Introduction

AMD today released its Ryzen 2000 family of processors with integrated AMD Radeon Vega graphics, with the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G. Of the two, the Ryzen 3 2200G is priced at an attractive $99.99. AMD priced its previous-generation APUs with similar specs almost $50 higher. 2017 was probably the best year in a decade for AMD's processor business. The Ryzen family of desktop processors, powered by the latest "Zen" microarchitecture, is surprisingly fast and stirred up competition enough to force Intel to increase CPU core-counts to catch up. AMD now has a reasonably competitive processor for every price point from $120 to $999, including HEDT processors, to compete with Intel's Core X family. The trouble is none of these chips come with integrated graphics, a department in which AMD has traditionally outclassed Intel ever since it started making APUs.

The company took the logical step of combining its latest CPU microarchitecture with its latest GPU architecture, "Vega," to create its new 14 nm "Raven Ridge" silicon. Why "Vega" and not "Polaris," you ask? Because "Vega" has AMD's 6th generation Graphics CoreNext compute units (you'd want the most IPC from your limited SIMD resources). The company debuted this chip in the mobile space in late-2017 and is now launching it in the desktop segment with two SKUs - the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G. This review covers the $99 2200G.



Both models combine a quad-core "Zen" CPU with a "Vega" based integrated graphics core (iGPU), a dual-channel DDR4 integrated memory controller, and a platform I/O interface. Differentiating the two SKUs, the Ryzen 5 2400G gets SMT (AMD's equivalent of HyperThreading) and more iGPU stream processors, besides higher CPU and iGPU clock speeds. AMD surprised us with a larger-than-expected iGPU and a smaller-than-expected CPU. The iGPU is endowed with 8 "Vega" NGCUs (next-generation compute units), which translate into 512 stream processors and 32 TMUs. The CPU component is smaller than expected. With this generation, we expected AMD to increase core-counts on its APUs from the traditionally quad-core setups. This is still quad-core, but the L3 cache is just 4 MB, half that of quad-core SKUs based on the iGPU-devoid "Summit Ridge" silicon, such as the Ryzen 3 1200.

Both the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 4 2400G work on existing socket AM4 motherboards based on AMD 300-series chipset, provided they have the latest BIOS. You can finally plug your monitor to the display connectors of your motherboard and not end up with a blank screen. AMD recommends the A320 and B350 chipsets as the ideal companions for these two chips, although the high-end X370 chipset will very much support it.

AMD is pricing the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G rather conservatively. The 2200G is priced at US$99, and the 2400G at US$169. AMD is hedging its bets on the entry-level crowd that combines a $70-ish Pentium/Celeron processor with an entry-level graphics card such as the GeForce GT 1300 or the Radeon RX 550. This chip will prove particularly appealing to entry-level PC builders and the DIY HTPC crowd. The iGPU features hardware-acceleration and DRM support for the latest video formats and display standards.