Marrying Vega and Zen: The AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Review
by Ian Cutress on February 12, 2018 9:00 AM ESTAnalysis taken from our AMD Tech Day 2018 article.
AMD vs. Intel
AMD’s main target with these new processors is to offer something Intel cannot: a combined processor and graphics package. Much like a number of AMD’s previous generation of products, the focus is two-fold: offering more performance at the same price, or being cheaper at equal performance.
For the first part of that argument, about having more performance at the same price, AMD suggests the following competition for the Ryzen 5 2400G:
- $169 Ryzen 5 2400G (4C/8T, 3.6 GHz, 704 SPs)
- $182 Core i5-7400 (4C/4T, xxx, 24 EUs)
- $187 Core i5-8400 (6C/6T, xxx, 24 EUs)
AMD cites that in its internal testing, the 2400G scores 20% higher than the i5-8400 on PCMark 10, and can post 1920x1080 gaming results above 49 FPS in titles such as Battlefield One, Overwatch, Rocket League, and Skyrim, having 2x to 3x higher framerates than Intel’s integrated graphics. This is a claim we can confirm in this review.
For the Ryzen 3 2200G, the competing products are less well defined:
- $99 Ryzen 3 2200G (4C/4T, 3.5 GHz, 512 SPs)
- $117 Core i3-8100 (4C/4T, xxx, 23 EUs)
- $84 Pentium G4620 (2C/4T, xxx, 12 EUs)
Again, through its internal testing, AMD is stating that the 2200G scores 13% higher than the Core i3-8100 in PCMark 10, as well as being within a few frames of the Ryzen 3 2400G in titles such as Rocket League, Skyrim, and Battlefield One. We have a similar scenario tested in this review.
The other side of the argument is price for the same performance. For this comparison, AMD suggests to test the new APUs against Intel processors paired with NVIDIA graphics, specifically the GT 1030. AMD’s data suggests that a Core i5-8400 with a GT1030 scores the same as a Ryzen 5 2400G in the 3DMark TimeSpy benchmark, although costing $290 (vs $169 for the APU) and drawing 30W more power. This is a scenario we also test in this review.
AMD vs. AMD: Raven Ridge and Bristol Ridge
These two new APUs have the internal codename of ‘Raven Ridge’ to signify the family of products. AMD also has ‘Bristol Ridge’ already in the market, using the previous generation of CPU cores and previous generation of integrated graphics. AMD has not actively promoted Bristol Ridge to the public in any serious way, with these parts being hold-overs from the previous platform and designed to be a quick fill within AMD’s product line. To that effect, Bristol Ridge processors were only available for OEMs at the beginning for pre-built systems, and AMD only made them available to the public within the last few months. To our knowledge, AMD did not initiate a review sampling program to the press of these processors either.
With the launch of the two new Zen-plus-Vega Raven Ridge APUs, the Bristol Ridge processors will still continue to be sold. AMD’s reasoning revolves around offering choice in the market, particularly to its OEM customers, and has stated that the two products offer different features and is thus not competing on price. It is clear to say that for anyone buying a new system, the newest products offer the better value: a much higher per-core performance, improved thermal budgeting, newer integrated graphics, and ultimately the core design is the future of AMD. The only items that Bristol Ridge brings to the table now are the legacy aspect, to replace like-for-like, and the offer of a number of 35W-rated products. Bristol Ridge PRO processors are also on the market, offered alongside the new Ryzen PRO with Vega.
Squaring up the competing parts shows that:
| Raven Ridge vs. Bristol Ridge | |||||
| Ryzen 5 2400G |
A12-9800 | Ryzen 3 2200G |
A10-9700 | ||
| Core uArch | Zen | Excavator | Zen | Excavator | |
| Cores/Threads | 4 / 8 | 2 / 4 | 4 / 4 | 2 / 4 | |
| Base CPU Frequency | 3.6 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 3.5 GHz | |
| Turbo CPU Frequency | 3.9 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.8 GHz | |
| TDP | 65 W | 65 W | 65 W | 65 W | |
| cTDP | 46-65 W | 45-65W | 46-65 W | 45-65W | |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB/core | 1 MB/core | 512 KB/core | 1 MB/core | |
| L3 Cache | 4 MB | - | 4 MB | - | |
| Graphics | Vega 11 | GCN 3 Gen | Vega 8 | GCN 3 Gen | |
| Compute Units | 11 CUs | 8 CUs | 8 CUs | 6 CUs | |
| Streaming Processors | 704 SPs | 512 SPs | 512 SPs | 384 SPs | |
| Base GPU Frequency | 1250 MHz | 1108 MHz | 1100 MHz | 1029 MHz | |
| DRAM Support | DDR4-2933 | DDR4-2400 | DDR4-2933 | DDR4-2400 | |
| Price | $169 | $99 | $99 | $79 | |
Given the performance uplift we have seen from previous generation A-series processors to the Ryzen desktop parts already, the new APUs should put the nail in the coffin for older AMD parts.
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haplo602 - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
Finally one review where I can see the driver version ... So this is the same driver used also for the Ryzen mobile APUs. Can you check if you can force/manual install the latest Adrenaline drivers ? That works on some of the Ryzen 2500u chips and actually increases the performance by some 15+% ...haplo602 - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
I hope there's a memory scaling article in the future with frequency and CL scaling for the APU part ...crotach - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
What about HTPC use?I was considering GT 1030 + Intel route for H265 and HDR10 playback and was really looking forward to Zen APUs, but there doesn't seem to be any motherboards with HDMI 2.0?!
Also, I wonder if the chips can be undervolted and underclocked to bring them to a near silent noise level for the living room.
Lolimaster - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
You can undervolt and underclock ANY intel or amd cpu.forgerone - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
What most writers and critics of integrated graphics processors such as AMD's APU or Intel iGP all seem to forget, is not EVERYONE in the world has a disposable or discretionary income equal to that of the United States, Europe, Japan etc. Not everyone can afford bleeding edge gaming PC's or laptops. Food, housing and clothing must come first for 80% of the population of the world.An APU can grant anyone who can afford at least a decent basic APU the enjoyment of playing most computer games. The visual quality of these games may not be up to the arrogantly high standards of most western gamers, but then again these same folks who are happy to have an APU also can not barely afford a 750p crt monitor much less a 4k flat screen.
This simple idea is huge not only for the laptop and pc market but especially game developers who can only expect to see an expansion of their Total Addressable Market. And that is good for everybody as broader markets help reduce the cost of development.
This in fact was the whole point behind AMD's release of Mantle and Microsoft and The Kronos Group's release of DX12 and Vulkan respectively.
Today's AMD APU has all of the power of a GPU Add In Board of not more than a several years back.
krazyfrog - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
Why did you leave out the 8400 and the 1500X in these comparisons?Kamgusta - Wednesday, February 14, 2018 - link
Because these CPUs, while having the same price range, outperform these Raven Ridge chips. That would have been a bad press for AMD and it seems like Anandtech wants to remains extremely loyal to AMD in these days.msroadkill612 - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
"the data shows both how far integrated graphics has come, and how far it still has to go to qualify for those 'immerse experiences' that Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA all claim are worth reaching for, with higher resolutions and higher fidelity. "This assumes a static situation which is rot.
what it reveals is that in the current paradigm, coders have coded accordingly for satisfactory results. If the paradigm changes and other ways work better, then code evolves.
This unprecedented integration of new gen, sibling cpu & gpu, offers many performance upsides too for future code.
picture a mobo with a discrete gpu like an equivalent 1030, then picture a ~matchbox footprint apu - there is a huge difference in the size of the respective circuits - yet they both do the same job & have to send a lot of data to each other.
it's not hard to figure which is inherently superior in many ways.
I strongly disagree with your blinkered bias.
Pork@III - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
There is something unfinished, something inconsolable.elites2012 - Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - link
anything this chip lost to intel at, was most likely outdated. adobe, fcat, dolphin, pov are all outdated benchmarks.