AMD Ryzen 5 1600 vs AMD Athlon 300U

AMD Ryzen 5 1600

The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is a desktop processor with 6 cores and Hyper Threading (SMT = 12 threads). It is the second fastest Ryzen 5 processor in the beginning of 2017, but the 65-watt TDP is much lower compared to the higher-clocked Ryzen 5 1600X.

The Ryzen 5 1600 has a base frequency of 3.2 GHz and can reach up to 3.6 GHz via Turbo (up to 2 cores) or 3.7 GHz via XFR (also up to 2 cores). The maximum clock for all six cores is 3.4 GHz.

The performance is particularly good in applications. The chip can benefit from its six native cores. They are divided into two clusters (3 cores with dedicated L3 cache each), which connected via Infinity Fabric.

The processor based on the Zen architecture is not fully convincing in games. AMD blames missing optimizations from the gaming producers. Intel's powerful Core i7 quad-cores are usually faster in this case.

AMD Athlon 300U

The AMD Athlon 300U is a mobile entry level dual core SoC that was announced in January 2019. It combines two Zen cores (with SMT / Hyperthreading so running 4 threads) clocked at 2.4 - 3.3 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 3 graphics card with 3 CUs (192 Shaders) clocked at up to 1000 MHz. Specified at 15 Watt TDP, the SoC is intended for thin mid-range laptops. It is quite similar to the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U (2.6 - 3.5 GHz).

Compared to the Picasso APUs of the Ryzen 3000 series, the Athlon 300U is still based on the first generation of the 2000 series. Only the PRO variant is based on the new Zen+ microarchitecture that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvement.

The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. As the features of the Picasso APUs are the same compared to the Raven Ridge predecessors, we point to our Raven Ridge launch article.

In contrast to the faster quad-core Picasso APUs, the Athlon 300U only supports 3 instead of 4 displays in total.

Performance wise, the Athlon 300 should be slightly slower than the Ryzen 3 2200U (2.5 - 3.4 GHz Dual Core with SMT).