15 specifications

AMD FX-4350 vs AMD Ryzen 3 3100

On paper, the AMD FX-4350 boosts higher, and the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.

10 specifications · 4 with a higher side

Full specifications

AMD FX-4350

AMD · FX (Vishera) · Desktop

Full specifications

AMD Ryzen 3 3100

AMD · Ryzen 3000 · Desktop

Cores and clocks

Cores

Threads

Base clock

4.2 GHz

3.6 GHz

Boost clock

4.3 GHz

3.9 GHz

Cache and power

L3 cache

8 MB

16 MB

TDP

125 W

65 W

Platform

Socket

AM3+

AM4

Process

32 nm

7 nm

Integrated graphics

Not verified

Launched

Not verified

2020-04

A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.

Reading the table

What the difference means.

Cores and threads

The Ryzen 3 3100 has 4 cores and 8 threads against 4 and 4. More threads help with work that can be split into many pieces at once: rendering, compiling, video export, running several heavy programs together. They do little for work that runs on a few threads, which includes most games and most everyday software, where the speed of one core decides the result.

Boost clock

The FX-4350 boosts to 4.3 GHz against 3.9 GHz, 10 percent higher. Across generations it is not a guide to speed on its own, for the reason above. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.

Cache

The Ryzen 3 3100 carries 16 MB of L3 cache against 8 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.

Power and cooling

The FX-4350 is rated at 125 W against 65 W. The rating is the heat the cooler has to move for the chip to hold its speed, and modern chips draw well above it in short bursts. A tower cooler or a liquid loop suits the FX-4350; the Ryzen 3 3100 is easier to keep quiet and fits smaller cases. A chip whose cooling falls short does not fail. It slows down, and it does so after the first minute, which is why short benchmarks miss it.

Platform

They use different sockets, AM3+ and AM4, so moving from one to the other means a new motherboard. For an upgrade, that cost belongs in the comparison; for a new build, the newer platform is the one with later chips still to come.

Manufacturing process

The Ryzen 3 3100 is built on a 7 nm process against 32 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.

Which to pick, on paper

Rendering, compiling, video export: Ryzen 3 3100; 8 threads against 4. Work that uses every thread scales with how many there are.
A quiet or compact build: Ryzen 3 3100; 65 W against 125 W: less heat to move, so a smaller cooler and slower fans.

What no table says

How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.

Free CPU stress test

Questions

Is the FX-4350 better than the Ryzen 3 3100?: By need, on the specifications: rendering, compiling, video export: the Ryzen 3 3100; a quiet or compact build: the Ryzen 3 3100. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
Do the FX-4350 and the Ryzen 3 3100 use the same socket?: No. The FX-4350 uses AM3+ and the Ryzen 3 3100 uses AM4, so switching means a new motherboard.
Which runs hotter, the FX-4350 or the Ryzen 3 3100?: The FX-4350 is rated at 125 W against 65 W, so it produces more heat under load and needs the larger cooler. How hot either one actually runs depends on the cooler and the case more than on the chip.

More comparisons

Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.

Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.

We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.

Run the test on your machine How we measure →