With all the talk of AMD's new-generation Ryzen 3000 CPUs, you'd be forgiven for thinking that its older CPUs would be sold out by now. But they're not. In-fact, AMD is still making them due to their popular budget offerings, and that includes both the second and first-generations. AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPUs aren't quite the same as they were in 2017, though. AMD has just upgraded them to use the Zen+ core technology found in its second-generation Ryzen 2000 CPUs.
An excellent four core, budget CPU when it first launched, the Ryzen 3 1200 still represents a reasonable purchase at around $50, offering some excellent competition for the likes of AMD's own Athlon 3000G in terms of raw computing power. But now with Zen+ technology, it's even more capable. The original chip enjoyed a base clock of 3.1GHz and a boost clock of 3.4GHz, and is entirely unlocked, so should be capable of being pushed further with decent cooling.
But the new version should be even faster. Now known as the Ryzen 3 1200 AF, this new CPU has a part number of YD1200BBM4KAFBOX as per WCCFTech, so if you fancy buying one of these, make sure it has that specific number or you could be buying an older design.
With a projected price of just $60, these CPUs could be exceedingly popular with new, miniature PC builds. A perfect choice for a little HTPC.
