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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mczak - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
Yes, I'd expect at least the Athlon to be quite close to its TDP with simultaneous CPU+IGP load.The Pentium probably not really (although the Pentium G5500/G5600 could get close, as these have the GT2 (UHD 630) rather than the GT1 (UHD 610) graphics, which also should be much more competitive with the Athlon).
biiiipy - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
In my country the cheapest I can find is 200GE for 50€ andG5400 for 90€... yeah...ET - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
Very nice to see a low end comparison, and a quite comprehensive one at that.What I don't understand is why quite a few benchmarks (especially on the IGP tests) are missing some of the CPUs.
Rudde - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
The test setup table doesn't include the G5400.shabby - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
The g5400 is $183 on amazon...T1beriu - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
You should have measured the power consumption for 100% CPU load + 100% GPU load, lile POV + Furmark?Flunk - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
These are close enough that I would buy whichever I could get cheaper (with a compatible board of course).Targon - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
Of course, if you are looking to start low but then upgrade later, socket AM4 will allow upgrades from the lowest end to top end.edzieba - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
So could the Pentium, right to the 9900k.eastcoast_pete - Monday, January 14, 2019 - link
@Ian: thanks, and I agree with your conclusion, but only if the ~$60 mark is a hard upper limit. Take-home for me: if you believe that you're going to be working and gaming on the iGPU of the chip even for a few months, try as hard as you can to get the extra $40 and buy the Ryzen 2200 G instead, which retails for $99 or so. That is still the value king here, and by a big margin. Unlike either the Pentium or the Athlon, the 4 cores and the (much beefier) iGPU of the 2200G can provide the 25-30 frames/second in many of the games tested here, has generally superior performance on non-gaming applications as well, and, once the dedicated graphics card arrives, it still gives a better showing than either Athlon or Pentium. Plus, as Gavin here and others on their sites have shown, there is significant headroom left for overclocking if that extra 10% or so is a must-have. So, long in short: For a budget system, and if at all possible, get the Ryzen 2200G. It is well worth the 40 bucks more.