Maximum PC - UK (2020-05)

FIFTY BUCKS for an unlocked Zen-

architecture processor with integrated

graphics? Fifty bucks?! We wondered if

AMD was joking when it announced the

Athlon 3000G, but no; here it is, in all its

super-affordable glory. Releasing a dual-

core processor in the year 2020 feels like

an odd move, but when it’s cheap as all

heck, it’s certainly hard to argue with

AMD’s logic.

Team Red has long been the king of

budget APUs, with the excellent 3400G

and 3200G launching in its Ryzen line

last year to some success. The Athlon

3000G isn’t so much a step forward as it

is a nimble leap sideways, filling a space

in the market with a budget APU that sits

alongside the likes of the Athlon 200GE.

It’s cheaper than the GE-series Athlon

CPUs right now, too.

While this chip is 3.5GHz dual-core,

it uses simultaneous multithreading

tech to provide four threads, improving

performance in some areas. It’s also got

three GPU cores (AMD’s Radeon Vega 3

integrated graphics), and a super-low

35W thermal power design. CPU-savvy

readers might recognize these specs as

matching the older Athlon 240GE, and

you’d be right; this is essentially the same

chip, but unlocked for overclocking.

On paper, it’s a huge improvement.

It’s a simple, affordable APU, ideal for

low-powered systems that won’t be

doing much more than word processing

and web browsing. The low TDP and

dinky included cooler also serve this

ideal; this isn’t a CPU to pair with high-

end components. Only eight PCIe lanes

Budget just got better

AMD Athlon 3000G

8

VERDICT AMD Athlon 3000G

DECATHLON Stupidly cheap;

very low power draw; Vega 3

graphics are decent.

EXHAUSTION Poor rendering

performance; limited PCIe lanes;

included cooler is weak.

$55, http://amd.com

SPECIFICATIONS

Base Clock 3.5GHz

Cores/Threads 2/4

Lithography 14nm

Cache 4MB L3

Memory Support DDR4-2667

Memory Channels 2

Max PCIe Lanes 8

Graphics Radeon Vega 3

TDP 35W

BENCHMARKS

AMD Athlon 240GE AMD Athlon 3000G AMD Athlon 3000G

@ 4.1GHz

Blender 2.82 Beta BMW (pps) 536 531 598

Cinebench R15 Single/Multi (Index) 142/394 142/398 169 / 460

POV-Ray 3.7.1 Single/Multi (pps) 339/873 341/856 467 /1,036

PCMark 8 (Index) 3,198 3,232 3,432

AIDA64 Latency (ns) 75 75 71

AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth (MB/s) 44,860 44,711 45,083

Tech ARP's X264 (Avg fps) 8.75 8.84 10.39

Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 555

Best scores are in bold. Our test bed consists of an Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance

RGB Pro DDR4-3200, an ADATA SU630 512GB SATAIII SSD, and a Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 1200W. All games are

tested at their highest graphical profile at 1080p.

mean that using a GPU at all isn’t ideal;

performance is guaranteed to suffer

compared to chips with more lanes. The

low price means that pairing the 3000G

with a GPU doesn’t make much sense

anyway, unless you have an old card

lying around. Cheaper B450 and X470

motherboards with graphical outputs are

the best companion to this chip.

The Vega 3 graphics are, well, fine.

Running general desktop tasks on

integrated saw little to no slowdown at

1440p and below, but running Win 10

at 4K was choppy and the available

resolutions were oddly limited. AMD

was keen to market this as a budget chip

great for running esports games at 720p,

but in practice it’s only just capable of

that. 2D indie titles should run fine, and

we did manage to squeeze 30fps out of

Fortnite on 720p Low settings, but the

3000G definitely isn’t the poster child for

gaming on integrated graphics.

Just two cores means that the 3000G

isn’t equipped to handle rendering tasks,

either, despite SMT doubling the thread

count. Our benchmarks took so long to

run, we could feel our beards growing

as we waited for them to complete. The

figures weren’t very impressive either,

but were more or less what we expected;

the 3000G performs about as well as the

240GE, albeit with added overclocking

headroom (because the 240GE had none).

Overclocking does help, with a stable

overclock of 4.1GHz easily achievable.

4.2GHz will likely be an option for some

chips, but you’re beholden to the silicon

lottery. Running the CPU at 4.1GHz

got us about 15 percent improved

performance on average across all our

tests—impressive considering how easy

overclocking was. The chip did heat up to

t h e m i d - 6 0 s; w e w o u l d n’t a d v i s e u s i n g t h e

puny stock cooler if you’re overclocking.

At the time of writing, the 3000G is

selling fast. While the RRP is $50, the

chip is sold out in many retailers, and we

couldn’t find it for under $55. Still a great

deal; the cheapest we could find the

comparable Athlon 240GE was $70. The

3000G effectively replaces the 240GE in

the Athlon hierarchy; it’s the new dream

chip for budget and low-power rigs, ideal

for entry-level builders and experienced

overclockers looking to build a PC for

peanuts. –CHRISTIAN GUYTON

maximumpc.com MAY 2020 MAXIMUMPC 69