AMD’s Ryzen 3000XT CPU refresh is here—benchmarks inside

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Specs at a glance: Ryzen 3000XT CPUs, as tested
OS	Windows 10 Professional
CPU	Ryzen 9 3900XT (12c/24t)—$499 at Amazon Ryzen 7 3800XT (8c/16t)—$399 at Amazon Ryzen 5 3600XT (6c/12t)—$249 at Amazon
RAM	32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 3200—$200 at Amazon
GPU	MSI GeForce 2060 RTX Super—$450 at Amazon
HDD	Samsung 860 Pro 1TB SSD—$275 at Amazon
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)—$550 at Amazon
Cooling	NZXT Kraken X63 fluid cooler with 280mm radiator—$150 at Amazon
PSU	EVGA 850GQ Semi Modular PSU—$130 at Amazon
Chassis	Primochill Praxis Wetbench test chassis—$200 at Amazon
Price as tested	≈$1,795 as tested, excluding CPU

Today, AMD released three new Ryzen 3000 desktop processors—the Ryzen 3000XT line. These new CPU models—the Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, and Ryzen 5 3600XT—are minor refreshes of the existing Ryzen 9 3900X, Ryzen 7 3800X, and Ryzen 5 3600X models and add a couple hundred MHz extra boost clock speed to the original versions.

We'll go ahead and spoiler this one for you right away—if you've already got a Ryzen 3000 X-series desktop CPU, you don't need to rush out to buy a new one. These updates should be seen largely as a way to keep pressure on Intel while AMD is ahead rather than something revolutionary.

If you're already in the market for a new CPU and want the top performer in your bracket, you probably want the XT model. PC builders looking for a better value per dollar may want to watch for the X-series CPUs to drop a few dollars, instead—none of the performance improvements brought in XT are overwhelming.

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