AMD Ryzen 5 3500U vs AMD Ryzen Embedded R1606G vs AMD Ryzen 5 2400G

AMD Ryzen 5 3500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 3500U is a mobile SoC that was announced in January 2019. It combines four Zen+ cores (8 threads) clocked at 2.1 GHz to 3.7 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 8 iGPU with 8 CUs (512 Shaders) clocked at up to 1200 MHz. Specified at 15 Watt TDP, the SoC is intended for thin mid-range laptops. In Chromebooks, AMD calles the APU AMD Ryzen 5 3500C, but the specifications (and performance) are the same.

The Picasso SoC uses the Zen+ microarchitecture with slight improvements that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvements. Furthermore, the 12 nm process allows for higher clocks at similar power consumption.

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.

Performance

The average 3500U in our database matches the Intel Core i7-1065G7 in multi-thread performance to be an OK lower mid-range option, as of early 2021.

The Honor MagicBook 14 is among the fastest laptops powered by the 3500U that we know of. It can be up to 50% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 15 W, a value that laptop makers are free to set to anything between 12 W and 35 W with clock speeds and performance changing accordingly as a result. Either way, this is a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The chip is manufactured on a 12 nm process for subpar, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

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 5 2400G

The AMD Ryzen 5 2400G is a desktop APU that was announced in early 2018. It is the fastest Raven Ridge APU at that time and features all four Zen cores (8 threads due to SMT support) clocked at 3.6 - 3.9 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics card with 11 CUs (all of the 704 Shaders on the chip) clocked at up to 1250 MHz. The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR-2933. The TDP is specified at 65 Watt and the CPU, GPU and memory are unlocked for overclocking. More information on Raven Ridge can be found in our launch article.