AMD Athlon 3000G Review

With AMD’s recent success in the high-end processor market they’re jumping from strength to strength, but what about the cheaper side of things? Let’s delve into AMD’s Athlon 3000G, one of the cheapest processors we’ve looked at for quite a while.

Product on Review: AMD Athlon 3000G
Manufacturer: AMD
Street Price: GBP £49.99 / USD $49.99 / AUS $89.99

All too often we’re here offering you reviews of processors costing several hundred pounds with a million cores and enormously high clock speeds, but today we’re bringing you something much more affordable and, dare we say it, a little sedate by recent measures.

The AMD Athlon 3000G is based on AMD’s Zen architecture from 2017, so it’s already old-tech, so to speak, but that certainly doesn’t mean you should write it off straight away. For starters, they’ve had time to perfect the recipe in the previous two years, and a lot of time to bring the cost right down for true entry level builds; right down as far as £49.99 in the UK, and did we mention that also includes a GPU?

Sporting a dual-core, quad-thread arrangement, the 3000G operates at a 3.5GHz all-core frequency, with no turbo clocks in sight; you get 3.5GHz regardless of workload. What’s more is that they’ve also removed any kind of overclocking limiter, unlocking the processor to give you additional headroom to really open it up, with, from what we can see, 4.0GHz being easily attainable. Not only that, the 3000G is rated at a 35W TDP at stock but AMD are shipping the processor with a 65W cooler, making sure the overclocking headroom is available from the outset without needing to invest more money into an expensive cooler.

Providing the graphics horsepower is a VEGA 3 GPU, clocked at 1100MHz. The 3 signifies the number of processing cores within the GPU, of which each possesses 64 Stream Processors, just like their Radeon range of discrete GPUs. We’ll give the GPU a fair go, but 3 GPU cores and an 1100MHz core speed lead us to believe we’ll be strictly limited to casual 720p gaming.

Those of you with a keen eye may feel like you’ve seen this before, and you’re quite right, the entire APU package appears to be an AMD Athlon 200GE that’s been turned up to 11 and provided with a beefier cooler, at a lower price.

With Intel currently struggling with 14nm production and discrete GPUs, even on the used market, typically costing more than this entire package, does it present the compelling purchase it appears to or is the 3200G and 3400G, at only a little extra cash, a better option? Let’s find out.

AMD on the Athlon 3000G:

The NEW AMD Athlon™ 3000G processor is a trusted brand with modern Ryzen processor and Radeon graphics technology features, delivering powerful entry-level graphics technology for casual gaming, combined with advanced AMD processing power to deliver sharp performance and high-fidelity visuals on a reliable AM4 platform. The AMD Athlon 3000G processor is the only unlocked option in its segment.i]

Technical Specifications

# of CPU Cores: 2
# of Threads: 4
# of GPU Cores: 3
Base Clock: 3.5GHz
Total L1 Cache: 192KB
Total L2 Cache: 1MB
Total L3 Cache: 4MB
Unlocked: Yes
CMOS: 14nm (Zen)
Package: AM4
PCI Express Version: PCIe 3.0
Default TDP: 35W
Max Temps: 95°C

Test Setup & Software

For the purpose of testing the AMD Athlon 3000G we used the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC – this motherboard is a strong offering and provides us with a good platform to analyse performance. We were unable to use the latest X570 chipset due to incompatibility with this CPU.

CPU being tested
AMD Athlon 3000G (3.5GH\) Zen

TEST SETUP

Cooling be quiet! Dark Rock 4
Motherboard MSI Prestige X570 Creation
Memory 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair LX 512GB SSD
PSU Corsair RM 1000 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU

BENCHMARKS

Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Creative & Photoshop
PCMark 10 – Extended
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
3DMark TimeSpy – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER

OTHER SOFTWARE

Temperature Analysis: Core Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z

Temperatures

To measure temperatures we run the CPU at its stock clock speeds and hit it with an AIDA64 Stability Test load for 20 minutes.
Graph

Benchmarks: Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all processors. Although they are using a combination of different motherboard chipsets, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Ray Tracing Performance – POV-Ray 3.7

Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.

This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.

AES Encryption Performance – TrueCrypt 7.1a

TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).

Encoding Performance – x264 HD

Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.

Processing Features Performance – AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.

Memory Transfer Performance – AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page

Memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, Memory Copy) measure the maximum achiveable memory data transfer bandwidth. The code behind these benchmark methods are written in Assembly and they are extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86/x64, x87, MMX, MMX+, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE4.1, AVX, and AVX2 instruction set extension.

The Memory Latency benchmark measures the typical delay when the CPU reads data from system memory. Memory latency time means the penalty measured from the issuing of the read command until the data arrives to the integer registers of the CPU.

Processing Power Performance – Cinebench R15 & R20

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Bandwidth Performance – SiSoftware SANDRA

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.

Image Editing Performance – PCMark 8 Photoshop

PCMark 8 Product Page

Developed in partnership with Benchmark Development Program members Acer, AMD, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital, PCMark 8 is the latest version in FutureMark’s popular series of PC benchmarking tools. Improving on previous releases, PCMark 8 includes new tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft.

Overall System Performance – PCMark 10

PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, and the new Battery Life Profile, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office.

VR Performance – VRMark

VRMark includes two VR benchmark tests that run on your monitor, no headset required, or on a connected HMD. At the end of each test, you’ll see whether your PC is VR ready, and if not, how far it falls short.

3D Performance – 3DMark

Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.

Gaming Performance – Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles benchmarked with a Radeon RX 480 installed.

Gaming Performance (iGPU) Rise of the Tomb Raider, DOTA 2 & CS:GO

Conclusion

Since we reported on the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G prices in other sectors have fallen further still, particularly on SSDs and RAM, making a cost-efficient system even easier to come by; thanks to this, the AMD Athlon 3000G presents a rather compelling argument, but only in some very specific use-cases.

Though we test our CPUs using a Corsair H150i Pro RGB AIO loop, we felt it necessary to install the Wraith cooler and see what’s what. We found the temperatures were never of any concern whatsoever, nor were volume levels. Additionally, AMD recently introduced a new system that allows you to step down the TDP one level, from 95W to 65W, for example. This gives you the option of further reducing thermals, down to 25W, if you absolutely don’t need much of the CPU’s power.

Now, onto performance. As you can see from our graphs, the 3000G book ends the wrong end of almost every graph, but it is also considerably cheaper than anything else we’ve tested. Having said that, if you need a PC for basic office work, browsing social media, or watching YouTube videos, the 3000G presents an awesome proposition.

You could argue that there are better options for only a small amount more, such as the Ryzen 3200G with its VEGA8 GPU and true quad core Zen+ CPU cores at around £85 or the 3400G for around £120. Or a used 2200G for around £50. Only you can make that decision.

If a cheap and cheerful PC is all you need, with some very basic gaming ability, the 3000G can’t really be beaten, but certainly consider all of your options before backing yourself into a corner that you can’t necessarily upgrade your way out of.

Pros
+ Very good value
+ 65W cooler included
+ iGPU included
+ Overclocking unlocked
+ Low power and minimal heat output

Cons
– All but the most basic of gaming is out of the question
– Overall performance is quite low
– No boost clocks
– No support on X570 motherboards

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