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Overclocking and Test Setup
Test Notes
We paired our Athlon 200GE sample with MSI's X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard to maintain a consistent test environment for our AMD processors. Because this is a 35W CPU, we don't expect motherboard power delivery to affect our benchmark results.
Our review focuses on CPU performance specifically, so we tested all of the contenders with a GeForce GTX 1080 FE to alleviate graphics-imposed bottlenecks. When it comes to the performance of AMD's Vega 3 configuration, we don't expect much. Even at low resolutions and ultra-low detail settings, performance won't be great.
Overclocking
Overclocking the Athlon 200GE is simple, if only because there aren't many options for making adjustments. Our MSI motherboards don't support BCLK adjustments with the 200GE installed, leaving the ratio multiplier as our only knob for tuning the chip's frequency. We also weren't able to boost memory performance above the stock DDR4-2666, though we did adjust timings to 14-14-14-34.
Integrated graphics overclocking isn't an option either. The Vega 3 engine consequently remains at its stock 1 GHz (though that isn't material to today's review, since we're testing with a powerful add-in card).
From the default 3.2 GHz, we achieved a stable 3.9 GHz in an AVX-optimzed stress test using 1.39V Vcore and 1.1V SoC voltage settings. Temperatures with the stock cooler never exceeded 76°C at 3.9 GHz. For the sake of comparison, running the same test with a Corsair H115i on top of our Athlon 200GE yielded a 46°C reading. Power consumption for the overclocked CPU+SoC topped out at 51W.
We paired our Pentium Gold processors with a Z370-based motherboard, which does support faster memory. Sticking with Intel's official specification, we used our modules at 2400 MT/s to represent the data rates available from B- and H-series platforms.
Comparison Processors
Test Systems
| Test System & Configuration | |
| Hardware | AMD Socket AM4 (400-Series)AMD Athlon 200GE, Ryzen 3 1300X, Ryzen 3 2200GMSI X470 Gaming M7 AC2x 8GB G.Skill FlareX DDR4-2677, DDR4-3200Intel LGA 1151 (Z370)Pentium Gold G5600, Pentium Gold G5400, Core i3-8100, Gold G4620, Pentium Gold G4560, Core i3-7100MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC2x 8GB G.Skill FlareX DDR4-2400All EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FE 1TB Samsung PM863 SilverStone ST1500-TI, 1500W Windows 10 Creators Update Version 1703 - All Spectre and Meltdown mitigations |
| Cooling | Corsair H115i |
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