I'm going to make my daughter a cheap gaming PC for 1080p. It's currently got a 3400g, I was thinking about a 5500 or 5600x? I'm going for bang for buck here. I'm not sure on GPU yet, probably about a £150 second hand one, depending on what that can get me.
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What AM4 cpu?
- Thread starter los
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a used 3600 is the smart choice here and will pair well with a £150 budget gpu
the 5500 is a cut down 5600 with half the L3 cache and severely gimps its performance
just beware that the 5500 performs more like a 3600 performance rather than a slower 5600
if you want to pay a bit more then the next steps up are the 5600/x/t/xt (not G) or the 5500x3d
if you know where to look, the 5500x3d can be had for ~£120
the 5500 is a cut down 5600 with half the L3 cache and severely gimps its performance
just beware that the 5500 performs more like a 3600 performance rather than a slower 5600
if you want to pay a bit more then the next steps up are the 5600/x/t/xt (not G) or the 5500x3d
if you know where to look, the 5500x3d can be had for ~£120
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For me it would depend on the graphics card vendor and resolution. Nvidia have a hefty driver overhead issue and this burns a lot of CPU time while with AMD and Intel the CPU processing overhead is much so and you can generally get away with lesser CPUs.
If you are looking at bang for buck then just buying a refurb Dell/HP machine and dropping in a card is much better option. If you have a good scour you can pick up something like an Optiplex 7010 with an i5-13500/16GB RAM/512 SSD/Win 11 Pro for £280-320.
Well, probably best to avoid the 12/14th gen ones. I’d also avoid system with a 12700t if possible.
Soldato
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Might be good to wait for the 5500f to come out, as it could drive the 5600 second hand price down. 
5500 is gimped, but the 5500f sounds like it'll be a solid entry CPU.
5500 is gimped, but the 5500f sounds like it'll be a solid entry CPU.
I think the 13500 only comes in alder lake die variant.
All depends what you’re looking for. I haven’t looked at used graphics card prices much, but going new I don’t think £150 will buy much performance. The 3400g might not be much of a bottleneck depending on settings, but a motherboard plus CPU is probably going to cost more than a CPU upgrade alone. I remember people being pretty happy with a 3400g and rx5600/5700 cards.
Some are, but all apparently.
Some are, but all apparently.
Associate
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As someone who has 3 systems that have the 3400g, 3600 and 5500 i can say that either of the 6 core processors will be a big upgrade. what motherboard do you have? My 5500 has an rtx 5050 with it which works very well together, but i also have a gtx 1660ti with my 3600, that i have also used it with my 5500 and both are a very good match. I would suggest one as they are £50 under budget, but at the same time you can get an rtx 2060 for not much more or a 2070 for a tad over your budget. Obviously your budget cant buy new.
I also have a 12th gen i5 12400F which is great, but i have had compatibility issues with graphic cards older than the rtx 3000 series to the point its a lot more hassle than its worth. mean you might get better luck, but am4 is cheaper option even new.
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