Lower-power versions of AMD’s recently announced Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G APUs might be coming soon, according to the support pages of some AM4 motherboards.
A Ryzen 5 2400GE and Ryzen 3 2200GE have been spotted on the CPU compatibility lists of several AM4 motherboards. The new chips have the same tier-branding, but they’re labelled “GE,” instead of “G.” Notably, they’re listed with a 35W TDP, whereas the released “G” APUs have a 65W TDP.
Other specs, apart from lower clock speeds, are currently unknown. On the compatibility list for an Asrock B350 motherboard (pictured above), the Ryzen 5 2400GE and Ryzen 3 2200GE are both listed with a base clock of 3.2GHz, down from the 3.6GHz and 3.5GHz of their respective “G” counterparts.
This isn’t the first time that AMD has done a staggered launch for its APUs, however. Last year’s 35W A-series (Bristol Ridge) APUs arrived a year after their 65W siblings launched in 2016. The 35W Bristol Ridge APUs are identical in all ways to the 65W versions except for their lower base and boost clock speeds, and are designated “E.” We don’t expect that AMD is doing anything different with the Ryzen “GE” products. Indeed, listings for these chips on the compatibility list of an Asus B350 motherboard (pictured above), show that core count and cache size between the 2400G and 2400GE are the same (listings for the 2200G and GE appear to be erroneous). Given that the first process refinement development for the Zen architecture is releasing this April, in the form of Zen+ and the 400-series chipsets, we don’t expect that there will also be a year-long wait for these “GE” parts, though.
