The Best Entry Level Gaming CPU: Athlon 200GE vs. Pentium G5400 vs. Ryzen 3 2200G

Not that long ago we reviewed the $sixty Athlon 200GE CPU and we've been wanting to come back to it for more than, but it's been a hectic October with must-have coverage that included the RTX 2070, the Core i9-9900K and new Threadripper models. But information technology'south finally time, and so we've dug out the plucky fiddling Zen based chip and for comparison grabbed the Ryzen 3 2200G and Intel's Pentium G5400.

We did not include the Core i3-8100 for two reasons: Beginning, at the current $130 asking price it doesn't brand sense equally the Ryzen 3 2200G which was already our preferred choice is improve value at $100. Intel'south current budget lineup just isn't doing it for united states of america and this was the case fifty-fifty before the 14nm shortage.

In the past we've preferred Intel's budget offerings to those from AMD. We loved the Pentium G4560 and couldn't terminate talking most that thing. A few years before we were raving about the value of the Core i5-6600K, compared to the FX garbage AMD was peddling, the quad-cadre Skylake function was a bit of alright.

But in 2022 $64 dual-cores like the G4560 won't even go gamers out of bed anymore. Not when the 6-cadre/12-thread Ryzen 5 2600 can be had for $160 and even if you don't have that kind of coin the quad-core Ryzen 3 2200G is also a bit special at $100 and certainly the get to option for budget builders. Thanks to its swell value it frequently ranks in the superlative 5 best CPU seller list on Amazon.

And then for even less nosotros have the Athlon 200GE, information technology's twoscore% cheaper at merely $threescore but I have to say it doesn't quite give us the buzz like the pure quad-core 2200G does. The 200GE is a dual-core with SMT, information technology's locked and comes with a piddly little cooler, merely again it also costs just $60, almost half that of Intel'southward cheapest Pentium branded Java Lake CPU, the G5400 which currently sells for $110. For a direct cost comparison I'd need to become my easily on the Celeron G4920, a 3.2 GHz dual-core with 2MB of L3 cache and that part will almost certainly become slayed by the Athlon 200GE.

And then what I want to know is, if you lot're on a super tight upkeep should you lot purchase the Athlon 200GE? It's really the only sub $100 option right at present and frankly while the Pentium G5400 is included for comparison's sake, the current request toll which sees it price more than than the Ryzen three 2200G means it'southward essentially a dead product.

If you're a gamer using a discrete graphics card, should you salvage every last dollar and become with the 200GE? Perhaps so upgrade to something better in the future, something like the Ryzen v 2600, or should you spend a little more now and land the 2200G? It's only $forty more, merely will you meet much of a performance increase? Well, permit'south detect out.

The Athlon 200GE has been tested with dual-channel DDR4-2666 CL16 memory, the Pentium G5400 with dual-aqueduct DDR4-2400 CL16 retentiveness and the Ryzen 3 2200G with DDR4-3200 CL16 memory. Only quickly, for those unaware the reason for the different memory speeds comes downward to what the CPUs support.

The 200GE can only run DDR4 retentiveness up to the 2666 spec while the Pentium processor is limited to 2400 memory on locked motherboards such every bit the H370 for example. The Ryzen 3 2200G doesn't have a retentiveness limit, at least not ane that's imposed past anything other than the capabilities of the retention controller itself. Typically they work just fine with 3200 retentivity and nosotros're recommending using at to the lowest degree 3000 spec memory with this APU.

We're using the RTX 2080 Ti for this examination and yes, nosotros know it's an unrealistic GPU, but I want to be able to directly compare the data with the higher terminate CPUs that I've already tested and frankly information technology makes no difference. Of course the entire point of testing and comparing these CPUs is to test CPU functioning, not low end GPU performance, if y'all empathise this and are happy with that let'south continue...

Benchmarks

First up we accept Assassin's Creed Odyssey and being the CPU demanding championship that information technology is we detect some extremely CPU leap results with these entry-level CPUs. Because of this the 1080p, 1440p and 4K results are all identical, and so permit's just discuss the 1080p numbers.

The Pentium G5400 was clearly much faster than the Athlon 200GE as it allowed for eighteen% more than operation and at these sub 60 fps frame rates that'southward a very big and noticeable difference. However, the 2200G was 20% faster again allowing for an average of 48 fps and that was once again a very big and very noticeable performance improvement. The 2200G was also 41% faster than the 200GE, so in my opinion it's certainly well worth spending the extra $forty to get the real quad-core CPU.

Moving on Assassin's Creed Origins provides us with rather different margins, hither the 2200G offers significantly better performance than the dual-core processors, 55% more functioning than the 200GE and at least 40% more than the G5400, though the margin did extend upwardly to 55% at the 4K resolution.

The dual-cadre SMT enabled 200GE and G5400 actually struggle with this title and are merely only able to deliver playable performance. The 2200G's performance really was worlds better every bit frame rates were knocking on the door of lx fps.

Next up we have Battlefield 1 and here the 2200G was 51% faster than the 200GE at 1080p and 24% faster than the Pentium G5400. Those margins were also seen at 1440p and so reduced quite heavily at 4K every bit we offset to become GPU bound with the 2200G.

Forza Horizon four isn't a CPU intensive game and as you lot can see even the Athlon 200GE enables a great gaming experience in this title. The Pentium G5400 was a lilliputian faster and then the 2200G a little faster again but overall a like experience with all iii CPUs.

The frequently NPC heavy Hitman is a CPU intensive title and here we see the Athlon 200GE really struggling and basically failing this test equally information technology often dipped below 30 fps. The Pentium G5400 was better merely even then we did see regular dips below xxx fps. In order to keep frame rates above xxx fps you lot will require the 2200G, and then for this title that CPUs not really optional, it's a must have item over the 200GE and G5400.

Moving on we take Project Cars 2 and here the Pentium G5400 really struggles with its frame fourth dimension operation. Average frame rate performance is comparable to the 200GE, with both just shy of 60 fps. The game was playable but as nosotros've found a number of times already, the 2200G offers a significant performance boost.

Rainbow Six Siege ideally requires a true quad-core processor, though having said that the Athlon 200GE does enable highly playable functioning in our test. Still at 1080p the 2200G was 41% faster while the G5400 was 17% faster. The margin does close up a niggling at 1440p then we see information technology completely neutralized at 4K.

Second last game test is Star Wars Battlefront II and here we see some pretty weak operation from the Athlon 200GE. At 1080p the G5400 was 33% faster and the 2200G 67% faster. That said frame time functioning of the dual-core G5400 and 200GE was comparable, the 2200G was at least 51% faster.

Finally we take Shadow of the Tomb Raider and here the dual-core 200GE and G5400 tanked in a large fashion, neither were able to evangelize playable performance in our test. This is clearly not a dual-core friendly championship and nosotros will no dubiousness see many more of these moving forward. The game ran reasonably well on the 2200G but was basically broken on the dual-cores.

Putting It All Together

Starting with the Athlon 200GE and Pentium G5400 comparison, allow'due south pretend the G5400 is selling at or near the $64 MSRP, rather than the electric current $110 asking toll. That would mean the 200GE and G5400 cost roughly the aforementioned amount of money. Which should you lot buy?

Those planning on using a discrete GPU will for the about part exist best served by the Pentium G5400 as information technology was on average 16% faster at 1080p. We did see scenarios where the Intel CPU was upwards to xxx% faster on average, that said for the most part we did see comparable frame fourth dimension performance.

There are notwithstanding reasons why you might pick the Athlon 200GE over the G5400, assuming they were the same price, you'd evidently go with the AMD processor in today's market as it's near half the toll. Only even if they both sold for around $60 you might still go for the 200GE as it packs significantly better integrated graphics though you won't utilize that with a discrete graphics card.

Y'all might be lured past the superior platform on AMD'due south side, as well. Entry-level B350 and B450 motherboards that can support the Ryzen vii 2700X without effect cost $sixty. Meanwhile you're looking at $70 for an Intel B360 board or $100 for a basic Z370 board, both will likely throttle with a high-end six or 8 cadre Intel processor. Whereas next year B350, B450 or any other AM4 board will support 7nm Zen2, so that's more than than a picayune overnice.

At the end of the day for anyone with a large enough budget to include some kind of discrete graphics card I wouldn't even bother with the Athlon 200GE. It'southward a smashing general computing type product, first-class for a web browsing organization for the parents, but that's about it. We imagine almost everyone reading this volition be worlds amend off spending $twoscore more to get the Ryzen 3 2200G, it's simply so much more capable there's no reason to even consider the 200GE.

Something I didn't touch on but we have covered numerous times in the past is the overclocking potential of the 2200G, at that place is more free performance to be had. It actually is the all-time value entry level CPU available correct at present and spending less than $100 on something else isn't saving y'all money.