AMD Athlon 3000G Linux Performance Benchmarks - The New $50 Processor
Announced last month was the Athlon 3000G as a ~$49 processor based on Zen and featuring two cores / four threads and Vega 3 graphics. This 35 Watt TDP processor has finally begun appearing at more Internet retailers in stock last week and I was able to pick up one of these budget CPUs for $55 USD. Here are benchmarks of the Athlon 3000G on Ubuntu Linux compared to other low-end and older processors.
The Atlon 3000G is a two core / four thread processor with a 3.5GHz base clock, 4MB L3 cache, and 35 Watt TDP while being compatible with existing AM4 motherboards. The Athlon 3000G supports two DDR4-2667 memory channels. The Radeon Vega 3 graphics support clocking up to 1100MHz. This CPU does come unlocked unlike older Athlon budget CPUs to allow for some overclocking headroom.
The Athlon 3000G's ~$50 price does include one of the basic AMD AM4 heatsinks included.
The Athlon 3000G is a step-up from the older $60 USD Athlon 200GE that featured a base clock of 3.2GHz and was locked. The 3000G model also features a 100MHz higher graphics clock frequency.
The Athlon 3000G isn't as exciting as the recent high-end Zen 2 desktop CPUs, but for those looking for a new CPU on a tight budget or just needing a low-end, low-power CPU for a storage box or other lightweight tasks, the Athlon 3000G delivers a ton of value.
The Athlon 3000G didn't have any boot issues with Linux or other issues to note. This round of testing was done on Ubuntu 19.10 paired with Linux 5.3 and compared to a range of older and lower-tier parts for reference. The other processors used for gauging the Athlon 3000G performance (based upon the low-tier CPUs I had available) included:
- Athlon 200GE
- Athlon 3000G
- A10-7850K
- Ryzen 3 1200
- Ryzen 3 2200G
- Ryzen 5 2400G
- Core i3 4130
- Core i3 7100
- Core i3 8100
- Core i5 4670
- Pentium G4400
Via the Phoronix Test Suite a wide range of both system/CPU and graphics benchmarks were run. If you enjoy our daily Linux benchmarking, consider showing your support this holiday season to also get ad-free access and large multi-page articles (such as this review) on a single page.