Computer Shopper - UK (2020-03)

30 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385

DESKTOPPROCESSORSHAVEprogressed

farenough that the notion of putting amere

dual-core CPU intoyour desktop PC might

sound less like shrewd money-saving and

more like tight-fisted silliness. The Athlon

3000G, however,shows that sometimes you

really can do more with less.

Like any Athlon chip,this accelerated

processingunit (APU) sits well below AMD’s

successful Ryzen series of mainstreamCPUs.

Regardless, it shares many of thelatter’s

qualities. There’s SimultaneousMultithreading

(SMT), producing two extra virtual cores fora

total of four threads, and Ryzen’s power-

efficientZen architecture is in use here as well.

And whilethere’snoboostclock, the3.5GHz

base core speedcan be overclocked manually

thanks to an unlocked multiplier.

THE FULL SET

It’s extremely rarefor cheapchips to come

unlocked, especiallywhenthe price is as low

as this.At£42, theAthloncosts lessthanhalf

of both the Ryzen 32200G and Intel’s Core

i3-8100 (bothShopper376).AsanAMD APU,

it alsohas integrated graphics, albeit only in

the form of aVega 3GPU; theRyzen 32200G

packs more powerful Vega 8graphics.

Even so,removingthe need foraseparate

graphics card further strengthens the Athlon

3000G’s potential as an entry-leveldesktop

chip; notonlyisitextremely inexpensiveinits

own right, it can save youcash on otherPC

components as well.

Thereare afew caveats to consider,

however. First, you mayhavenoticedwe

mentioned this processor is based on theZen

architecture, not the newer,improvedZen+ or

Zen2,sowhile it’s technically anew part, it’s

basedontech fromafew years back. Second,

we neededtoperform aBIOSupdatefor our

GigabyteAorus X370-Gaming 5motherboard

before theAthlon 3000G wouldworkwith it,

despitethe X370 chipset being made

specifically forZen-based chips. If you’re

building awhole newPC, you should therefore

check themotherboard you’re buyingcomes

running asufficiently recent BIOSversion.

Still, thefactthat this uses the same

AM4 socket as theRyzen familymeansthat

VERDICT

While unmistakably an entry-level chip,the 3000G’s

value and overclockability might surprise you

AM4PROCESSOR

compatibleboardsareplentiful.The useofan

architecturefrom 2017 isn’tabig dealin

practice,either –infact, thesinglebestthing

about the Athlon3000G is how faritperforms

beyond expectations.

At astock 3.5GHz, it scored 79 in our 4K

benchmark suite’simage-editing test,along

with 66 in thevideo-encoding test, 56 in the

multitaskingtestand 66 overall.That might

not sound very high if you’re used to reading

Shopper’s Ryzen reviews, but consideringthe

on-paper specs,it’sanimpressive showing.

Forcomparison, the previous-generation

Athlon X4 950 costs about the sameand is

also clocked at 3.5GHz, butscored only 53

overall, despitehavingfour physical cores

and a3.8GHz boostclock.

In terms of more recent budget

competition, theRyzen 32200Gand Core

i3-8100 areboth much faster,scoring100 and

112 overall respectively, but again, they also

costmore than twice as much. Proportionally,

then, theAthlon 3000Gstill does well.

GET ONBOARD

As forthe Vega 3graphics, it’s not up to

1080p gaming by itself. Dirt Showdown

producedonly 15fps with Very High settings,

and that’s the least demanding benchmark

game we use. It’s finefor generaldesktop

surfing, however,and you can play some

games if youdon’t mind dropping to 720p.

Using 1,280x720 andthe Highpreset,for

example,Dirtran likeacompletely different

game,averaging asmooth 55fps.

Paired with adedicated GPU, youcan

expectsomebottlenecking, butmainlyin

games that arespecifically CPU-intensive.Dirt,

which fitsthatdescription, produced 87fpsat

1080p (and backonVery High) with aGTX

1060, which is well below the 130fps that card

can get with aquad-core IntelCore i7-4770K.

Conversely,Metro: Last Light Redux managed

48fps, onlyasingle frame per second behind

the Corei7configuration.

Overclockingworkswell,too.Weeasily

pushed theAthlon 3000Gto3.8GHz on air

cooling, no voltage changes required. Other

reviewers have reported being abletoreach

as high as 4GHz, butwecouldn’t getthis

sufficiently stableeven after tweaking

voltages. However,3.8GHz wasenough for

amuchimproved image test score of 94,

as well as smaller improvements to the

video,multitasking and overall results: 72,

66 and 73 respectively.

Gaming on Vega is stilla720p affair –Dirt

at 1080p only rose to 16fps post-overclock

–but at 720pitaveraged 61fps, an

improvement of over 10%.With the GTX

1060, Dirt at 1080p rose to 94fps, although

Metrostayed static at 48fps.

Nonetheless, overclocking is worthdoing,

especially as doingsoonlyraisestemperatures

slightly.Idle temps barely rose from 27° to 30°C,

and loadtemps only increased by the same

amount: 50°C at 3.5GHz rose to 53°C at 3.8GHz.

GWHIZZ

It’s still bettertogowiththe Ryzen 32200G if

you canafford it, but there’s nothingas

powerful or as flexible as the Athlon 3000G

below£50. On those groundsalone, it’s worthy

of arecommendation, and overclocking

support, lowtemperaturesand decentgaming

performance areall welcome bonuses.

JamesArcher

AMDAthlon3000G

★★★★★

£42•From http://www.scan.co.uk

SPECIFICATIONS

Windowsoverall

Multitasking

Dirt Showdown

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage98for performancedetails

SOCKETAM4•CORES (^2) • FREQUENCY3.5GHz•
INTEGRATED GRAPHICSAMDRadeon Vega 3•
WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•
PART CODEYD3000C6FHBOX
55fps

66

56

It’s extremely rare forcheap chips to come unlocked,

especially when the priceisaslow as this