your CRM.You can send messages to aspecific list of recipientsgetting as broad or astargeted as you like.You can create a help centerpage for your customersand assist them in getting theanswers they're looking for.And you can leverage leadcapture forms that are availablein Salesforce, on your site.With Salesforce, you can meetyour customers where they areto better assist them byconnecting your email,phone and social channels.Just head to the link in the descriptionto learn more about Salesforce Essentials.Thanks to Salesforce for sponsoringthat portion of the video,now back to other Linus.Thanks for watching guys.If you enjoyed this video,hey maybe go check outour most recent \"Why'severyone buying this?\",where we focused on TVs andthe manufacturing challengesthat they face to bring costs down.\n"