4650G Benchmarks (A300 Deskmini vs X570)

[555BUK]

Working from home during lockdown has given me some time to play with my Ryzen 5 4650G. The 4650G is an OEM-only processor, and is very difficult to source within the UK. The processor is a 6-core / 12-thread part with boost frequencies of 4.3GHz. As it’s an APU, it includes integrated Vega7 graphics running at 1900MHz.

For my tests I installed this processor within two separate systems.


System #1
Asrock A300 Deskmini with A300 mobo & 120W power brick
16GB (2x8GB) Crucial Ballistix 2666MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM (Micron D-Die IC’s)
Noctua NH-L9A SFF heatsink & fan
1TB Sabrent Rocket NVME drive

System #2
ASUS TUF Gaming X570 Mobo with Meshify-C ATX case and Corsair HX850W PSU
16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill TridentZ 3866MHz DDR4 (Samsung B-Die IC’s)
Corsair H100X AIO cooling
1TB Corsair MP600 NVME drive

Benchmarks Used
*Cinebench R23 Multi & Single-core tests
*Passmark CPU & Memory tests
*Heaven 4.0 Graphics test, run @ 1080P with Medium-quality and tesselation set to normal
*F1 2019 Gaming test, run @ 1080P with Medium-settings & TAA
*Doom Eternal, run @ 1080P with Low-settings
*AIDA64 Memory read, write, copy and latency test

Test Cases
#1. Baseline Asrock A300 @ stock settings with XMP enabled. Memory @ XMP 2666MHz 16-18-18-38-61-467 1T-timings
#2. Asrock A300 with Memory OC to 3200MHz 16-20-18-18-38-60 443 1T-timings. Sub-timings tightened.
#3. X570 with Memory clocks matched to A300 OC test #2. CPU @ stock.
#4. X570 with CPU OC @ 4.3GHz all-core, GPU OC @ 2300MHz, Memory OC @ 4200MHz 16-18-16-16-34-50-302 1T-timings. Infinity Fabric @ 1:1 2100MHz.

Comments
*The Asrock A300 does not allow CPU or GPU overclocking. It only allows memory overclocks with voltage options of 1.2V or 1.35V.
*Tests 1-3 are run with CPU & GPU @ stock (4.3Ghz max boost, 1900Mhz GPU)
*The A300 build costs less than half of the X570 build price, is 1/16th of the size, and pulls half of peak system power from the wall (102W vs 231W).

Results






Observations
*The A300 matches X570 performance with memory clocked at same speeds. Unfortunately SO-DIMM’s >3200Mhz are very hard to find and very-expensive.
*The 4650G loves high ram speeds and low-latencies. The APU is memory bandwidth-restricted, and FPS increases are proportionate with memory speed.
*The 4650G matches 3600X performance within most online benchmarks. The extra cache on the 3600X gives advantage in some cases, but the faster Infinity Fabric clocks on the 4000-series APU’s show gains in others. Typically the 3600’s top-out at 1800-1900MHz IF vs 2100-2200Mhz for 4650’s.
*I can benchmark my 4650G @ CPU 4.4GHz, GPU 2400MHz, RAM 4400MHz / IF 2200MHz within the X570, but this takes a lot of volts and memory needs to be dropped to CAS 18.
*The 4650G is very capable of gaming @ 1080P, so long as your okay with low/medium settings and minimum 60FPS.
*There is not much point in overclocking the CPU. AMD has already extracted most of the available-performance with boost speeds hitting 4.3GHz. Overclocking will gain just 5-10% max CPU-performance at the cost of more heat, power and noise. RAM overclocking is where the benefits are found.

Summary
An Asrock A300 (or X300) combined with a 4000-series APU offers superb-performance within a tiny package. I would rate graphics-performance at close to that of an XBOX Series-S - capable of playing most games at 1080P/60FPS or 1440P/30FPS on low-medium settings. CPU performance is basically that of a Ryzen 5 3600X. Playing Doom Eternal, F1 2019 & Forza Horizon on Series-S and 4650G (with RAM/IF overclock) offer very similar performance/visuals. I would give the edge to the Series-S, but only just. Photo below is taken next to my Series-S controller.

 

[rare]

Why can’t they make these APU’s easier to get hold of ffs. I really want one, but even finding a 3400g is difficult. These updated 4000 parts are nigh on impossible!

thanks for that AMD.

 

[Donnie Fisher]

I’m in the same boat. I really want a 4750g but getting one is a pain the backside without taking an element of gamble on the vendor.

 

[softwaresimian]

Same here as well, been trying to get a 4750g from a 'reputable' source for some time now. Was expecting an announcement on 5000 series APU's from CES but nothing.

Gave up and went H470/10900 instead

Didn't realise that a BIOS was available for A300/4000 series APU's ?

 

[555BUK]

Didn't realise that a BIOS was available for A300/4000 series APU's ?

Asrock released a number of Beta BIOS' for the A300 which support 4000-series APU's. I have tried BIOS versions 3.60R and 3.60S. Both work fine with the 4650G, but I prefer 3.60S as it allows disabling of TSME.

TSME is used for RAM-level encryption, which is a feature of AMD's PRO-series CPU's. It is pretty pointless for home use and increases latency. Being able to turn it off gives 2-5% performance increases.

edit: The Asrock A300 and X300 use exactly the same hardware, except for an "enabler chip" soldered to the X300 which enables limited CPU & GPU overclocks. I think Asrock released the A300 Beta BIOS' to dry-run 4000-series testing on existing A300's, before releasing the X300's which officially support the new APU's. Apparently, X300 BIOS can be flashed to A300's, but CPU overclocking is not possible due to missing enabler-chip. Given that CPU & GPU overclocks make little-difference on my X570, it wouldn't be worth upgrading from an A300 to X300. Memory-clocks give far greater performance gains, and both versions support same memory OC.

 

[softwaresimian]

Thanks for the info. Very useful.

However, if the APU's are basically unavailable its all a bit of a moot point. Can someone poke AMD with a sharp stick please ?

 

[555BUK]

AMD are struggling to produce any APU's at the moment. They have stopped making 3000G's altogether, with any that are still available demanding a premium. 4000G's can only be sourced from Asia or Eastern Europe, and these are also disappearing fast. Sharing the same Fabs for CPU's, GPU's and XBOX/PS consoles means demand exceeds supply for anything AMD.

My guess is that the 4000-series will be tweaked and rebadged as consumer 5000G's once some slack appears within the Fabs. In the meantime they will focus on the more-premium parts.

The best chance of getting an APU at the moment will be to search for used or source new from Asia. 5000G's are unlikely to arrive for at least 6-months, and maybe much longer.

 

[555BUK]

I managed to get memory stable @ 4400Mhz CAS 16 / Infinity Fabric 1:1 @ 2200, CPU @ 4400MHz all-core and GPU @ 2400MHz, but it takes a lot of volts. RAM needs 1.5V, VCore 1.4V, VSOC 1.35V & VGPU 1.4V.

I will only use these settings for benching, but they are 4hr Prime, 1hr Cinebench and game-stable. Results and screenies below.













F1 2019




All things considered, not bad results for a £170 APU.

 

[Journey]

Love my 4650g, had it a good while now it replaced a test bench 3600 I had, don't have a discrete GPU in that system anymore.

As for the SO-DIMM comment 3200MHz can be had cheap enough, but you can OC the nuts of Ballistic 2666MHz kits!