Today nosotros're taking a look at the new Athlon 3000G, AMD's most affordable Zen-based processor yet coming in at just $50. To be clear, this unfortunately isn't a Zen ii processor. In order words, this is similar to the Ryzen three 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G, featuring Zen logic cores with an integrated Vega GPU.

This also ways that Athlon 3000G is just a refresh of the Athlon 240GE, which as many of you will know is a slightly higher clocked version of the $55 200GE. When compared to the 240GE, the 3000G still has ii cores with SMT support for iv threads, it operates at the aforementioned 3.5 GHz base of operations frequency, packs v MB of enshroud and a Vega 3 graphics engine with 192 cores. The iGPU has been overclocked by 100 MHz, so information technology now operates at 1.1 GHz.

There is however one rather significant change that sees the Athlon 3000G to exist completely unlocked. With previous releases you couldn't overclock the CPU, GPU or DDR4 retentivity, while the 3000G is unlocked, assuasive y'all to tinker with everything.

Besides read: The Best Entry Level Gaming CPU: Athlon 200GE vs. Pentium G5400 vs. Ryzen iii 2200G

The headroom we anticipate won't be huge, just you lot should exist able to extract ~x% more out of the chip. The retention overclocking side is especially useful given the default spec just calls for DDR4-2666 and this will limit iGPU functioning quite a bit. And so we've tested with DDR4-3200 memory which volition give the 3000G a big advantage over the previously tested Athlon 200GE (we never got our hands on the 240GE).

An overclockable 240GE doesn't sound too bad, especially because AMD'due south $75 offer is at present down to $50 with the Athlon 3000G. For testing nosotros're using the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max and nosotros've got fresh iGPU game data comparing a range of new and one-time Ryzen parts to the Intel Cadre i3-8100. Before that though, let'due south bank check out some application benchmarks.

Benchmarks

Testing the Athlon 3000G with DDR4-3200 memory ways we're using the same memory as other Ryzen processors. The 200GE though is express to DDR4-2666 retentiveness. This sees retentivity bandwidth ameliorate by 23%, so information technology will exist interesting to meet if the 3000G tin can put all that extra bandwidth to use.

Here'south a look at Cinebench R15 multi-threaded performance. Every bit expected the 3000G is ~5% faster than the Athlon 200GE and that placed it roughly on par with the Pentium G4560, non amazing operation by any stretch of the imagination, simply it's as well not bad for $50.

Single thread performance is also where yous'd await it to be, a fraction faster than the 200GE and on par with the Ryzen 3 1200. A score of 133 pts isn't impressive by today's standards, but for a $50 CPU isn't bad and is more than powerful plenty for function blazon tasks.

Speaking of, here's a look at Excel performance using the Monte Carlo simulation and here the 3000G reduced the completion time from the 200GE past half-dozen%. That said, information technology all the same took 16% longer than the Pentium G4560.

The higher clocked cores and actress memory bandwidth allowed for a mild vi% performance uplift in PCMark ten's productivity benchmark. This placed the 3000G roughly on par with the Core i3-7100 and Ryzen three 1200.

This time we run into a 4% reduction in completion fourth dimension for the Athlon 3000G when compared to the 200GE. About what you lot'd expect for a 9% increase in frequency.

Like Corona nosotros simply see a very minor performance improvement when testing with Blender, the 3000G completed this workload five% faster and that meant it was nevertheless much slower than the Ryzen iii 1200 and Core i3-7100.

Ability

The adept news here comes with power consumption. The Athlon 3000G is very efficient, pushing full organization usage to just 58 watts in the Blender benchmark. That's a 12% increment over the 200GE just 23% less than the Pentium G4560.

Ability consumption when gaming with the integrated GPU is also very good, nosotros'll wait at gaming performance in a moment but needless to say the 3000G is faster than the Core i3-8100 and withal it consumes less power.

Gaming Benchmarks

Playing Rocket League the Athlon 3000G is 23% faster than the Cadre i3-8100, though it was simply 4% faster than the 200GE. We had expected the faster DDR4 retentivity to provide a greater functioning advantage.

Operation in Rainbow Six Siege at 720p using the low quality settings is horrible, the game is mostly playable only with an average of 40 fps under these conditions information technology's well-nigh not worth bothering with. For twice the price you get twice the performance with the 2200G and eighty fps on average enables a significantly more than enjoyable gaming feel.

Frame rates in Fortnite are a piffling ameliorate and here we can at to the lowest degree average 55 fps, though that'southward only a 4 fps improvement over the 200GE. For those hoping to game on integrated graphics, we'd suggest going no lower than the Ryzen 3 2200G.

Overclocking and Wrap Up

A quick wait at overclocking, using ane.35v nosotros were able to push button the clock multiplier to x40 and this resulted in an operating frequency of iv GHz. This saw the 3000G's Cinebench score improved by 10%, now capable of 418 pts.

No big surprises here. The Athlon 3000G performs as closely as nosotros imagine the 240GE would, making it a smidgen faster than the 200GE. The proficient news is that y'all get information technology for less and it'due south unlocked, and that makes it the fastest and cheapest Zen based Athlon part even so.

Really, here's a quick look at cost per bespeak in Cinebench…

The Athlon 3000G is the cheapest CPU and information technology also offers the all-time value at just 13 cents per indicate. If you're willing to spend just $fourteen more, the Ryzen 3 1200 is much more than powerful, though in terms of value it'southward about the aforementioned.

There are a number of options that will provide a much amend experience, providing you can afford to spend $20 to $50 more than, which might exist a big enquire given the 3000G costs $50 to begin with. Still, we think for well-nigh of you lot reading this information technology volition make far more sense to just spend that additional $45 to get the Ryzen 3 3200G or fifty-fifty $100 more than on the 2400G. Actually the 3400G seems to exist on sale correct at present for $132 so that would be an even better option.

AMD provided the Asrock DeskMini A300 with our Athlon 3000G sample, it'due south a neat footling custom built system that we've featured earlier. Information technology costs $150 every bit a barebone, y'all just have to add together memory, storage and the CPU. That means with 8GB of DDR4, priced at around $35, a 256GB SSD for about $30, and the Athlon 3000G for $fifty, the entire build would come out at $265, so pretty damn cheap.

Even if you went with the Ryzen v 3400G, that would increase the full toll by 34% to $355, and that's not an insignificant price increase for such an affordable PC, only you'll end up with a much more than capable PC that'll deliver a vastly superior feel, particularly if you lot programme on gaming.

Where the Athlon 3000G makes sense is for businesses looking at ownership hundreds or thousands of these things, at that signal the savings are massive and for bones productivity tasks it's proven to be more than than capable. The 3000G is a good all-rounder for this purpose, while those afterwards a cheap HTPC or just the cheapest new PC with warranty, there'southward no amend selection at this cost bespeak.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Athlon 3000G on Amazon (soon)
  • Athlon/Ryzen philharmonic: Asrock B450M-HDV or MSI B450 Tomahawk & DDR4-3200 RAM
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3200G on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3400G on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 3 1200 on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on Amazon