AMD Ryzen Embedded R1606G vs AMD Ryzen 7 2700U vs AMD Athlon Silver 3050e

AMD Ryzen Embedded R1606G

The AMD Ryzen Embedded R1606G is a dual-core SoC designed for embedded systems that was announced in March 2019. It is similar to the Ryzen 3 3200U (or the 2200U with slightly increased clock speed) and based on the first generation of the Zen architecture. The Ryzen features two Zen cores with support for the thread-doubling SMT tech, clocked at 2.6 GHz - 3.5 GHz. The built-in Radeon RX Vega 3 iGPU has 3 CUs (192 unified shaders) clocked at up to 1,200 MHz. The default TDP is 15 W which makes the Ryzen a good fit for thin mid-range laptops.

In comparison to the faster Ryzen 3000 CPUs, the 3200U and therefore the R1606G is not using the newer Zen+ microarchitecture and is still manufactured in 14nm. Compared to the old Ryzen 3 2200U, the 3200U and R1606G therefore only offers a 100 MHz higher clock speed.

The R1606G is compatible with single-channel or dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM. Please go to our Raven Ridge launch article for details on the architecture and more.

AMD Ryzen 7 2700U

The AMD Ryzen 7 2700U is a mobile SoC that was announced in October 2017. It combines four Zen cores (8 threads) clocked at 2.2 - 3.8 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 10 graphics card with 10 CUs (640 Shaders) clocked at up to 1300 MHz. The TDP can be configured by the laptop manufacturer between 12 to 25 Watt (15 Watt nominal) and therefore the APU is also suited for thin and light laptops. The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. More information on Raven Ridge can be found in our launch article.

The performance of the Zen CPU cores should be better than a high end Kaby-Lake-Refresh Quad-Core CPU (e.g. the Core i7-8650U) according to AMD. Therefore, the Ryzen 7 2700U is suited for all applications.

AMD Athlon Silver 3050e

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050e (Codename Dali) is a mobile APU that integrates two Zen cores (with SMT, therefore 4 threads) clocked at 1.4 to 2.8 GHz. The TDP is specified at 6 Watt and therefore the chip can be passively cooled. The integrated Radeon graphics card offers 3 CUs at up to 1000 MHz (Radeon RX Vega 3). The dual channel memory controller supports only DDR4-2400. The chip is manufactured on a 14 nm node and officially counted to the 3000 series of mobile processors.

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050e is the fastest 6W CPU of the Dali SoCs. The slower AMD 3015e and 3020e range below and are compared to the Celeron N4120. Therefore, the Athlon 3050e should reach a level of a Pentium N5000 and therefore still positioned in the entry level of CPUs in 2020. It is best suited for light tasks.

More information on Raven Ridge can be found in our launch article.

Power consumption

Much like Intel's N-class Celeron and Pentium processors, AMD 3050e has a 6 W TDP (also known as the long-term power limit). This is low enough to allow for passively cooled tablets, laptops, mini-PCs.

This APU is built with an old, as of late 2022, 14 nm process making for subpar energy efficiency.