Memory is Holding Us Back
Infinity Fabric is awesome, if you have lots of cheap, fast RAM
IF YOU’VE READ our review of AMD’s new Ryzen 5 2400G (pg. 78), you’ll know that we think it’s a quality budget chip. In fact, we’re stoked about the kinds of machines we can build around it, and what kind of price points we can hit with it as a base. The fact that it boasts integrated graphics that don’t completely suck, at a time when graphics card prices have lost all grasp of reality (a comparable GeForce GT 1030 will set you back $100) makes for a compelling story on its own.
The problem is, and it’s a problem that affects pretty much any build at the moment, is memory pricing. Basic RAM is too expensive, and the speedy stuff even more so. This affects AMD’s Raven Ridge APUs more than anything else currently out there, because the Infinity Fabric that forms the heart of the chip’s communications— forming the link between the APU’s six main components—runs at the speed of your memory. Faster memory equates to better CPU performance, better GPU performance, and just better performance across the board. You need quality, fast memory. Yeah, the expensive stuff. To go alongside a budget powerhouse.
What sort of performance difference are we talking? Well, in games you’re looking at dropping from 30fps with DDR4-2933 down to 24fps with DDR4-2400, or from 60fps down to 50fps. Enough of a difference to force you to turn off even more settings, drop the resolution, or simply make a game unplayable. We’ll look at this in more detail next issue, along with a look at the Ryzen 3 2200G, but for now, realize that memory performance is not only important again, but it can make a real difference to the viability of a platform.