AMD
AMD Ryzen 3 1200
AMD's cheapest Summit Ridge part: four Zen cores with no SMT, 3.1/3.4 GHz, and an unlocked multiplier at $109. In 2026 it is a used bring-up chip — something to boot an old 300- or 400-series AM4 board so you can flash a BIOS for a faster CPU.
Pros
- Four full physical cores at a $109 launch price, against the dual-core Core i3-7100 at ~$117
- Unlocked multiplier — most samples hold 3.8-3.9 GHz all-core
- Wraith Stealth cooler in the retail box, nothing extra to buy
- 65 W TDP / 88 W PPT runs happily on the cheapest A320 and B350 boards
- Same AM4 socket as everything up to Ryzen 5000, so the motherboard long outlives the chip
Cons
- No SMT — four threads is below the practical floor for 2026 games and background load
- 8 MB of L3 split 4+4 across two CCXes, and Zen 1 has the worst cross-CCX latency of the family
- Officially DDR4-2667; Zen 1's memory controller is genuinely unstable with many kits above 2933
- Not supported at all on X570, B550 or A520 boards
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the AMD Ryzen 3 1200
General
- Announced
- 2017
- Socket
- AM4
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 65 W
- Max turbo power
- 88 W
- Unlocked multiplier
- Yes
- Cooler included
- Yes
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 4
- Performance cores
- 4
- Efficiency cores
- 0
- Threads
- 4
- Base clock
- 3.1 GHz
- Boost clock
- 3.4 GHz
- L2 cache
- 2 MB
- L3 cache
- 8 MB
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-2667
- Max memory
- 64 GB
- Memory channels
- 2
Platform
- PCIe version
- 3
- CPU PCIe lanes
- 24
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 920
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 2,400
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 830
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 3,000
- PassMark
- 5,000
Quick answers
Is the AMD Ryzen 3 1200 good in 2026?
The AMD Ryzen 3 1200 earns an Inno Score of 21.1/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. AMD's cheapest Summit Ridge part: four Zen cores with no SMT, 3.1/3.4 GHz, and an unlocked multiplier at $109. In 2026 it is a used bring-up chip — something to boot an old 300- or 400-series AM4 board so you can flash a BIOS for a faster CPU.
What are the key specs of the AMD Ryzen 3 1200?
Cores: 4 · Threads: 4 · Boost clock: 3.4 GHz · Socket: AM4
What are the closest alternatives to the AMD Ryzen 3 1200?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i5-3470, Intel Core i3-3220, Intel Core i3-2120 — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.