Trashbytes wrote on 2026-08-23, 14:18:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2026-08-23, 14:11:

Update to my last post. Its not an RX460 its an RX560 4Gb card.

Both GCN 4 cards and honestly not a lot between them performance wise, the 4GB on the RX560 does make it more useful.

Should be enough to play World of Tanks on at least medium settings.
Ive been playing it on the iGPU of an i7-7700, upgraded it slightly to an i5-8500T/RX560

Will see how it goes I suppose.

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

That is a tough decision. The 5500 is a newer architecture so is a bit faster per clock but it is actually a cut down 5600G with the graphics portion disabled. So, as you said, it has half the cache of non-G chips (like the 5600, 3600 etc.). It is also limited to PCI-E 3.0, if that is something you're concerned about. If you have an older board that doesn't support PCI-E 4.0 anyway, this isn't an issue.

Are you upgrading an existing Ryzen? If so, what CPU + motherboard do you have?

If you do anything that makes use of the extra cores and threads (3700X is 8c\16t, 5500 is 6c\12t) then I would go with the 3700X, as that is probably a bigger difference than the lead the 5500 may have in situations where it wins. If it's exclusively for gaming... ehh... you pretty much have to look at benchmark results per-game to see if the ones you play favor the 5500 or not. It seems that both chips win pretty handily in different games.

Otherwise, a 5700X from aliexpress (or other similar stores) for around $135US is about as good as you can get for the money without having to switch to a DDR5 based platform. My brother bought one of those a few months ago and it has worked very well for him. If I'd have know there was a DRAM shortage coming that would make AM4 appealing again, I'd have stocked up on 5700X3D chips when they were less than $150.

If you will be gaming get the 5500, if you will be doing productivity and virtualization get the 3700X. Ideally, get a 5600, best of both worlds.. I am still on a 5600X and three years later still an amazing CPU.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:28:

I have been stalking Ryzens a while, and locally the best deals right now come down to Ryzen 5 5500 or Ryzen 7 3700X for around $50 US ... this is a stopgap CPU to be "alright" until the top of the line hits bottom dollar. But, dunno how long it has to last me. 3700X seems to have a small edge, but 5500 does better single core. Also X has double the cache... so wondering what is better going forward, newer, higher feature, or more cache and faster multicore. Hmmm.

If its a stop gap CPU which is cheaper for you to just throw in place ?

Forget performance since its going to get replaced and its not really the point.

But ..if you want to do anything involving production type work then the 3700X is the way to go unless you can get a 5600X, I have a 5600X myself in a secondary rig and its a little monster of a CPU. Avoid that 5500 its not worth the money you would be spending on it.

Not sure how much more the 5600X is in Canada over the 3700X but its 100% worth looking into if you can swing the extra, itll outlive the 3700X in usefulness and will hold its resell value better when you want to get rid of it.