AMD reveals their Athlon 200GE APU with Vega 3 graphics
AMD reveals their Athlon 200GE APU with Vega 3 graphics
So far, the so-called “Ryzen effect” has impacted the mainstream desktop market with Ryzen 3, 5 and 7 SKUs and the high-end desktop market with Ryzen Threadripper. Now, AMD plans to hit Intel in the low-cost PC market, taking on their Pentium/Celeron products with a new Zen-based processor.Â
Today marks the return of AMD’s Athlon brand to the forefront of CPU market, bringing AMD’s Zen cores to the low-end with an affordable price tag and powerful Vega graphics.Â
Meet the Athlon 200GE, AMD’s latest Zen-based CPU, which is set to release with a $55 SEP (Suggested Etail Price) and ship with two cores and four threads. This processor is based on AMD’s 14nm Raven Ridge silicon, which is the same chip that powers the company’s Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G.Â
The Athlon 200GE is designed to offer customers enough performance for general desktop systems while delivering a low TDP and ultra-affordable pricing. The AMD Athlon 200GE is the kind of processor that you use to build a desktop PC for your parents’ web browsing needs or as a low-cost office PC. Not everyone needs the performance of AMD’s higher-end Ryzen lineup. I wonder how well this CPU would fare in a low-cost home server?Â
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|  | Cores/Threads | Base Clock Speed | Boost Clock Speed | Smart Prefetch Cache (L2+L3) |
iGPU | TDP |
| Ryzen 7 2700X | 8/16 | 3.7GHz | 4.3GHz | 20 (4+16) | N/A | 105W |
| Ryzen 7 2700 | 8/16 | 3.2GHz | 4.1GHz | 20 (4+16) | N/A | 65W |
| Ryzen 5 2600X | 6/12 | 3.6GHz | 4.2GHz | 19 (3+16) | N/A | 95W |
| Ryzen 5 2600 | 6/12 | 3.4GHz | 3.9GHz | 19 (3+16) | N/A | 65W |
| Ryzen 5 2400G | 4/8 | 3.6GHz | 3.9GHz | 6 (2+4) | Vega 11 | 65W |
| Ryzen 3 2200G | 4/4 | 3.5GHz | 3.7GHz | 6 (2+4) | Vega 8 | 65W |
| Athlon 200GE | 2/4 | 3.2GHz | – | 5 (1+4) | Vega 3 | 35W |
  
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AMD has also marketed this processor towards casual gamers, though they have specified that this is for 720p gaming in titles like League of Legends, Overwatch, DOTA 2 and CS:GO. This will be great for gamers in emerging markets and casual users with extremely low budgets. The Athlon 200GE’s support for AMD’s AM4 platform will also facilitate seamless upgradability to higher-end processors at a later date if required.  Â
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When compared to Intel’s Pentium G4560, AMD’s Athlon 200GE offers similar performance in purely CPU-based workloads, though it is worth noting that the processor’s Vega graphics chip can also be used to accelerate a number of applications.Â
AMD has stressed that their Athlon 200GE has a 35W TDP, whereas Intel’s Pentium G4560 has a 54W TDP, though at this time it is unknown how these processors compare when it comes to “Watts from the Wall”, as TDP figures are often misleading.Â
  
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Right now, AMD’s Athlon 200GE processor appears to be a solid entry into the low-cost CPU market, finally giving Intel’s Pentium/Celeron series processors some worthy competition.Â
You can join the discussion on AMD’s Athlon 200GE processor on the OC3D Forums.Â