Review and testing of the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 4350G processor. Comparison with Ryzen 5 3500X, Ryzen 3 3300X, Ryzen 3 3100 and Intel Core i3-10300 with DDR4-4133 memory

Introduced on April 21, 2020, the Ryzen 3 3000 series processors set a new benchmark for budget performance. With an impressive amount of cache, relatively high operating frequencies and support for current RAM operating modes, different, but at the same time very similar, budget Matisse showed high performance in gaming applications, previously available only to more multi-core carriers of the Zen 2 architecture. mobile solutions, waiting for their release in the desktop segment. But AMD did not dare to compete with its own products in order to avoid “cannibalization”. The new hybrid carriers of the Zen 2 architecture belonged to the 4,000th series, lost their retail distribution channel, and were addressed primarily to assemblers and system integrators. However, for some parts of the world this is not a significant hindrance. The limiting factor is the price, and although the product marked with the proud “PRO” has advanced features, they are of little use to the average user, and the price tag at the level of the Ryzen 5 3600X is very noticeable. After the success of the Ryzen 3 3300X, which physically had a closer layout of cores and caches, the gaming application of such highly integrated solutions with a discrete 3D accelerator caused a stir, perhaps, despite the small buffer size, the layout organization will allow to demonstrate a high frame rate? We will take out the built-in graphics adapter today.

Lineup and positioning

The architecture was discussed in detail earlier, so we recall that the lineup includes 4-, 6- and 8-core models. Rumors promise even ten cores. But a gamer on a budget is interested in the most affordable models, one of them is our hero. $ 150 cannot be called budget at all, for comparable money you can buy Ryzen 3 3100/3300X, Ryzen 5 1600/2600/3500X or Intel products: Core i3-10100, the previous competitor platform can offer Core i5-9400F which should not be considered weak. First-generation Zen architecture carriers are available on the secondary market, with twice as many cores and threads. They, of course, lack an integrated video card, but have been recommended more than once as the basis of a gaming system. Not too accessible newcomers have someone to compete with for buyers’ money.

Specifications and features of work

Brief characteristics of the Renoir lineup are summarized in the table

Since the model range was considered in previous materials, we note that the quad-core model is deprived of a cache, to the volume of which some applications and games are sensitive. Whether this will compensate for the size of the buffer we have to check.

Processors of the PRO series are not intended for sale through retail channels, therefore, as such, they do not have a boxed (boxed) version. In our case, the Ryzen 3 PRO 4350G is packaged in a standard blister and comes with the well-known Wraith Stealth cooler in a separate box at the behest of the seller. Information from the heat spreader says that our copy is assembled in China, from 7nm crystals grown by TSMC in Taiwan. The production date is the twenty-fifth week of 2020.

To work on the settings conceived by the manufacturer, we use the cooling system that we got in the kit – Wraith Stealth. The thermal interface is also regular. I note that, unlike all similar coolers that were previously found in the “boxed” versions, this instance has an unpleasant engine sound, clearly audible throughout the entire rev range.

The ASRock B550 PG Velocita motherboard was chosen as the basis of the test bench. The considered alternative in the face of TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI) did not live up to expectations, limiting our possibilities in RAM frequencies.

Let’s make a small digression and tell about some features of working with MP. On ASRock, in some cases, the system refused to pass the self-test procedure, simply turning off at a value of 00 on the POST indicator. Also, the system did not always react correctly to a reboot using the OS means – the board simply did not start after a shutdown and it was necessary to press the power button. This behavior is typical for automatic RAM settings and the start of work with a new processor, after manually setting all the parameters and memory voltages, everything fell into place and the board worked out all the procedures correctly. In TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI) with auto settings, this was not noticed, only the inability to start in safe mode with incorrect settings or memory overclocking annoyed me and it was necessary to clear CMOS, otherwise no features were found in the work. Running Renoir on affordable MPs equipped with AMD X370 and B350 chipsets turned out to be impossible.

For the “standard” mode of operation, the UEFI settings of the motherboard were adjusted relative to the default modes only in terms of RAM operation: frequency, primary timings and voltage on the modules, other parameters were set automatically, power limits were left to the motherboard manufacturer and no manipulations were carried out with them . For the Renoir family, as well as for the Matisse, the recommended memory frequency is 3200 MHz, which we will use. Memory delays were chosen as 14-14-14-14-28-1T, voltage – 1.35 V. Fine tuning of additional timings for stock testing modes was not carried out. The power management scheme in the OS after installing a set of drivers automatically took the form of “AMD Ryzen Balanced”.

Third-party software had to track equipment telemetry, Ryzen Master refused to install. Perhaps the reason is the PRO version of our Ryzen.

Handy software demonstrates processor frequencies in idle at 3.0 GHz at a voltage of about 0.95 V. At the same time, the temperature sensor reports a temperature of 27 to 35 degrees with an average value of 30 degrees. The temperature in the room at the time of testing was in the range of 24-25 degrees.

When running Cinebench R20 in Single Core mode, the frequency of a single Ryzen 3 core is kept above the maximum boost by about 100 MHz, which is a consequence of the Extended Frequency Range (XFR) and Precision Boost. As the number of active threads increases up to seven, the frequency does not decrease! The voltage is about 1.35 V with rare peaks up to 1.4 V. When all threads are loaded, the operating frequency, in our case 4096 MHz, at the end of the test dropped to 4071 MHz for all cores. Temperatures do not exceed 65 degrees with “regular” cooling. As you can see, the operating frequencies from the specifications of modern processors are a very arbitrary thing, and we have not found the base frequency. It’s funny with these AMD – sometimes there is no boost, sometimes it boosts higher than stated.

The highest heating was found when using Linx 0.7.0 (AMD), ten passes managed to warm the processor up to 83 degrees. Frequencies under load did not fall below 4.0 GHz. An impressive result, because other quad-core carriers of the Zen 2 architecture could not boast such high frequencies under extreme load. But what happens if you use the integrated graphics? On processors of the FM2(+) platform in this scenario, the frequencies of the processor cores decreased to 3.0 GHz, regardless of the severity of the load, the representatives of the first generations of Zen represented by Picasso and Raven Ridge, with a light load of the graphics component, reduced the processor frequency to the base one, and with stress and below.

Ryzen 3 PRO 4350G, when the graphics test of the GPU-Z utility is activated, practically does not reduce the frequencies of the cores, warming up with the FurMark stress test, brings the frequencies of the computing cores to the level of 4025 MHz. In fairness, it should be noted that a serious decrease in the number of GFlops received in the Linx test was launched in parallel. The general temperature regime remained at the same level. The frequency of the built-in graphics adapter showed an enviable stability, keeping at 1700 MHz.