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.
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.
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