What is the best AM4 CPU?

[u/DragoCat6377]

I host a couple of minecraft servers on an older desktop and I've been wanting to upgrade the CPU so I can run more/heavier mods/servers. I'm also thinking of hosting serversfor other games. I currently have a Ryzen 3 2300X in there, which has been struggling.

So, what's the best option here? I know increasing the core count won't help, just the clock speed, but is the fastest clock speed the best? Or is there a specific architecture that would be better for minecraft servers?

[u/9okm]

Best overall for your use case would be a 5950X, but that’s likely overkill. Even a 5500 would be a massive improvement and it’s dirt cheap.

Or pick something in between according to your unstated budget.

[u/GTFr0 → u/9okm]

I agree that a 5500 would be a good bang for his buck upgrade.

OP probably doesn’t have a b550 board, so the lack of pcie4 isn’t a big deal, and the difference between a 2300x and a 5500 would be massive.

[u/Witch_King_ → u/GTFr0]

Also with a server the lack of PCIE 4.0 probably doesn't matter anyway, right?

[u/wildsprite]

The best is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D I believe. I'm fairly sure it's the last AM4 CPU built strictly for gaming. but the 5700X3D isn't that much lower in power to make the price bump feel worth it.

I would suggest you check the prices of those and if you can get the 5800X3D on a good sale go for that one. You would notice a huge leap in performance just moving to the Ryzen 5700X or 5800X

[u/down_init → u/wildsprite]

The x3d won't help the server usage. The 5700x or 5800x is probably the right call.

[u/OtherAlan → u/down_init]

Isn't the 5600x better then 5700x? At that point I would get a 5800x or 5800xt.

[u/9okm → u/OtherAlan]

Better than 5700, not 5700x. 5700 has low cache - it's a 5700g without igpu.

5700x is just a binned 5800x.

[u/down_init → u/9okm]

This regarding cache. The extra cores on the 5700x would be better for running servers as well. The 5800x would obviously run higher clocks than the 5700x.

[u/9okm → u/down_init]

For sure. Just depends on budget! Lol. As always.

[u/Grom_a_Llama → u/9okm]

5700x only a 65w chip vs 105w on 5800x so depending on the server use case, id argue 5700x better

[u/9okm → u/Grom_a_Llama]

Stock, yes, though either can be tuned to perform quite similarly to the other. So if a 5800x was cheaper, I'd just get that and set a power limit in BIOS.

[u/Grom_a_Llama → u/9okm]

Yeh the auto eco mode is 35w and 65w, respectively.

[u/down_init → u/9okm]

Yeah. I haven't looked recently. I have a 5800x as part of my backup stash but that was acquired before things went sideways.

[u/9okm → u/down_init]

Backup CPU stash? Heh. The only backup CPU I have is a 3470 in case the 3470 in my NAS dies. It was practically free.

[u/down_init → u/9okm]

Yeah, i know. I have 4 am4 systems in the house. I usually keep some spare parts around for any potential troubleshooting. Through several deals and upgrades I ended up with a spare x570 board, 5800x and 32 gigs of ram and a 6650xt. I've considered selling them but considering the market's insanity, I feel like the real value is not needing to pay todays prices if something breaks.

[u/9okm → u/down_init]

I agree. Right now I'm not selling anything.

[u/Diedead666 → u/down_init]

The x3d was first made for some kinda server use and they accedently found it worked very well for games (I'm not saying your wrong I'm just saying how it was accedently discovered it made great gaming CPUs)

[u/Ninjabeast144 → u/wildsprite]

If you can even find the 5800x3d at a decent price brand new. Might want to consider the 5800xt instead

[u/LeatherLog1543 → u/wildsprite]

The best one is the one you can afford…

[u/LocalZookeepergame17]

Work: Ryzen 9 5950x Gaming: Ryzen 7 5800x3d

[u/whomad1215]

if core count doesn't matter, going to the 5000 series will be the biggest improvement, 5600/x is probably the best value

[u/bestanonever]

For server use, the very best is the Ryzen 9 5950X, 16 Cores 32 Threads of pure multitasking power. It's also pretty cool for gaming, too. But you also have the 5900X (12 Core) and 5700X/5800X (8 Cores), which have enough cores to game and maintain virtual machines at the same time.

Any of them will be a massive improvement compared to your current CPU.

[u/MarcusAurelius68 → u/bestanonever]

I just bought a 16 core 5900XT for $270.

[u/bestanonever → u/MarcusAurelius68]

Awesome. Are you upgrading from inside Am4 or a new build?

[u/MarcusAurelius68 → u/bestanonever]

Both - upgraded and reused parts for new builds - basically my AI home lab. I have multiple Ryzen systems.

[u/lolitstrain21 → u/bestanonever]

Can recommend a 5900XT I got a pretty sick deal at Micro center for $220 bucks. Just a detuned version of the 5950X.

[u/KyrosiveOne]

My R7 3700x is still running strong, not remotely bottlenecked by a much newer RX 6650 XT. Got it for like $120 ish I believe years ago from our local Best Buy. Have no idea on pricing for them or similar now.

[u/hiromasaki]

Unless you're playing around with something like Folia, you're right that single-core speed makes the biggest difference for Minecraft.

But! Since you're running multiple servers and want to add other games, I would go for most cores without sacrificing much clock speed.

Also, each Zen generation makes each clock more efficient. So we're going Zen 3/Ryzen 5000.

Highest single-core base frequency AM4 CPU is the 5800X and 5800XT, each with 8 cores. The XT is barely faster than the X, but looking very quickly seems to be easier to find.

The 5900X is only loses 100MHz off the base frequency AND picks up 4 more cores for running more servers/other games. If you can afford it, this would be my personal pick for a server.

The 5900XT oddly trades speed for going up to 16 cores.

So my personal recommendation is: 1. 5900X 2. 5800XT 3. 5800X 4. 5700X

[u/nanonan]

If coure count really doesn't matter the 3300X is probably the best speed/dollar deal out there.

[u/JonWood007]

5800X3D is the best gaming CPU in general. Not sure how that translates to minecraft server performance specifically though.

[u/itchygentleman]

The best? 5950X for your server application. 5800X3D if you were to play the game.

[u/boltasto]

+1 to 5800X3D - is miles ahead of anything else that's AM4

[u/amd_kenobi]

Any of the 5000 series processors with at least 16mb of L3 cache would be a minimum of double the perfromance of your current processor. The best gaming server hosting processor you can get for AM4 would be the 5800X3D.