The $60 CPU Question: AMD Athlon 200GE or Intel Pentium Gold G5400? A Review
by Ian Cutress on January 14, 2019 8:00 AM ESTGaming: Integrated Graphics
Despite being the ultimate joke at any bring-your-own-computer event, gaming on integrated graphics can ultimately be as rewarding as the latest mega-rig that costs the same as a car. The desire for strong integrated graphics in various shapes and sizes has waxed and waned over the years, with Intel relying on its latest ‘Gen’ graphics architecture while AMD happily puts its Vega architecture into the market to swallow up all the low-end graphics card sales. With Intel poised to make an attack on graphics in the next few years, it will be interesting to see how the graphics market develops, especially integrated graphics.
An AMD APU Base Layout
The two processors on test today have very different attitudes towards integrated graphics. The AMD Athlon 200GE uses the latest Vega architecture, designed for high performance, even if AMD only uses 192 streaming processors in this design. Intel on the other hand is using its older Gen 9 graphics architecture, built for mobile processors, and is using a baseline GT1 configuration when most Intel desktop processors have GT2.
| AMD vs Intel at ~$60 | ||
| AMD Athlon 200GE |
Intel Pentium Gold G5400 |
|
| Cores / Threads | 2 / 4 | 2 / 4 |
| Microarchitecture | Zen | Coffee Lake |
| Motherboards | X470, X370, B450 B350, A320, A300 |
Z390, Z370, Q370 H370, B360, H310 |
| CPU Frequency | 3.2 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| L2 Cache | 512 KB/core | 256 KB/core |
| L3 Cache | 2 MB / core | 2 MB / core |
| Integrated Graphics | Vega 3 192 SPs |
UHD 610 12 EUs (96 ALUs) |
| DDR4 Support | DDR4-2933 | DDR4-2666 |
| GPU Frequency | Up to 1000 MHz | 350-1050 MHz |
| TDP | 35 W | 54 W (2-core die version) 58 W (4-core die version)* |
| Price | $55 (SRP) | $64 (1k/u) |
| * Intel harvests both 2+2 and 4+2 dies to make G5400 parts. It's impossible to know which one you have without removing the lid and measuring the die area. | ||
Intel does have a small ray of hope here – caches are important when it comes to integrated graphics, so while the 200GE has a bigger L2 cache (512KB vs 256KB) and faster main memory (DDR4-2666 vs DDR4-2400), the AMD L3 cache is a victim cache whereas the Intel L3 cache is a fully inclusive cache that can pre-fetch data. It’s a slim chance, but Intel should take what it can.
For our integrated graphics testing, we take our ‘IGP’ category settings for each game and loop the benchmark round for five minutes apiece, taking as much data as we can from our automated setup.
That was a white wash. AMD’s worst win was 48% in both Ashes and F1 2018, while its best wins were in Far Cry 5 at 122.2% and Civilization 6 at 112.1%.
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Irata - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Curious - which Retailer ?Valantar - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
The difference in Norway is slightly larger, with 599NOK for the 200GE vs. 729 for the G5400 - but it's not in stock anywhere, so prices may be fictitious (or there's no supply at all). 200GE supply seems plentiful.andrewaggb - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
I liked the article. I was interested in the 200GE's performance for some headless budget builds and now I know where it sits.I wouldn't use either of these chips on even a budget gaming build. Get a 2200g or i3 8100+ for gaming.
darb - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
On page 3, is "Uses might ask why we are not running Windows 10 x64 RS4, the latest major update" supposed to be "Users might ask why..."?Stuka87 - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
Under gaming with the World of Tanks results, it says GTX1080, but then also has an IGP column, and the IGP column is higher than everything else? Also, Encore engine was released last year, and WoT has been using it since April. So it is no longer "unreleased".GreenReaper - Thursday, January 17, 2019 - link
I think the idea is that it is "IGP"-level *settings*, run on the video card. It's a tad confusing, I agree.just4U - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
I always find it fun to compare budget processors to yesteryear's high end to see where you land up.. It almost looks like this is in the range of a low end 4000 series i5 and a bit better than it's i3 variants. Hmm.. 2 cores though ugh. I'd probably want at least 4.GreenReaper - Thursday, January 17, 2019 - link
It's worth if you can possibly afford it. About the only other situation I see it making sense *not* to is if power or cooling is a major consideration (especially if hyperthreading works for you). My server is just fine on two cores, and that reduces its power and cooling requirements, which have a 35W limit.Death666Angel - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
I sent you a tweet about the lables in the GTX1080 section and then realised I misread it. Deleted the tweet. Oh well. Good conclusion overall, very fair. Aligns perfectly with what I would do.Unfortunately, here (Germany) as well, the Intel CPUs are way overpriced. For a G5400 I can get a Ryzen 3 2200G. So it all kinda falls apart because of the weird CPU shortage.
Manch - Friday, January 18, 2019 - link
Would this be good for a NAS?