Just in case it’s interesting to know (power tests done via Windows Remote Desktop Connection)
Motherboard: Asus Prime B450M-K II
CPU: Ryzen 3400G
RAM: 8GB Non-ECC 2133’ish (I’m getting slightly faster stuff some other time, not gaming or intending to overclock).
NVMe: Corsair 500GB
21W - System on, no power optimisation.
60-70W - Playing one Youtube video, HD, full screen.
95W - FurMark CPU Burner stress test (8 threads), showing 3.81Ghz
It really is, thanks for having posted it. Now I know that a Ryzen based NAS won’t be in the power envelope I was hoping for at idle.
But damn how tempting it is to buy a 5600G and a B550 motherboard!
Well, without sounding like a pansy, thanks for saying thanks mate!
I wonder if the ‘next G down’ would be better for power usage, like the 2200G?
It’s very tempting to get a 5600G + Mobo almost as a spare! One thing I was curious about was how well AutoCAD worked, and it worked incredibly well. Not as smooth as my RTX 4000 does it on bigger models, but impressive all the same and anyone just starting to use it could cope well enough.
I haven’t fiddled with the BIOS yet, I wonder if there’s any power saving features there. What NAS stuff were you thinking of using?
I think that at that point you’re getting so down on computational power that it might need to run longer at higher clocks to achieve the same results. In doing so it’s gonna consume more power.
Unless you’re throwing textures at 3D models and using extremely comples ones (like you said), you can run Autocad on anything really. I discovered this in 2011 when I couldn’t afford a good laptop but still taking a course about it.
Ah, I was only thinking of minimising power at idle, so is it just a ‘fewer cores is best’ situation?
Yep, that’s the case. AutoCAD 11 ran happily on a 286/386 with just 16MB of RAM when I started my first job at an Architects Practice. I was asked to do a 3D simulation of a new hospital I was drafting…it took 18 hours to produce the animation Certainly true to say CAD can run on almost anything, but for any paid work, I think this 3400G may struggle. There’s also the side apps frequently used, such as survey photos/video viewing, email, etc. This CPU would be brilliant for learning CAD on that’s for sure, might even do it again if I hire an assistant!
That’ll do nicely eh? What OS were you planning on using?
If the system mostly idles that might work, sure! I was thinking about an home computer being turned on and off when needed.
I don’t doubt that, seems a realistic timeline for back in the day. I know a guy that worked in 3D animation in the early 90s. What he did with three nodes and wireframe previews that took 5 minutes to generate was insane!
Totally. Time is money and having a decent system to work with is key. A plumber won’t run around with not enough tools to get the job done as quickly as possible, right?
Absolutely! Tech is very much more democratic these days than it used to be.
You’d lose 4 threads (no SMT on the 2200G), a couple hundred mhz on the Vega graphics and CPU cores for roughly the same power and thermal range, AMD’s binning process is just nuts like that. You’d lose some L2 and L3 cache efficiencies too. Add to that the 3000 stuff is Zen+ (Picasso 12nm) and the 2000 is Zen (raven ridge 14nm) you’d probably end up disappointed.
Certainly true to say CAD can run on almost anything, but for any paid work, I think this 3400G may struggle. There’s also the side apps frequently used, such as survey photos/video viewing, email, etc. This CPU would be brilliant for learning CAD on that’s for sure, might even do it again if I hire an assistant! 