The AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and Ryzen 3 1200 CPU Review: Zen on a Budget
by Ian Cutress on July 27, 2017 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- AMD
- Zen
- Ryzen
- Ryzen 3
- Ryzen 3 1300X
- Ryzen 3 1200
Power Consumption
For our power consumption readings, we run a Prime 95 load and slowly ramp up the number of threads in play, taking power data from the internal CPU registers that report for when turbo modes or thermal modes should activate. Depending on the CPU access, we can get data that varies from the full package down to individual cores, uncore, integrated graphics and DRAM controllers.
For the Ryzen CPUs, the API pulls out the total package power consumption first.
At idle, all the CPUs are pretty much equivalent. The cores are fully idle here, leaving the rest of the chip active enough for tick-over. As we ramp up the load, the higher-frequency Ryzen CPUs move towards their 65W TDP, with the Ryzen 3 1300X almost being spot on at 64.2W. The Intel CPUs are clocked higher, but only have two cores to contend with. The Ryzen 3 1200 is clocked lower than the Ryzen 3 1300X, hitting a better efficiency point in the Zen design. This ultimately bodes well for upcoming quad-core SKUs in laptops.
One of the odd things about the power consumption of the Ryzen 3 CPUs is the difference between how much power the cores internally measure compared to the full power consumption of the package measured as a whole, including the Infinity Fabric, DRAM controllers, IO and such. For the Ryzen 3 1200 for example, at full load the package has a power consumption of 40.43 W total, but the cores only count for 23.05W, leaving 17.38W on the table for the non-core elements in the chip. If we compare that to the Ryzen 5 1500X, we have 68.79W for the package and 49.69W for the cores, a 19.1W difference. For the Ryzen 7 1700X, it becomes 81.51W for the package and 62.10W for the cores, a 19.4W difference.
On the high-end chips, the difference is a smaller portion of the full power consumption, but on the Ryzen 3 processors the cores are only 57% of the power consumption, leaving 43% for the rest of the chip. A lot of this power could be the inter-CCX infinity fabric path, which means that packages like EPYC are giving away a lot of power to IF. If it is more other features, it could spell a number of problems for upcoming mobile chips, limiting the lower bounds of the power consumption. Naturally, I actually want to get my hands on to an EPYC processor in my own lab to see if we can pin down what is happening here.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
140 Comments
View All Comments
HollyDOL - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Ian hasn't failed us. Thorough review on day one. Now to read it whole :-)Ian Cutress - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Results are still coming in for the 1300X, this will take another day or two and I'll add in the graphs but all the Ryzen 3 1200 data is in Bench.Each of the 3 GPUs still to go is about 5 hrs each to test, Chrome Compile and SYSMark is another 10 hr. I've still got results for the 7300 coming in as well on my second test-bed.
srkelley5 - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Thank you! I know that it's more work, but is there any chance of getting charts that compare these results against Vishera cpu's?0ldman79 - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
Seconded.It is a shame that we still don't have a direct comparison between AMD's big CPU from last gen vs the current generation.
StevoLincolnite - Saturday, July 29, 2017 - link
Can't compare my Sandy-Bridge-E 3930K either.Or the Phenom 2 x6...
0ldman79 - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link
It looks like a lot of the information is already on the bench, just formatted differently.Shame.
Ian Cutress - Sunday, July 30, 2017 - link
I've got a regression testing project ongoing which is taking most of my regular time to get sorted. More details soon.AndrewJacksonZA - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Thanks for your hard work, Ian (and team?) We appreciate it. I must say, I'm impressed with what this 1300X can do - and for only $130 too!Correction on the last graph: the X-axis title says, well, "Title." :-)
ddriver - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
You should do relative x scale for the price/performance charts. It will be more informative than absolute scale, besides, how many CPUs under 50$ are there, and how many go as low as 0$?coolhardware - Thursday, July 27, 2017 - link
Agreed, thank you for the review Ian! I've been waiting for a nice Ryzen close to the $100 price point, the 1300X is close enough in price for me and I like what I read in the review.Especially interested to see how performance in my daily work compares to my trusty 2500K and some more modern i7 mobile CPUs.
Excited to pick one of these up! :-)
NewEgg shows 7/31 release:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N...
Amazon usually ships faster for me so I plan on ordering from them:
http://amzn.to/2v1fJqh (url shortened)
PS Does MicroCenter usually have CPUs in store on launch day?