The illustrious AMD Ryzen 3 3300X has finally been brought back from the dead, with the CPU appearing back in stock on Newegg and B&H Photo for $140-$150 -- only $20-$30 over MSRP. This is a good sign, demonstrating a strong comeback for the CPU market as a whole.
Note that B&H had the 3300X for $130 a day ago, so we expect prices to fluctuate a bit.
The Ryzen 3 3300X was a beast of a CPU when it launched in 2020. If you could find it in stock, was one of the best CPUs on the market in the entry-level segment. The CPU is based on AMD's Zen 2 architecture with four CPU cores, eight threads, 16MB of L3 cache and clock speeds ranging from a 3.8 GHz to a 4.3 GHz turbo frequency.
A big performance bonus for the 3300X is its unique core configuration that allows for very low inter-core latency, similar to AMD's Zen 3 CPUs. All four cores and their associated 16MB of L3 cache are located in one AMD CPU complex (CCX) with the other CCX completely disabled. This means the L3 cache can be accessed by all four cores without going through the I/O die, which adds latency and eats up nanoseconds of processing time.
When we tested the Ryzen 3 3300X, it performed spectacular for a quad-core CPU. Gaming performance was almost on par with a heavily overclocked Intel Core i7-7700K, and the Ryzen 5 3600, a hexa-core CPU. All for a $120 MSRP.
But its launch was short-lived, as stock for the CPU quickly ran dry shortly after launch. If you could find a 3300X at all, prices were inflated as high as $200.
The 3300X's little brother, the Ryzen 3 3100 fared a little better, but eventually succumbed to the same fate as the 3300X and is still out of stock to this day.
The 3300X back in stock for $140-$150 isn't as competitive as it used to be, especially with Intel's Core i3-10100F going for just $109 on Newegg (at the time of this writing). However, the Ryzen 3 3300X is still the cheapest Zen 2 CPU you can buy from AMD and can slot into budget-friendly B450 motherboards, which are traditionally less expensive than Intel's B460 boards.
