AMD Ryzen 5 2400G Processor With Vega Review

AMD Ryzen 5 With Vega It's been a while since we've seen AMD tackle the world of high-performance APUs, and I'm sure excited about this one. Blending the fantastic range of Ryzen processors with their superb Vega graphics cores is a great idea. Not only does it promise to be a much more powerful GPU solution than what Intel can offer, but it should also thrash any sub £100 GPU solutions. That's not a phrase that will excite the 4K enthusiast gamer, but for those wanting to play the latest games on a shoestring budget, it's pretty darn tempting. Is the Ryzen 5 ready to usher in a new generation of affordable desktop and gaming solutions? We certainly hope so. With 11 Vega cores vs the 8 Vega cores of the Ryzen 3, the Ryzen 5 2400G is pretty powerful. Of course, it also comes with a slightly higher base and max boost clock too, as well as 8 threads, not 4 (like the 2200G). Look for some more affordable? Check out our review of the Ryzen 3 with Vega here! Features AMD SenseMI Technology AMD Ryzen™ Master Utility Enmotus FuzeDrive™ for AMD Ryzen™ Radeon™ Software Specifications CPU Cores: 4 Threads: 8 GPU Cores: 11 Base Clock: 3.6GHz Max Boost Clock: 3.9GHz Total L2 Cache: 2MB Total L3 Cache: 4MB Default TDP / TDP: 65W cTDP: 46-65W Packaging Cooler More Details Get more information from the official AMD product page here. Testing and Methodology Test Procedure Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to CPU reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Rember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using the software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Each benchmark runs three times, and the average figure is taken to try to reduce the effect of hardware variation. Of course, any relevant details regarding the parameters will be listed below. Test Systems AM4 Ryzen With Vega Motherboard - Gigabyte AB350 Mini-ITX RAM - GSkill DDR4 3200 MHz Dual-Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Stock Cooler and Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (for dGPU testing only) iGPU - 11 Vega Cores (disabled for dBPU testing) Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Z370 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Ultra Gaming RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB + Optane CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X399 Motherboard – MSI X399 Gaming Pro Carbon AC RAM – Crucial Ballistix 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHz CPU Cooler – CM Master Liquid 120mm (will be retested with Noctua D15S with dual fans in coming weeks) Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard - Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 9 RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AM4 Ryzen R3, R5 and R7 Motherboard - MSI XPower Titanium X370 RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X99 - Our GPU Review Test Bench Motherboard – Asus Rampage V Extreme X99 RAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit Important! Please note that and CPU benchmarks are performed using a dedicated GPU, in this case, a GTX 1080 Ti, to keep results consistent from CPU to CPU. However, the recent addition of APU testing (Ryzen 2200G and 2400G for example), will still follow this method, but also include iGPU testing separate to the dGPU results for clarity. Games Used All games are tested at both 1920 x 1080 and 2160 x 3840 (4K) on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Previously we would use "extreme" presets, but these have now been adjusted to "Medium" or equivalent to better test the capabilities of the CPU, not the GPU. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M Power usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks With Dedicated GPU 3DMark Firestrike Using our 1080 Ti and disabling the GPU cores on the CPU, we can really test how well those four CPU cores perform on their own. As you can see, the 2400G rockets ahead of quite a few Ryzen c, 5, and 7 CPUs, scoring 17019. That's a solid score and it's ahead of the Ryzen 1400 which it is set to replace. Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme No signs of throttling for our GPU, which is impressive as the chip only support PCIe 8x, which clearly isn't a big issue at all. Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Multitasking is pretty solid, and while it looks a bit lack lustre at stock, it boosted to 4786 once overclocked, so it's definately worth exploring the free performance boost. Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M A big number cruncher this is not, however, it's great to see it beating out the 1300X, by a nice margin. Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 Again, this isn't a rendering CPU, so it's no surprise to see it low down on the charts, but it's not a task it was designed to do. Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K I doubt many will be converting 4K video files on a budget CPU, but once overclocked it was nearly hitting 30FPS, which is pretty darn good for such a cheap chip. Stock Overclocked Gaming Performance With Dedicated GPU Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Gaming performance is a big deal for any CPU these days, but especially this one, as it's going to be a prime target for most system builders. Straight away, the 8600K set out fastest ever score for Deus EX at 1080p at stock, and once overclocked. It's also performing great at 4K, with some of our highest scores there, but it also set some excellent minimum scores throughout. 1080p Stock Rise of the Tomb Raider The GTX 1080 Ti is no slouch when it comes to gaming, and while the 2400G has an iGPU, it's still just fine to pair with your own GPU if required. It didn't beat out everything, but it's certainly competitive. It delivered great framerates that are competitive with the rest of the mid-budget Ryzen CPUs, so I'm confident there are some improvements per-core for this CPU. 1080p Stock Ghost Recon: Wildlands 1080p Stock Far Cry Primal 1080p Stock Synthetic Benchmarks With VEGA iGPU Now it's time to take out our 1080 Ti, which we only use to test the CPU core performance. The 2400G features eleven VEGA cores on the chip, so it makes sense to see how they perform too. Surprisingly, they're pretty nippy, and given the 2200G only has eight VEGA cores, it's amazing how much improvement those extra three cores make. With anything GPU dependant, the 2400G roars into the lead. However, with more CPU bound rendering tasks and computation such as WPrime and Cinebench, the two are very closely matched. 3DMark Firestrike Stock Overclocked Unigine Superposition 1080p Extreme Stock Overclocked PCMark 10 Express Stock Overclocked WPrime 32M and 1024M Stock Overclocked Cinebench R15 Stock Overclocked Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Stock Overclocked Gaming Performance With VEGA iGPU Deus Ex: Mankind Divided This is where things get the most exciting in my opinion. An enthusiast gaming solution this is not, however, with our benchmarks running at 1080p and Medium settings, they're plenty demanding. The 11 VEGA cores may not sound like a lot, but they're enough to push almost 30 FPS in some titles, which is phenomenal for a system with no GPU! A minor tweak here or there, and you could easily see performance above 30 FPS. Sure, the PCMR elite will snark, but if you're wanting to game on a budget, it's plenty playable in a pinch. However, overclocking is a must, and those free performance gains really help. 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked Rise of the Tomb Raider 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked Ghost Recon: Wildlands 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked Far Cry Primal 1080p Stock 1080p Overclocked Power Consumption and Temperatures Power Consumption Another pleasant surprise is the power usage. With or without a dGPU, the Ryzen 5 2400G is one of the least power hungry CPUs we've tested. This translates to needing a more affordable PSU, a less powerful cooler, and means a lot less heat. We only needed the stock cooler for this review, and even while overclocked, it didn't hit 60c, which is just incredible and great news for consumers. Stock - With dGPU Stock - No dGPU Overclocked - With GPU Stock - No dGPU Temperatures Stock - With dGPU Stock - No dGPU Overclocked - With dGPU Overclocked - No dGPU Final Thoughts Pricing The AMD Ryzen 5 with VEGA 2400G is launching today for around $169. The price may change quickly as is often the case with writing pre-launch, but we'll update this as quick as we can. For a quad-core CPU with 11 VEGA compute units, it's incredibly competitive, and for a budget build with some gaming capabilities, it avoids the somewhat disaster that is the GPU market right now. Overview I loved the Ryzen 5 1400, but with the Ryzen 5 2400G set to replace it, today is a great day for the budget system building market. I loved the original APUs from a few years back, and they're perfect for small form factor and budget system builds. However, the 2400G is the best one we've ever seen, and it's at a price that isn't going to break the bank. Gaming on a CPU? An elite gaming platform it isn't, but it was never meant to be. However, with an overclocked to 3.9~4.0 GHz on the CPU Cores and around 1500 MHz on the GPU Cores, it'll push around 30 FPS at 1080p. That' snot lighting the world on fire, but if you're after a cheaper solution to gaming, this is it. Of course, that's on demanding games, and if you're into your old-school emulators, casual games, and a boatload of indie titles, that performance will be way more than enough for you. Day to Day From a family PC at home to a jack of all trades for the small office, the 2400G ticks a lot of boxes. It'll be good for most any day-to-day use, and Windows 10 felt just as snappy and responsive as you would expect, even compared to much more expensive solutions. More Power! The low power usage and heat from this CPU pays off in a big way. We were able to overclock to just under 4 GHz on the CPU, and push the GPU cores too, all on the stock cooler. You would think this would cause a nuclear meltdown, but even the stock cooler had no trouble keeping things under 60c, and it was noisy either! This means you don't need to fork out extra money on a new cooler, and can easily squeeze out the extra performance; you would be crazy not to. Pros A huge upgrade to preview generation APUs Great for budget system builds Can game around 30FPS without a dGPU Low power and heat Can overclock on stock cooler Very competitive price/performance GPU and CPU Cores can be overclocked independently Supports high-speed memory Cons Memory performance has a huge impact on overall system performance due to the nature of this CPUs design, we strongly recommend using 2933-3200 memory, which can be quite expensive Neutral Only supports 8x PCIe not 16x, but that's unlikely to be of concern for any GPU that would likely ever be paired with a budget CPU. Can be a little slow for CPU heavy tasks, but that's to be expected at this price range