Question APU with low end GPU

[Frenfren33]

With my budget, i finally decided ryzen 5 2400g will be the most ideal cpu for me. And i read that its APU vega 11 is not bad at all. In fact, it beats my nvidia gt 710 by miles. I don't game much. Games i intend to play are CS:GO, Dota 2, and some town building games. So, my doubts are:

1. Should i still install my old 2gb gt 710 ddr3 along with ryzen 2400g? If yes, which graphic will execute my games?
2. Since i have gpu already, should i go for other ryzens without apu?
3. Is APU really reliable? Don't they heat much performing both as graphics unit and processing unit?

Any insights would be much appreciated.

 

[WildCard999]

1. No, just use the Vega 11.
2. Nope, just when you decide to get a better GPU make sure it's a worthwhile upgrade over the Vega 11 (would go RX 570 or better).
3. They work well and the stock cooler will keep the temps within safe ranges, even with some overclocking.

 

[digitalgriffin]

The Vega 11 2400g will do okay o n its own. But if you decide to upgrade to a new dedicated gpu you can get a faster 2600 for similar money ($150 new) of a 2400g.

The reason you might want to do this is because the 2400g is limited to a 8x graphics bus. So any graphics card you plug into the pci bus will be running at half bandwidth and the graphics side of the apu will not be used.

So if you do get a dedicated gpu sell the 2400g for $75. But a used 2600 for $115 and then get your dedicated gpu. Your system will be more balanced that way.

 

[DSzymborski]

Yup, no point in keeping the GT 710 around except as an emergency backup/testing thing for when you have a real GPU.

Vegas does in fact beat the 710 by miles and there's little actual performance reason to keep it in your PC. APUs aren't unreliable; the GPUs are weak enough that you don't really run into any related heating issues.

You could go for another Ryzen, but for all intents and purposes, you don't "already have" a GPU. It's around the level of Ivy Bridge/Haswell integrated graphics (which were quite slow to begin with). The only real use of a GT 710 was to serve for basic functionality on office machines that didn't already have integrated graphics, like most AMD processors and a handful of Intel ones.

 

[cryoburner]

The reason you might want to do this is because the 2400g is limited to a 8x graphics bus. So any graphics card you plug into the pci bus will be running at half bandwidth and the graphics side of the apu will not be used.

In practice, that isn't going to perceptibly affect performance though. Only the highest-end cards on the market are affected by the bandwidth limits of PCIe 3.0 x8 and 2.0 x16 in any notable way, so unless they plan on picking up a $1000 video card in the near future, it shouldn't be a concern. : P Now, the extra cores of a 6-core Ryzen could be nice to have, but also are not likely to make much difference in at least the games listed, which are more lightly-threaded.

Probably worth asking, what are your current system specs, and what hardware are you planning to buy for the upgrade? And what kind of total budget are you looking at? The system would need an AM4 motherboard and DDR4 RAM for a Ryzen 2400G.

 

[digitalgriffin]

In practice, that isn't going to perceptibly affect performance though. Only the highest-end cards on the market are affected by the bandwidth limits of PCIe 3.0 x8 and 2.0 x16 in any notable way, so unless they plan on picking up a $1000 video card in the near future, it shouldn't be a concern. : P Now, the extra cores of a 6-core Ryzen could be nice to have, but also are not likely to make much difference in at least the games listed, which are more lightly-threaded.

Probably worth asking, what are your current system specs, and what hardware are you planning to buy for the upgrade? And what kind of total budget are you looking at? The system would need an AM4 motherboard and DDR4 RAM for a Ryzen 2400G.

With a 2600 you are getting more cache, 2/4 more cores plus higher clock speed with PB2 and better memory compatibility. There are games that are constrained by 4/8 cores. And if he decides to stream or run full 4k with hi-res textures it will need a full 16 bit PCIe bus with those extra cores. The difference isn't night and day. But it is about building a balanced system. The 2400g is a fine APU on it's own. It really is. But it's out matched when you start getting to 1440p territory with dedicated GPUs. The extra $30->$35 he'll spend to upgrade to a dedicated CPU is worth it with a dedicated card.