Question Expensive AMD APU's

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Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
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So I have a spare B350 board, psu, memory case etc. All I need for a decent Plex server/NAS. I figured I could get a 3200 or 3400g for about 100 bucks by now but it looks like they all go for $200+ (USA) if they are even available?

At that point it doesn't make sense right? I could just get a new Intel i3 and board for same cost that would handle transcoding better anyway?

I guess I'm asking what is making the APU's so valuable? Can't be mining, or raw computing power as none of them have any. The chip shortage doesn't seem to effect low end CPU's as Intel has them available all over.
 

LightningZ71

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2017
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AMD still produces Picasso (3200g/3400g/3450+u and H) at their historic volume from what I've read. The product mix had been shifted a bit to maximize yields. You can find a bunch of 3450u products out there with ready availability.
 

scineram

Senior member
Nov 1, 2020
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295
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I bet they are focusing them strongly on OEM, especially mobile like Chromebooks. As they should. Volume markets are were they were always lacking.
And OEM also means Tesla.
 
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jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
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AMD still produces Picasso (3200g/3400g/3450+u and H) at their historic volume from what I've read. The product mix had been shifted a bit to maximize yields. You can find a bunch of 3450u products out there with ready availability.

Mobile at least I think you are right. The reason I asked about EOL is that Picasso is getting real old but there are some updated 2020 models. Be nice if Monet was available soon to take over.
 

Asterox

Golden Member
May 15, 2012
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Probably talking about Ryzen 3 Pro 5350G this one

How did you come up with the CPU tag replacement, if we know that red is Zen3 4/8 Cezanne APU?For now OEM 4/8 Cezanne APU is is absolutely unavailable on gray retail market.It's easier to buy a suspicious gun on gray market vs shopping for ghost 4/8 Cezanne APU.


Google for miracles, it is very simple Ryzen 5 Pro 3350G if you Google.



Yes it is alive, and fortunately another AMD OEM CPU more or less sporadically available at retail.But I didn't insert the link right away+Google is always available. :innocent:

 
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Shivansps

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2013
3,912
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AMD Dali Athlons all go to mining, in fact they cant keep up, the PRO versions of the 2200g, 2400g, 3200g and 3400g had been showing in retail channels earlier this year, but they all seems to be gone now.

Right now there is the Ryzen 5 PRO 3350G going around, if you can find one. And Renoir PRO is starting to show up in higher amounts, but you cant use those on a B350.

I dont know were all the GF 12nm supply is going to, Dali is 14nm.
 

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
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AMD Dali Athlons all go to mining, in fact they cant keep up, the PRO versions of the 2200g, 2400g, 3200g and 3400g had been showing in retail channels earlier this year, but they all seems to be gone now.

The 3350G was the one Ryzen desktop model released in 2020 so they may be only binning that now and not the others. Everything else becomes the 3000G which is for miners as the CPU.

I dont know were all the GF 12nm supply is going to, Dali is 14nm.

It should be easier to find Picasso laptops.
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Everything else becomes the 3000G which is for miners as the CPU.

Why is the 3000G so popular in those circles? I would think it a poor fit, as it doesn't have any PCIe lanes to speak of. (4+2+SATA)

Do they use it with a an X570 chipset? That's the only way I can think of to add PCIe lanes on the platform.
 

LightningZ71

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2017
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A lot of mining rigs just use PCIe 1x risers. Some of the mining boards have a bunch of 1x slots and use older, cheaper PCIe multiplexers. All they need is the most basic of CPUs with video out.
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Some of the mining boards have a bunch of 1x slots and use older, cheaper PCIe multiplexers.

That explains. Thank you. I didn't think mining needed an awful lot of bandwidth, but couldn't get the lane count to fit.

Still if you just need a basic CPU, the cheapest Celeron is over there ->
They're far easier to source currently, and cheaper then pretty much any AM4 CPU/APU.
 

ryanjagtap

Member
Sep 25, 2021
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How did you come up with the CPU tag replacement, if we know that red is Zen3 4/8 Cezanne APU?For now OEM 4/8 Cezanne APU is is absolutely unavailable on gray retail market.It's easier to buy a suspicious gun on gray market vs shopping for ghost 4/8 Cezanne APU.
My bad, I didn't google before posting and the 3350G wasn't known to me.
 

Shivansps

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2013
3,912
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Why is the 3000G so popular in those circles? I would think it a poor fit, as it doesn't have any PCIe lanes to speak of. (4+2+SATA)

Do they use it with a an X570 chipset? That's the only way I can think of to add PCIe lanes on the platform.

Thats all you need, it has the pcie lanes for the m.2 slot. Using B450 and B550 or anything with a 2nd(or 3rd) pci-e 16x is generally a bad idea because depending on the motherboard, using the 2nd or 3rd slot usually disables some of the 1x slots. Same if the board has a 2nd M.2 slot. If you try to use that with a m.2 pcie adapter it removes some of the 1x slots or the 2nd slot.

X570 does not have these problems, but is not easy to get them. But yeah, mining is mostly wharever it has at least 6 pcie slots whiout using adapters or low end boards (A320/H510) with a cheap PCIe multiplier.

A320 with 3000G/A6-9500 or H510 with a Celeron/Pentium/I3F plus a multiplier are very comonly used for rig builds. The 3000G has the plus of allowing you to also use the M.2 slot for a extra gpu, so a A320 board with 3 pcie + M2 + pcie multiplier can support 7 gpus with a 3000G, 6 with a 9500. For a lot less than what a X570 costs. Problem is, AMD ran out of CPUs. Thats is likely the reason of why A320 are getting Renoir support now... IF they are indeed launching a Renoir whiout igp be sure of it .
 

Shivansps

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2013
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The 3350G was the one Ryzen desktop model released in 2020 so they may be only binning that now and not the others. Everything else becomes the 3000G which is for miners as the CPU.
They dont need to only make 3000G out of Picasso dies. If they make 3200G they are going to sell them anyway, 3400Gs too, thats why dosent make much sense to me. And they also have Dali for making 3000Gs.
Unless, well, they are getting some astronomical margins on the 5700G/5600G and they dont want Picasso taking away Cezanne market.

It should be easier to find Picasso laptops.
I really have a hard time beliving thats an issue, they have Renoir, Cezanne and Lucienne. How many APUs do they need? That might had been true when Renoir just launched, but now? I dont know.
 

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
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They dont need to only make 3000G out of Picasso dies.

But they do need Picasso for the 3350G.

I really have a hard time beliving thats an issue, they have Renoir, Cezanne and Lucienne. How many APUs do they need? That might had been true when Renoir just launched, but now? I dont know.

I'm sure AMD is charging for the Picassos less than the 5300U and the 5300U itself is probably rare because of yields being so good.
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Athlon 300GE vs Athlon 3000G, obviously these are identical APU-s.

They're not 100% identical. The 3000G is unlocked and has a 100MHz higher base frequency. Of course, that isn't substantial for this use case.

There is also the 240GE which is again almost identical, apart from having a 100MHz lower IGP frequency. Or the 220GE which is identical to the 300GE, again with a slightly lower IGP frequency.

Why AMD did all these very slightly different entry level APUs I don't quite understand. Binning for those small difference seems a weird use of resources.
 

LightningZ71

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2017
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Initial yields for GF 14LP for the 2xxx series APUs wasn't exactly the greatest. Add to that the fact that AMD was still financially in trouble and they were eager to sell every marginally functional die they could for whatever they could get for it.
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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Initial yields for GF 14LP for the 2xxx series APUs wasn't exactly the greatest. Add to that the fact that AMD was still financially in trouble and they were eager to sell every marginally functional die they could for whatever they could get for it.

Well, yes. But wouldn't it have made more sense to settle on two models? A 200GE (3.2GHz/1000MHz IGP) and hypothetical 250GE (3.5GHz/1100MHz IGP) would have been plenty, instead of making 7(!) different models with very slight differences.