Ultra Budget Gaming - $50 Athlon 3000G OC Review

# AMD Athlon 3000G: Is It Worth It for Ultra-Budget Gaming?

In a world where gaming hardware can often cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars, it's worth exploring whether you can build a functional gaming PC on a shoestring budget. Today, we're diving into the realm of ultra-budget gaming with the AMD Athlon 3000G—a $50 CPU/GPU combination that might just surprise you.

## What Is the AMD Athlon 3000G?

The AMD Athlon 3000G is an affordable processor that packs both a CPU and GPU into one compact package. Priced at just $50, it offers:

- **Dual-core, four-thread CPU** with a base clock of 3.5 GHz.

- **Vega 3 integrated graphics** clocked at 1,100 MHz.

- **Overclockable capabilities**, which can significantly boost its performance.

Despite being part of the AMD Ryzen 3000 series, it doesn't feature the newer Zen 2 architecture and instead relies on the older Zen silicon. This might seem like a disadvantage, but given its price point, it's hard to complain.

## Test Setup

To evaluate the Athlon 3000G's performance, we used the following setup:

- **Motherboard**: B350 motherboard.

- **Memory**: 16GB of 3200 MHz RAM.

- **CPU Cooler**: Wraith Stealth cooler (included with the Ryzen 2200G).

The Athlon 3000G was tested both at stock speeds and after overclocking. The CPU clock was pushed from 3.5 GHz to a stable 4 GHz with a voltage of 1.37V, while the Vega 3 GPU saw its clock increased by 600 MHz (to 1.7 GHz) using a voltage of 1.35V.

## Performance Benchmarks

### Overwatch at 900p

- **Stock Performance**: The Athlon 3000G struggles, averaging around 22 frames per second (FPS).

- **Overclocked Performance**: A massive 33% performance boost is achieved, with an average of 57 FPS. However, it's still 22% slower than the overclocked Ryzen 2200G.

### Rainbow Six Siege at 900p

- **Stock Performance**: Unplayable at just 44 FPS on average.

- **Overclocked Performance**: The difference is night-and-day, with a 45% performance boost. The game becomes playable, averaging around 63 FPS.

### Project CARS 2 at 900p

- **Stock Performance**: The Athlon 3000G shows promise, averaging 38 FPS.

- **Overclocked Performance**: A staggering 70% increase is observed, with an average of 65 FPS. This makes the game enjoyable even at higher settings.

### Apex Legends at 900p

- The Athlon 3000G struggles to maintain playable frame rates, averaging below 60 FPS in comparison to the Ryzen 2200G, which can comfortably hit 60 FPS or more.

## Overclocking Results

The overclocking capabilities of the Athlon 3000G are impressive for its price. Pushing both the CPU and GPU to their limits results in significant performance improvements, making it a viable option for light gaming at lower resolutions.

## Should You Buy the AMD Athlon 3000G?

While the Athlon 3000G is a fun experiment in ultra-budget gaming, it's not without its limitations. Modern titles like Apex Legends remain unplayable even after overclocking, and it struggles at higher resolutions like 1080p.

For just $25 more, the Ryzen 2200G offers:

- Two additional physical cores.

- Stronger onboard graphics.

- A substantial performance boost across all benchmarks tested.

The price difference is relatively small (only about 10% of a $200-$300 build), and it provides a 60% or more performance improvement. Given the significant drop in CPU prices, such as the Ryzen 5 2600 being available for around $120, it's clear that users can afford to invest in slightly better hardware for a much better gaming experience.

## Conclusion

The AMD Athlon 3000G is an interesting experiment and a fun product for budget-conscious gamers. However, its limitations become apparent when trying to run more demanding titles or higher resolutions. If you're looking for the best value in an APU, the Ryzen 2200G remains the top choice.

For ultra-budget gaming, the Athlon 3000G can get you by, but it's not worth splurging on unless you find it at a significant discount. When possible, consider investing in a used discrete GPU like an RX 570 for a more enjoyable and future-proof gaming experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso I understand that not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on top and gaming hardware but what if you only had fifty dollars to budget for your CPU and your GPU could you do it well today we're switching gears a little and testing the ultra budget AMD Athlon at 3000 G for $50 you're getting an overclockable dual-core apu with four threads and onboard vega 3 graphics the question though is whether this is worth it and whether you can actually game properly on this thing when it's overclocked or whether this is just better suited to say a home computer for web browsing and Word documents we recently visited AMD's current generation ap use which are the 3200 G and 3400 G and I basically concluded in that video saying that if you're prepared to spend 140 dollars on integrated graphics you're much better off at that point going with a discreet graphics card like a used rx 570 my top pick for an APU system at the moment actually goes to the Rison 320 200 G seeing as you're much more likely to pick this up for a solid deal and justified gaming on an APU but for just $50 let's see what the Athlon 3000 G can do and whether it's worth buying for an ultra budget gaming system so let's dive right in starting with a quick look at the specs and unfortunately despite the Athlon 3000 G being a 3000 series product it doesn't get the new 7 nanometre Zen 2 architecture instead we're still rocking the original Zen silicon we get two calls four threads a CPU clock of 3.5 yards Vega three graphics clocked at 1,100 megahertz and the big one it's overclockable in fact this is the biggest difference compared to the Athlon at 240 GE a previous gen apu which is about twenty-five dollars more expensive in today's market so here's what the test system looks like we're using a be 350 motherboard with 16 gigabytes of 32 hundred megahertz memory as this was the same configuration that I used to test all of the other AP use that you'll see in the benchmark graphs I'm not sure what CPU cooler ships with the Athlon 3000 G apparently it's rated for a 65 watt TDP so for testing I'm using the Wraith stealth which comes with the Rison 2200 G and turns out this was enough for overclocking speaking of which we are able to get some pretty decent margins over stock I was able to take the CPU clock speed from 3.5 gigahertz all the way up to 4 gigahertz flat with a voltage of 1.37 volts and I was able to add 600 megahertz to the Vega 3 GPU with a voltage of 1.3 5 volts these are massive margins over stock performance will definitely be reflected here in the benchmarks but more importantly it should ste uses away from the locked a320 motherboards and at least towards a super cheap of B 350 or B 450 motherboard ok so starting with the benchmarks now at 900 P resolution in overwatch the Athlon 3000 G does struggle quite a bit here when stock but it's at least capable when overclocked with a massive 33 percent performance boost on average still though it's 22% slower than the overclocked 2200 G Rainbow six siege showed a night-and-day difference between the Rison 320 200 G and the Athlon at 3000 G with almost a 45 percent margin between them so this takes the game from being kind of unplayable at an average of just 44 frames per second to a level where you can actually play in public matches against other players and we're definitely seeing that overclock pay off in terms of performance in project cars to the 3000 G gains a 70% in boost in average frame rate which is absolutely insane so definitely do not bother running this thing stock for gaming even at 900 P resolution with the lowest quality settings and overclocking the 3000 G to its limits we still can't properly run some modern titles apex Legends is one example of that which if by comparison the 2200 G is capable of running this game above an average of 60 frames per second and it's not that much more expensive once your entire system is considered and although the overclocked Rison 3400 G is looking like the ultimate gaming apu in terms of the top of the stack performance it really is not worth you 140 dollars us that it's currently at all right now rotating through some 1080p resolution benchmarks here and we'll get through these ones pretty quickly because the f1 3000 G is just not capable at this resolution the overclocked 2200 G on the other hand can manage 60fps on average here in overwatch still though 900 P resolution is really where it's at for these processes as I mentioned in the 3208 and 3400 year review though if you are in a position where you can save some money week to week gaming with a discreet graphics card such as the rx 570 is going to net you a truly different level of performance although many of you probably couldn't care less for gaming at 200 frames per second this level of performance means that you'll now be able to trade some frame rate for higher quality settings and make your game look a whole lot better alright so I switch to an easier title for some actual play time with the Athlon 3000 G and in csgo at 900 P resolution we're seeing above 110 FPS on average with all settings too low when of course the processor is overclocked this is really the sweet spot for the 3000 G in my opinion where the 2200 G may be capable of more demanding titles such as apex Legends the 3000 G just does not have the horsepower to do that and that's ok seeing as this is both a CPU and GPU packed into an efficient $50 package with overclocking support so for ultra budget gaming you could totally get by with 3000 G the question is should you I mean the 2200 G in the US market is only $25 more and that slight price premium is definitely worth it for an extra two physical processing cores as well as a stronger onboard graphics and I know $25 is technically making the 2200 G 50% more expensive than the 3000 G but when you factor that $25 into the scheme of a 200 to $300 PC build the price difference is only around 10% for an easy 60% plus performance boost and I'll say that as a whole these ap use from AMD are kind of becoming a hard so because of AMD their massive price cuts on CPUs like the r5 2600 which is around 120 dollars at the time of filming just really encourages users just to save a little bit more money and get a whole lot more performance in terms of the best value apu in their entire lineup I'd still have to give that to the risin 2,200 G at least on the US market that is the one to go for don't bother with the Athlon 3000 G in my opinion unless you can get it for a really good deal it is a pretty cool product but I think that's about what it is that's kind of where the usefulness and value ends in my opinion because you know it's kind of fun to test this out for me at least it was fun to test out and have a CPU and GPU in just a $50 package that runs really so efficient and that's overclockable and you can get these massive margins with overclocking that was the fun and cool part but as I said that ends there and as a recommendation to you guys you should really go for the rise in 2200 G and when you can definitely add in something like an Rx 570 so if you are interested in any of the hard way that we've discussed today you will find those linked down below in the description as always a huge thanks for watching and I'll see you all in the next oneso I understand that not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on top and gaming hardware but what if you only had fifty dollars to budget for your CPU and your GPU could you do it well today we're switching gears a little and testing the ultra budget AMD Athlon at 3000 G for $50 you're getting an overclockable dual-core apu with four threads and onboard vega 3 graphics the question though is whether this is worth it and whether you can actually game properly on this thing when it's overclocked or whether this is just better suited to say a home computer for web browsing and Word documents we recently visited AMD's current generation ap use which are the 3200 G and 3400 G and I basically concluded in that video saying that if you're prepared to spend 140 dollars on integrated graphics you're much better off at that point going with a discreet graphics card like a used rx 570 my top pick for an APU system at the moment actually goes to the Rison 320 200 G seeing as you're much more likely to pick this up for a solid deal and justified gaming on an APU but for just $50 let's see what the Athlon 3000 G can do and whether it's worth buying for an ultra budget gaming system so let's dive right in starting with a quick look at the specs and unfortunately despite the Athlon 3000 G being a 3000 series product it doesn't get the new 7 nanometre Zen 2 architecture instead we're still rocking the original Zen silicon we get two calls four threads a CPU clock of 3.5 yards Vega three graphics clocked at 1,100 megahertz and the big one it's overclockable in fact this is the biggest difference compared to the Athlon at 240 GE a previous gen apu which is about twenty-five dollars more expensive in today's market so here's what the test system looks like we're using a be 350 motherboard with 16 gigabytes of 32 hundred megahertz memory as this was the same configuration that I used to test all of the other AP use that you'll see in the benchmark graphs I'm not sure what CPU cooler ships with the Athlon 3000 G apparently it's rated for a 65 watt TDP so for testing I'm using the Wraith stealth which comes with the Rison 2200 G and turns out this was enough for overclocking speaking of which we are able to get some pretty decent margins over stock I was able to take the CPU clock speed from 3.5 gigahertz all the way up to 4 gigahertz flat with a voltage of 1.37 volts and I was able to add 600 megahertz to the Vega 3 GPU with a voltage of 1.3 5 volts these are massive margins over stock performance will definitely be reflected here in the benchmarks but more importantly it should ste uses away from the locked a320 motherboards and at least towards a super cheap of B 350 or B 450 motherboard ok so starting with the benchmarks now at 900 P resolution in overwatch the Athlon 3000 G does struggle quite a bit here when stock but it's at least capable when overclocked with a massive 33 percent performance boost on average still though it's 22% slower than the overclocked 2200 G Rainbow six siege showed a night-and-day difference between the Rison 320 200 G and the Athlon at 3000 G with almost a 45 percent margin between them so this takes the game from being kind of unplayable at an average of just 44 frames per second to a level where you can actually play in public matches against other players and we're definitely seeing that overclock pay off in terms of performance in project cars to the 3000 G gains a 70% in boost in average frame rate which is absolutely insane so definitely do not bother running this thing stock for gaming even at 900 P resolution with the lowest quality settings and overclocking the 3000 G to its limits we still can't properly run some modern titles apex Legends is one example of that which if by comparison the 2200 G is capable of running this game above an average of 60 frames per second and it's not that much more expensive once your entire system is considered and although the overclocked Rison 3400 G is looking like the ultimate gaming apu in terms of the top of the stack performance it really is not worth you 140 dollars us that it's currently at all right now rotating through some 1080p resolution benchmarks here and we'll get through these ones pretty quickly because the f1 3000 G is just not capable at this resolution the overclocked 2200 G on the other hand can manage 60fps on average here in overwatch still though 900 P resolution is really where it's at for these processes as I mentioned in the 3208 and 3400 year review though if you are in a position where you can save some money week to week gaming with a discreet graphics card such as the rx 570 is going to net you a truly different level of performance although many of you probably couldn't care less for gaming at 200 frames per second this level of performance means that you'll now be able to trade some frame rate for higher quality settings and make your game look a whole lot better alright so I switch to an easier title for some actual play time with the Athlon 3000 G and in csgo at 900 P resolution we're seeing above 110 FPS on average with all settings too low when of course the processor is overclocked this is really the sweet spot for the 3000 G in my opinion where the 2200 G may be capable of more demanding titles such as apex Legends the 3000 G just does not have the horsepower to do that and that's ok seeing as this is both a CPU and GPU packed into an efficient $50 package with overclocking support so for ultra budget gaming you could totally get by with 3000 G the question is should you I mean the 2200 G in the US market is only $25 more and that slight price premium is definitely worth it for an extra two physical processing cores as well as a stronger onboard graphics and I know $25 is technically making the 2200 G 50% more expensive than the 3000 G but when you factor that $25 into the scheme of a 200 to $300 PC build the price difference is only around 10% for an easy 60% plus performance boost and I'll say that as a whole these ap use from AMD are kind of becoming a hard so because of AMD their massive price cuts on CPUs like the r5 2600 which is around 120 dollars at the time of filming just really encourages users just to save a little bit more money and get a whole lot more performance in terms of the best value apu in their entire lineup I'd still have to give that to the risin 2,200 G at least on the US market that is the one to go for don't bother with the Athlon 3000 G in my opinion unless you can get it for a really good deal it is a pretty cool product but I think that's about what it is that's kind of where the usefulness and value ends in my opinion because you know it's kind of fun to test this out for me at least it was fun to test out and have a CPU and GPU in just a $50 package that runs really so efficient and that's overclockable and you can get these massive margins with overclocking that was the fun and cool part but as I said that ends there and as a recommendation to you guys you should really go for the rise in 2200 G and when you can definitely add in something like an Rx 570 so if you are interested in any of the hard way that we've discussed today you will find those linked down below in the description as always a huge thanks for watching and I'll see you all in the next one\n"