AMD Raven Ridge Thermal/Power Analysis: Ryzen APUs With Vega

[FormatC]

We take a closer look at AMD’s Raven Ridge-based processors, analyzing power consumption, clock rates, and temperatures. We also pit the stock cooler against a high-end chiller to find a temperature-independent power limit for Ryzen 5 2400G.

AMD Raven Ridge Thermal/Power Analysis: Ryzen APUs With Vega : Read more

 

[Combat_Medic]

The prices you chose to use here are bogus - the $99 and $169 MSRP are what they're actually going for.

 

[AgentLozen]

The prices you chose to use here are bogus - the $99 and $169 MSRP are what they're actually going for.

The prices from Amazon or NewEgg (or whatever) are usually inaccurate. I think Tom's should provide us with the MSRP and the internet price. That way, if the internet price is malfunctioning and showing a +50% markup, at least we know what it's SUPPOSED to sell for.

edit: minor fix

 

[FormatC]

When I wrote this review, we had only the official MSRP from AMD. The availability in Germany looks ok and the prices in EUR with VAT are lower

 

[Ninjawithagun]

The prices (provided via direct link to Amazon.com) are now correct. Unfortunately, they are all sold out...lol.

 

[Kennyy Evony]

Best solution to put these in would be your stand alone calculators.

 

[JamesSneed]

These seem to be very efficient for the CPU and GPU performance they deliver. Nifty more options for budget PC's.

I am left wondering if the 14nm process AMD is using, is having issues scaling to higher frequencies as it appears you keep Zen and Vega at lower clocks and they are very efficient.

 

[FormatC]

I really like the new power management and it is finally nothing else as efficiency-orientated mobile technology for the desktop.

 

[nuclearpowerofattorney]

Maybe the 2400G is so smart and powerful, that when it reaches critical computational capacity, it evolves to become sentient, and thus unruly. Only after it is rebooted, to have the sentience removed, will the system cease its rebellious behavior. (Actually, I don't think this..but it's all I've got).

 

[Rookie_MIB]

For the 2400G, bundling the better Wraith Spire could probably avoid the throttling bouncing around by preventing it from hitting the thermal limits under the more taxing loads.

Eventually though they're going to have to find out what's causing it to get stuck in that loop.

 

[7angrytangerines]

Obviously 2400G wants to protect itself from some poor saps trying to use it for cryptocurrency mining.

 

[bennie101]

When was the last generation Intel used solder on there chips? Maybe AMD is following a bad example of a mistake Intel made. Oh well saves money right!

 

[FormatC]

This cooler failed only under bad conditions and with a so-called power-virus. I'm sure that the temperatures will not exceed the limits during normal daily utilization.

 

[Valantar]

All in all, I'm really impressed with these chips in terms of power draw. Passable Witcher 3 frame rates at <50W? That's crazy impressive!

Still, for an article titled "thermal/power analysis", I'm a bit disappointed. No power numbers while overclocked, at least for gaming? No full-platform power draw? For an APU like this that's no doubt headed for a bunch of SFF builds, total platform power draw is important (at least for those of us considering PicoPSUs and the like). Sure, this pulls SSD and motherboard power draw into the mix, but that's the whole point! Please give a ballpark number of peak (non-virus) platform power. Does the motherboard+SSD+cooler add 10W? 20? 30?

 

[John Freiman]

Well, unless the GPU throttling can be solved by a BIOS or Firmware update, I'm not going to be upgrading my Plex Server with an AMD A10 APU and RX480 any time soon.
I am so disappointed!!!!!

 

[Valantar]

Well, unless the GPU throttling can be solved by a BIOS or Firmware update, I'm not going to be upgrading my Plex Server with an AMD A10 APU and RX480 any time soon.
I am so disappointed!!!!!

It would be baffling if this wasn't a patchable bug - a hardware bug this major that wasn't spotted in preliminary hardware testing? Doesn't make sense to me. Probably need a microcode update of some sort, but of course figuring out the source of it might be more of a challenge.

Still, if you have an RX 480 in the Plex server, any APU would be a downgrade. If you need more CPU power than you APU provides, why not go for a 1200X or 1300?

 

[damric]

Perhaps you should test again with a proper motherboard, you know, one with some descent VRMs and sinks. There are some starting around $75. The motherboard used in your test is just pure rubbish, not designed at all for that harsh treatment.

 

[gggplaya]

Well, unless the GPU throttling can be solved by a BIOS or Firmware update, I'm not going to be upgrading my Plex Server with an AMD A10 APU and RX480 any time soon.
I am so disappointed!!!!!

What's the idle wattage of your plex server, I can't imagine the A10 APU is very good. Also, if you sold your RX480 on ebay right now, the upgrade to a 2200g with a B350 motherboard and 8GB of ram would even out. Depends on how much graphics power you need on your server.

I use a NAS, but I use Apple TV 4's with the Infuse app, so there's no need for me to transcode. My ARM NAS only uses about 6watts in HDD standby mode.

 

[Ninjawithagun]

Interestingly enough, my 1700X (@ stock 3.5Ghz) achieves the exact same temps under full load Prime95 ;-)

 

[FormatC]

I delidded it, with interesting findings after comparing the original TM with high-end grease and liquid metal. Stay tuned, it must be translated now.

 

[djekna]

i have 120 w PSU external LC power
Would i be ok to put 2400G and make a RIG ?

 

[FormatC]

LC Power... The problem is not the wattage, but the quality. All my experience with this fabless brand (they are producing simply nothing, it's mostly pure china-rebranding) is not really good.

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Well, unless the GPU throttling can be solved by a BIOS or Firmware update, I'm not going to be upgrading my Plex Server with an AMD A10 APU and RX480 any time soon.
I am so disappointed!!!!!

Just as a quick note, there's no reason why you couldn't upgrade it right now. Remember that the load that they're subjecting it to is stupidly high and that was tested with the stock cooler. If you put a better cooler on it from the get-go, it's highly unlikely you'd hit that thermal loop in the first place.

 

[John Freiman]

It sounds like you aren't taking into account that the HARDWARE ENCODING AND DECODING is 100% separate from the 3D /Graphics engine.
A faster, beefier CPU would help, but would not allow for me to Transcode more simultaneous video feeds using the Vega or Polaris VCE.