Ryzen 3 1200 vs Core i7-3820

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Ryzen 3 1200 scores 20 and the Core i7-3820 scores 19, about 5% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Ryzen 3 1200 has 4 cores and 4 threads, and the Core i7-3820 has 4 cores and 8 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 3.4 GHz and 3.8 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 3 1200 uses the AM4 socket and the Core i7-3820 uses LGA2011, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 130 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

At launch the Ryzen 3 1200 cost $109 and the Core i7-3820 $294, which gives 18.3 and 6.5 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Ryzen 3 1200 can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 2060 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i7-3820 reaches the GeForce RTX 3050. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 3 1200 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i7-3820 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.