AMD RYZEN 5 2400G

Budget gaming gets a new lease of life

RYZEN’S IMPACT on the CPU market has been profound, but all the chips so far have been straight CPU affairs and lack integrated graphics. The Ryzen 5 2400G changes that—significantly. Until now, integrated graphics haven’t been anything to get excited about—Intel’s HD graphics have been improving, but they’re nowhere near discrete offerings. The Vega 11 GPU beating inside this chip closes that gap—it actually delivers decent 3D performance.

The CPU side of the equation is ostensibly comparable to the Ryzen 5 1400 that it’s set to replace, with a quad-core, eight-thread architecture, albeit with a faster base clock of 3.6GHz and a turbo of 3.9GHz (up from 3.2GHz and 3.6GHz respectively). This increase is possible thanks to the fact that the new “Raven Ridge” APUs use a single core complex containing all four cores, as opposed to a pair of dual-core complexes, as in the Ryzen 5 1400. This means there is less cache on offer—the Ryzen 5 1400 has 8MB of L3 cache, while there’s only 4MB here. Latencies are improved for the single core complex design, though, which means you shouldn’t spot the drop in cache.

As hinted at by its name, the Radeon Vega 11 graphics subsystem boasts 11 compute units, equating to 704 stream processors, 44 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPs (render outputs). This is tiny compared to high-end graphics cards (the Vega 56 has 56 compute units, for instance, which equates to 3,854 stream processors), but impressive for an integrated offering. This graphics core operates at 1,250MHz, which isn’t exactly hanging around. It’s not going to replace graphics cards for high-end gaming, but it’s more than we’re used to.

How does the Ryzen 5 2400G perform? It’s good. Nothing too far outside our expectations, but not disastrous. The eight threads mean it outperforms Intel’s similarly priced Core i3-8350K in Cinebench’s multiprocessor test, and it’s faster in Fry Render, too. Intel’s single-core performance evens things out, though, and X265 has the chips neck and neck. NOVEL GRAPHICS One thing to note with our benchmarks is that our main processor tests use a GeForce GTX 1080. So the benchmarks aren’t any indication of the main selling point of this chip—the integrated graphics. The inclusion of integrated graphics does impact the capabilities of the chip when it comes to discrete graphics—the PCIe bus operates at x8 as opposed to the x16 you’ll find on non-APU Ryzen chips. This results in a lower score in FarCryPrimal (71fps as opposed to the 77fps norm), and as you push your graphics card harder, we’d expect to see a bigger disparity.

With integrated we got most games to hit smooth frame rates at 1080p with some tweaking. By doing so we managed to get 30fps in RiseoftheTombRaider, 24fps in ShadowsofWar, and roughly the same in TotalWar:Attila. This sometimes took some harsh pummeling of the settings, but at least it’s possible where it often isn’t with the last-gen solutions. Overwatch, that budding newbie on the esport scene, highlights what’s possible when you’re dealing with a well-optimized engine—it managed a consistently smooth 60fps at medium settings at 1080p. Not bad at all.

Overall, we’re impressed with the Ryzen 5 2400G. You’ll still want a discrete card if you’re at all interested in tinkering with high settings and anything above HD resolutions, but for a lot of mainstream gaming, it handles itself well. If you’re looking to build an entry-level gaming rig on a tight budget, this should be at the top of your list. –ALAN DEXTER

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G

ALPHA LYRAE Surprisingly powerful GPU; fast core clocks; great value for money.

BETA SCORPII Limited max PCIe lanes; needs speedy RAM.

$169, www. amd.com