AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Quad-Core CPU Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Quad-Core AM4 CPU is launching today with an MSRP of just £104.99. That’s a full £20 cheaper than the Ryzen 3  1300X, making it even better value for money. The 1300X does have the performance edge, and it’ll offer a higher XFR overclocking on its own. However, if you’re using a B350/X370 motherboard, I strongly recommend you overclock either of these CPUs for maximum performance, and getting the most bang for your buck.

Overview

At little over £100, this is the most affordable Ryzen CPU to date. It’s a fraction of the price of their Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors, but of course, it’s got fewer cores and features to reflect that. The Ryzen R7 series is a multitasking powerhouse, no doubt about that. The Ryzen 5 is that sweet spot for gamers and streamers. The R3 series is prime for the budget market, as it still delivers decent gaming performance and day-to-day system performance.

Gaming

The 1080p gaming performance on this chip was pretty decent. For those who aren’t gaming at Ultra settings and extreme resolutions, it’s going to fit the bill perfectly. Of course, we got good 4K performance, but I doubt many are pairing this chip with a GTX 1080 Ti. However, our 4K tests do show that the PCIe throughput on this CPU is reliable and bottlenecking should not be an issue.

Every Chip Has Overclocking

Buying a Ryzen chip and not getting an X370 or B350 chipset motherboard is bonkers in my opinion. Obviously, the X370 is a bit expensive for this CPU, but any B350 motherboard will allow you to overclock your R3 CPUs to get the best performance. With a simple increase in the multiplier and manually setting the voltage to 1.2 – 1.2v, the R3 1200 hit a respectable 3.8 GHz. The overclock brought it super close to the 1300X, which overclocked to 3.9 GHz, so it’s a competitive option for those who don’t have the extra £20 to spare.

Should I buy One?

For those building a Ryzen AM4 system on a tighter budget, the Ryzen 3 is a no brainer. The R3 is the most affordable Ryzen chip ever, and it’s about half the price of Intel’s quad-core offerings, especially the ones that offer overclocking. It runs incredibly cool and uses very little power, so a modest PSU and CPU cooler are more than up to the task of getting the best out of this CPU too.

Closing thought, that while it’s rendering performance in Handbrake and Cinebench are “cons” here, I cannot mark the CPU down for these given it’s not the intended application, and it’s priced to reflect this too. Those tasks are when you need to look at the R5 and R7 ranges.

Pros

• One of the most affordable quad-core CPUs on the market
• Decent gaming performance
• Extremely easy to overclock
• Almost matched performance of 1300X once overclocked
• Efficient and cool
• Easy to keep cool

Cons

• None

“The cheapest Ryzen to date is an impressive bit of hardware. Delivering quad-core performance and easy overclocking that’s sure to please those building a system on a tighter budget”