AMD Ryzen 5 3400G review - Introduction

AMD Ryzen 5 3400G
The Ryzen Series 3000 APU that really isn't one.

Amidst the Ryzen 3000 launch with all these lovely 7nm processors, AMD also introduced Series 3000 APUs. It's a bit of that strange-looking duck in the Ryzen 3000 (3rd gen) family as really, these are based on 2nd gen technology. AMD introduced the Ryzen 3 3200G & Ryzen 5 3400G, but basically, these are binned Ryzen 2200G/2400G APUs that have been clocked faster on the cores and graphics engine. So that makes them a ZEN+ series APU. APUs - if you do not need a heavy-duty graphics card and use your PC merely for desktop stuff and perhaps a mild game here and there, hey ... AMD surely has got a strong offering for you. There's no need to purchase a dedicated graphics card. That means even more value for money as you receive mainstream quad-core desktop performance for attractive prices. Let's recap and compare a little on what you guys can expect. We'll start 'entry-level' with Ryzen 3 and 5 processors series lining up with Intel's Core i3 series. The difference, of course, is that Intel offers the Core i3 series as a dual-core part, and only recently started adding an SMT/HT version configured as 2 cores and 4 threads. AMD launched Ryzen 3 and 5 G series, with that G for graphics.

	Ryzen 3 2200G	Ryzen 3 3200G	Ryzen 5 2400G	Ryzen 5 3400G
Cores / threads	4/4	4/4	4/8	4/8
Clock Frequency	3.5 GHz	3.6 GHz	3.6 GHz	3.7 GHz
All-core turbo	3.65 GHz	3.85 GHz	3.75 GHz	4 GHz
Single-core turbo	3.7 GHz	4 GHz	3.9 GHz	4.2 GHz
TDP	65 W	65 W	65 W	65 W
Number of PCIe lanes	8	8	8	8
GPU	RX Vega 8	RX Vega 8	RX Vega 11	RX Vega 11
GPU clock speed	1100 MHz	1250 MHz	1250 MHz	1400 MHz
L2 cache	2 MB	2 MB	2 MB	2 MB
L3 cache	4 MB	4 MB	4 MB	4 MB
MSRP	99 USD	99 USD	169 USD	149 USD

The first two Series 3000 models are the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G. he APUs have the official default support of DDR4-2933 in dual-channel operation. And for AMD faster memory is important for two reasons, the first being it reacts better to CPU bound gaming, and secondly, system memory is an elementary link for AMD's APU to get the highest performance possible. For integrated graphics, the memory cannot be fast enough as that system memory is used. 

• AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega 8 graphics
• AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega 11 graphics.

The APUs are thus Raven Ridge and have roughly 4.94 billion transistors. These are both quad-core processors, Ryzen 5 gets SMT (hyper-threading). Thus the 3400G gets SMT enabled, 8-threads. The Radeon 3200G however just has four cores enabled and SMT (threading) disabled as AMD does not want to cannibalize their own Ryzen 5 series. 

The 3200G and 3400G are nothing more than refined versions of their predecessors. The Ryzen 3 3200G is just like the 2200G a quadcore without SMT, but the turbo speeds are a significant 200 to 300 MHz higher. The RX Vega 8-GPU with 512 units of account runs a bit faster than with the 2200G as well. The 3400G does have SMT and has also received higher clock frequencies than its predecessor, both for the cores and for the GPU. With the Ryzen 3 3200G receive a Wraith Stealth cooler, the Ryzen 5 3400G comes this generation with the slightly more luxurious Wraith Spire. The suggested retail prices of the new Ryzen APUs are identical to those of the previous generation: $ 99 for the Ryzen 3 3200G and $ 149 for the Ryzen 5 3400G.