Ryzen 5 3600X vs Ryzen 5 4600G

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Ryzen 5 3600X and the Ryzen 5 4600G are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Ryzen 5 3600X has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Ryzen 5 4600G has 6 cores and 12 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 4.4 GHz and 4.2 GHz.

Platform, power and price

Both chips use the AM4 socket, so they fit the same motherboards. You can swap one for the other without changing the board.

Rated power is 95 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 5 3600X cost $249 and the Ryzen 5 4600G $154, which gives 18.9 and 29.9 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 5 3600X can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 4600G reaches the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 3600X if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 4600G if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.