The $60 CPU Question: AMD Athlon 200GE or Intel Pentium Gold G5400? A Review
by Ian Cutress on January 14, 2019 8:00 AM ESTConclusion: Split Strategy
Battling CPUs at $60 is going to be a tough call. Do you throw the best hardware around the chip that money can buy to compare the absolute limits of the hardware under ideal conditions, or do you keep it more reasonable for the price bracket it is intended for? I'm a big advocate of building a system piece by piece with the best you can afford at the time, rather than spreading out over several below average components at once, so I guess my suggested situation falls into neither the all-out or budget options. In our comparison of the G5400 and the 200GE however, the results are fairly clear-cut.
When deciding between these two processors, there's a hierarchy of questions you need to ask.
- Are you going to need the integrated graphics for gaming or compute?
- Do you already have good overclocking tools?
If the answer is yes to either of those, then the processor to get is the AMD Athlon 200GE. But the base answer for anyone getting a discrete graphics card, or a fresh system with a graphics card, then the answer is the Intel Pentium G5400.
Let me explain.
In all of our CPU and office benchmarks, except for those that are 'floating point' heavy (run math with fractions rather than whole numbers), then the Intel processor is the clear winner. There's no mistaking where it sits in our tests - it often beats the AMD chip by 8 to 20 percent.
In gaming with a discrete graphics card, for example, if you've invested in something like the GTX 1080, the Intel Pentium will push more frames and higher minimums in practically every test at every resolution.
If I were building a work and play system for anyone in my family, out of the two I'd take the Pentium G5400.
There are two situations in which I'd take the Athlon, however. If the system was a true budget gaming system, going for good 720p action without a discrete card, then the Athlon is the obvious choice. It knocks six shades out of the Pentium for its integrated graphics performance.
The other exception is if I already have a good motherboard and cooler to hand, and that motherboard allows me to overclock. I wouldn't go out of my way to invest in these parts for a specific build, but if I had them to spare and still had to choose between the two, then I'd get the Athlon in this situation as well, then push it to a good frequency.
But the baseline choice remains the Intel Pentium G5400 in this shoot-out.
If you want to compare either processor with any of the other processors we've tested on AnandTech, don't forget to check out our benchmark database comparison pages!
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Irata - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
The price push happened after the release - but do check Anandtech graphics cards reviews - they do have a tendency of mentioning current street / retail prices for both AMD and nVidia cards, which is how it should be.This is from the RX580 review:
"The biggest challenge right now is that GTX 1060 prices have come down to the same $229 spot just in time for the RX 500 series launch, so AMD doesn’t have a consistent price advantage"
yannigr2 - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Assimilator is a known Intel Nvidia hardcore fan. Ignore him.The_Assimilator - Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - link
Yes, pointing out facts makes me a fanboy. You a Trump voter by any chance?sonny73n - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
@The_AssimiatorAre we not supposed to complain about the misleading pricing - one is Manufacturer’s SUGGESTED Retail Price and the ACTUAL price from the link provided by this article?
If I want to build a cheap office system NOW, should I take this article into consideration despite the huge price differences?
What’s special about the G5400 that its price has tripled due to “shortage”? At $182.68 currently from the link, is there no better CPU from Intel I can get for that price? Is Intel the only CPU manufacturer?
What are you trying to achieve by calling us name? What our criticism to AT has to do with you?
I’ve been restraining myself from criticizing AT too much. AT articles are slow to produce already. I wouldn’t want AT writers quit/fired then we’ll have less to read, even they’re written poorly.
kkilobyte - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
What would have made the most sense is not writing such an article in the first place, then.I take Ian's own words on this: "I'm a big advocate of building a system piece by piece with the best you can afford at the time".
And at the (current) time, it seems that one simply cannot afford the G5400 for $64 (except maybe out of pure luck). This should have been, taken into account into the conclusion, or at least underlined.
AnnoyedGrunt - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Neither of these CPUs makes much sense. The G5400 isn't readily available (sold out on Newegg or only available from re-sellers for $100, as is the G5500 or G5600).Once you are spending $100, it makes much more sense to get the Ryzen 2200G for the same price that typically outperforms both of these (or only loses by a little to the G5400 in office type of tasks). The 2200G actually looks pretty decent as an IGP solution, and is a much better platform once you go to a dedicated GPU as well.
I'd personally work a few extra hours and save up for the 2200G over either of these options.
-AG
Valantar - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Despite all the complaints here of comparing products at very different price points (retail, not MSRP), I would still like to see a more complete test suite run on the overclocked 200GE, especially the gaming tests.Also, is iGPU overclocking possible on this chip, or are iGPU frequencies locked? It would also be very interesting for you to part out example builds of this vs. the G5400 and the Ryzen 3 2200G, to see the difference in actual system cost.
br83taylor - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Are those power figures correct? If you compare Ryzen 3 2200g for 20W and Ryzen 3 1300X at 58W. A third of the power but same 4C4T configuration.Zoolook13 - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
For what it's worth, in Sweden the prices match pretty well 695 SEK for a 220GE vs 759 SEK for a G5400.Zoolook13 - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
Sorry that ended up in the wrong place, edit button ftw...