Question What is the better choice Ryzen 5 3200G or 3400G?

[Battousai01]

Hi guys, I will be building an all-around use rig for my friend and I have recommended him to use an APU since he is just a casual gamer and will use the CPU for office works, watching Netflix and YouTube, and casual gaming. My choices are the 3200G or the 3400G. Actually, I have decided to get the 3400G but then the 3200G is around 30%-40% cheaper than the 3400G. What will be the better choice? 3200G or the 3400G?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just built a rig with an Athlon 3000G the other night. At the time that I purchased the parts, the 3400G was basically unavailable, and the 3200G was a little more than I wanted to spend. Plus, I was planning on overclocking the rig, and sticking in a GTX 1650 4GB D5 GPU. Which would make a fine Fortnite PC.

But I would size things (APU CPU-core-wise) according to CPU compute demands. The 3200G should be enough for most things, although the extra 4 threads of the 3400G can help with compute-bound tasks, and also some games prefer 4C/8T over 4C/4T, if you were to drop in a dGPU in the future. Because of memory-bandwidth limitations, and the fact that you can OC the iGPU, the 3400G with Vega 11 really doesn't offer than much over the 3200G with Vega 8, IMHO, at least for APU gaming. For watching 4K UHD VP9 vids (YT on a 4K UHD screen), either should be fine, just make SURE to use a dual-channel memory configuration.

 

[EliteRetard]

What's the total budget of this system?

On the low end of things, sometimes OEM can actually get you more bang for the buck.
I ran into this recently for $530, i5-10400, 512GB NVME SSD, 12GB RAM, Intel AX200, Win 10 etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088X2YR3X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

 

[moinmoin]

Do you plan to overclock? If not 3400G is the clear choice. If you do 3200G can reach 3400G's stock performance, whereas 3400G barely has any overclocking headroom like @VirtualLarry said. And yeah, using a dual-channel memory configuration is most important with these APUs.

 

[Jimzz]

I say 3200G or 1600AF with a used video card. Look for a used OE card or a lower end card like 550/560.

No sharing the systems memory and probably close to the same price point if you shop around. 3400G is a nice chip but IMO a little over priced at this time.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

What's the total budget of this system?

On the low end of things, sometimes OEM can actually get you more bang for the buck.
I ran into this recently for $530, i5-10400, 512GB NVME SSD, 12GB RAM, Intel AX200, Win 10 etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088X2YR3X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Easy to spec a AM4 build for the same money, that would have more and faster ram, be much better for APU gaming, and have a far superior upgrade path. You give up too much with the proprietary OEM cheapo systems. I don't think that Acer will take a GPU that would not bottleneck the i5, so any performance advantage over Ryzen APUs is wasted. And for the cost of adding a 1650 to the Acer, you could get a better performing card for the AM4 since you are not constrained by size and power issues.

I have used a 3000g, 2200g, and 3400g for APU gaming. 3400g is my choice. Because there is no way I am overclocking a friend's system. A stable overclock may not be stable down the road. And overclocking to catch the faster APU in gaming, is not going to make up for 4 threads. I realize this is for casual gaming, but I would still pay the $45. The 3400G has a better iGPU, faster clocks, has twice the threads (depending on your friend's work flow, could add up to significant time savings over the course of a year. Which would easily pay for itself since time is money) and performs better with a dGPU, should he want one later. Factor $45 into the total cost of the build and it is not much more either, maybe 10 percent.

 

[Shivansps]

As someone that used the 3200G for almost a year, ill say go for the 3400G, the 3400G IS better, no way around it.

 

[EliteRetard]

Easy to spec a AM4 build for the same money, that would have more and faster ram, be much better for APU gaming, and have a far superior upgrade path. You give up too much with the proprietary OEM cheapo systems. I don't think that Acer will take a GPU that would not bottleneck the i5, so any performance advantage over Ryzen APUs is wasted. And for the cost of adding a 1650 to the Acer, you could get a better performing card for the AM4 since you are not constrained by size and power issues.

*snip*

Is that true? The windows license makes it harder than you think.

Also the 10400 is the far superior CPU, no arguments can be made there.
The 3400G has slightly better IGP, but it doesn't really change the games you can play.

One advantage for OEM, don't have to build, maintain, or warranty it for somebody else.

 

[rainy]

The 3400G has slightly better IGP, but it doesn't really change the games you can play.

Gap between Vega 11 and UHD 630 is in fact much bigger than difference in CPU performance: AMD IGP is often 2x faster and sometimes 3x or even more.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-11-vs-UHD-Graphics-630_8470_8126.247598.0.html

 

[EliteRetard]

Gap between Vega 11 and UHD 630 is in fact much bigger than difference in CPU performance: AMD IGP is often 2x faster and sometimes 3x or even more.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-11-vs-UHD-Graphics-630_8470_8126.247598.0.html

I stand corrected, there's certainly a difference between 10-30FPS and 30-70FPS.

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz with Vega 11 Graphics Review

Today, AMD released their new Ryzen G processors, which feature integrated graphics with the Vega architecture. These new processors use the AM4 socket, which means all motherboards that support Ryzen will support Ryzen G, too. With a price of $170, the Ryzen 5 2400G is also priced reasonably...

www.techpowerup.com

Benchmarks are hard to find, and I must have had things confused with another IGP.
I think this is what I originally had in mind (Vega 3 instead of 8 or 11):

 

[blckgrffn]

At Microcenter the price difference is effectively $20 with a motherboard, and lets not forget Wraith Spire vs Stealth can make some value difference too.

Headed to MC tonight to get a bundle for a refresh of a work PC. Motherboard, CPU, 8GB of decent memory and a Samsung SSD (need SATA for an easy clone, could have gotten a 500GB nvme for the same price) ran about $270 with taxes. Edit: $290 on the nose.

Final edit: Ended up doing the right thing and subbed a 500 GB WD Black NVME drive for the 250 GB Samsung Evo SATA SSD for +$20. $310 total for the guts of a very solid PC. Bought a 500 GB Inland (Kirkland Signature in my head) QLC SATA SSD for a whopping $45 for my clone drive and just swapped it between computers. Going to use it as a target drive for backups in the future, but what a value 😍😂