Introduction: AMD’s 3A Platform Makes Another Advance in the PC Market

When it comes to the “3A platform,” experienced PC gamers are likely to be familiar with it. The concept of the “3A platform” originated in the era of the first-generation Yilong, referring to a high-performance gaming PC solution equipped with an AMD CPU, AMD chipset motherboard, and AMD graphics card.

With the development of AMD’s product lineup and related technologies, the connotation of the “3A platform” has also undergone subtle changes. For example, AMD has collaborated with some manufacturers to launch exclusive SSDs, coolers, and even cases. Additionally, AMD now has its own memory overclocking profile, EXPO, which in a sense provides “purer” hardware choices for “3A” enthusiasts pursuing perfection.

From a functional perspective, the significance of “3A” is no longer limited to the gaming domain. Especially for 3A platforms that come with both integrated and discrete graphics cards, they now support simultaneous use of two GPUs for video encoding acceleration. Clearly, this reflects the adaptation of the “3A” system to the productivity needs of users today.

Of course, for mainstream gamers, higher cost-effectiveness and simpler driver and software experiences may still be the most important reasons for choosing the 3A platform. Recently, we at SanYi Life have acquired a high-value 3A system equipped with the brand-new Ryzen 5 8400F processor and the RX6750 GRE discrete graphics card.

Product Appreciation: Seaside Villa Design, Airflow, and Built-in WiFi Deserve Praise

As a mainstream PC system in 2024, “aesthetic appeal” is evidently crucial. With this in mind, this 3A PC adopts the currently popular dual-sided transparent “seaside villa” case.

In other words, both the front and left sides of its case are made of a single piece of tempered glass.

Consequently, the airflow design naturally deviates from the common “front-to-back” setup. Fortunately, the spacious interior of the case allows it to intake cool air through perforations on the right side panel, which is then exhausted by fans at the top and rear.

It’s also noticeable that the bottom of the case is similarly perforated, complementing the downward-facing design of the GPU cooler and effectively creating an independent airflow path for the graphics card section.

In terms of materials, this “3A PC” is also commendable. Reportedly, its motherboard, CPU cooler, memory, and hard drive are from popular brands in the DIY market such as MingXuan, Jonsbo, Asgard, and Lexar. Moreover, MingXuan’s B650M Challenger motherboard, in the same price range, comes equipped with a rare WiFi card, which can be considered a boon for users inconvenienced by wired networking.

At the “core” of the CPU and GPU components, this AMD official flagship store-produced 3A system opts for the newly released Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the Radeon RX6750 GRE 10GB.

Technical Analysis: Derived from the Mobile Version of the 8000 Series Ryzen, All Big Core Configuration is Quite Surprising

Those who follow SanYi Life might recall that we’ve previously conducted comparative tests on the Radeon RX6750 GRE 10GB. Therefore, for today’s system, its most significant technical highlight undoubtedly lies in the brand-new mid-range CPU, the Ryzen 5 8400F, from the Ryzen 8000 series.

According to information released by AMD, the Ryzen 5 8400F belongs to the Phoenix family. This is quite intriguing because it means that the Ryzen 5 8400F adopts a “full big core” design with 6 cores and 12 threads. All 6 CPU cores are based on the Zen4 architecture, unlike the Ryzen 5 8500G, which features a “big-small core” configuration with Zen4+Zen4c characteristics.

Consequently, the Ryzen 5 8400F boasts a base frequency of 4.2GHz across all 6 cores, with the ability to automatically overclock to 4.7GHz, and it’s unlocked for further manual overclocking by users.

Review of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F CPU

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, like other mainstream CPUs currently available, features an “F” suffix, indicating that while its basic architecture originates from the mobile version of Ryzen APU, it does not come with integrated graphics. In other words, it is inherently more suitable for pairing with mid-range discrete graphics cards, providing mainstream gamers with a high cost-performance gaming experience.

Compared to the previously popular F-suffix Zen4 CPU, the Ryzen 5 7500F, the Ryzen 5 8400F has a slightly lower default peak frequency by 0.3GHz and a decrease in L3 cache from 32MB to 16MB. However, it also operates within a lower TDP range. This means that for players using ITX or mini PCs, it may hold a higher appeal.

[Theoretical Performance Test: Significant AVX512 Advantage for Ryzen with the Same Memory but Different Bandwidth]

Next, let’s move on to the performance testing of the Ryzen 5 8400F and the 3A system it leads.

To provide a clearer understanding of the performance of the new platform, we have also introduced a “competitor.” This comprises an Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12400F with a B670 chipset, paired with an RTX 4060 discrete graphics card, creating a mainstream gaming PC platform.

It’s worth mentioning that in the current retail market, whether it’s a Ryzen 5 8400F or an i5-12400F system, the majority are equipped with a single stick of DDR5 memory. This setup aims to allow consumers to easily upgrade later on, and due to the absence of integrated graphics in such systems, there is no high demand for dual memory configuration.

However, for testing fairness, Four Yilife used four sticks of DDR5-6000 memory to replace the memory in these two test platforms to ensure their memory capacity, frequency, and even minor settings are completely consistent.

With this premise in place, the first aspect to compare naturally is the memory bandwidth and latency performance of the two different platforms. It is evident that the Ryzen 5 8400F has smaller cache and memory latency, with higher memory write and L2 & L3 cache bandwidths. Conversely, the i5-12400F has higher memory read bandwidth and a larger L1 cache bandwidth. In essence, there is no superiority or inferiority between the two, just differences in design approach.

Moving forward, we conducted multimedia and floating-point performance tests on the two different platforms using AIDA64. Here, some interesting results emerged. In light photo editing tests leaning towards light loads, the i5-12400F outperformed the Ryzen 5 8400F by around 12%. However, in heavy-load pure FPU ray tracing rendering tests, the Ryzen 5 8400F surpassed the i5-12400F by over 50%. This disparity could be due to the current 12th-14th Gen Core CPUs generally disabling the AVX512 instruction set, resulting in their inferior heavy-load floating-point performance compared to the Zen4 architecture that supports AVX512.

Next up is the basic identification tool CPU-Z, along with its built-in simple benchmark. It’s easy to see that although the cache capacity has been slightly reduced due to the architecture originating from the mobile version, the fact that it’s a “full-core” Zen4 still gives the Ryzen 5 8400F a significant advantage in memory subsystem and basic computing power compared to its competitors.

[Common Benchmark Tests: Ryzen Dominates Multi-Core Rendering, RX6750 GRE Rasterization Excels]

Next, we move on to the routine comprehensive performance benchmarking.

In CineBench23, considering the usage scenario of gaming PCs, we enabled CineBench’s stability test mode, which involves 30 minutes of continuous benchmarking for both single-core and multi-core performance. It can be observed that the two 6-core processors have almost identical heavy-load single-core performance, but under full-core load, the Ryzen 5 8400F may benefit from lower power consumption, leading in performance by about 10%.

Next is the PCMARK test for overall system performance. It’s evident that the 3A platform is noticeably faster in almost all simulated scenarios, with an overall performance lead of approximately 12%.

3DMARK Test Results for AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + RX6750 GRE 10GB and Intel Core i5-12400F + RTX4060

Moving on, we compared the ray tracing performance, DX12 gaming performance, DX11 gaming performance, and CPU gaming performance of the two platforms using 3DMARK. The test results are consistent with our previous findings when testing the RX6750 GRE separately. In other words, AMD’s discrete graphics card exhibits stronger rasterization performance, leading by up to 20% in non-ray tracing high-resolution, high-effects scenarios. However, in terms of floating-point computing performance (i.e., ray tracing scenarios), the RX6000 series lags behind the RTX40 series by approximately 44%.

Finally, we delve into the real-world software testing phase, eagerly awaited by everyone.

[Productivity and Gaming Tests: Significant Productivity Advantage for 3A System, High-Quality Gaming Experience Achieved]

First, let’s look at decompression performance.

Decompression Performance of Ryzen 5 8400F and Core i5-12400F

We start with the most common decompression software tests, WinRAR 7.0 and 7Zip 24. These are highly sensitive to both CPU computational performance and memory latency, making them excellent indicators of actual performance levels in lightweight office scenarios.

It’s evident that the Ryzen 5 8400F outperforms in both 7ZIP and WinRAR 7.0 tests. Especially in the WinRAR 7.0 decompression test, the performance advantage can reach nearly 50%, which is quite remarkable.

In the benchmark for the high-quality online game representative “Final Fantasy 14” v7.0, set at 1080P resolution with all graphics effects maxed out, and with corresponding supersampling options (FSR, DLSS) enabled for each graphics card, both platforms achieve the highest benchmark rating within the game, meaning they both achieve maximum frame rates. However, the 3A platform demonstrates slightly better overall performance in this benchmark.

Next is the mid to high-quality single-player fighting game “Street Fighter 6.” With all graphics settings maxed out and at 1080P resolution, both platforms can achieve a solid 60 frames per second without any frame drops during intense combat, allowing players to fully enjoy the exhilarating battles.

Following is the classic single-player game “Resident Evil 6,” which emphasizes rasterization performance. With the RX6750 GRE 10GB, capable of handling higher pixel and vertex counts, and the stronger performance of the Ryzen 5 8400F itself, it’s natural that the test results are better, making it unsurprising.

Additionally, we tested the martial arts fighting online game “Eternal Torture.” In this project, both platforms have their respective highest level graphics optimization technologies enabled (FSR3 and DLSS3). However, it’s slightly surprising that N-card’s DLSS doesn’t seem to have a significant effect in “Eternal Torture,” with almost no change in frame rate after enabling it. In contrast, FSR3 indeed provides a smoother performance for the 3A platform in this game, with actual in-game frame rates close to 90 FPS at 1080P resolution and max graphics settings, showing a significant advantage.

[Summary: Budget-Friendly 3A Platform Offers a More Relaxed Choice]

Through the extensive tests mentioned above, it’s evident that the new Ryzen 5 8400F, at an extremely budget-friendly price, brings the experience of a 6-core 12-thread Zen4 architecture. This makes it a remarkably compelling choice in its current price range, offering impressive performance both in productivity and gaming.

For players who are not adept at building PCs, the 3A platform based on this new 6-core CPU undoubtedly provides a more worry-free option. Especially considering the much simpler driver installation and overclocking experience for Ryzen CPUs and Radeon graphics cards, this clearly provides users with further convenience for future tweaking.
Of course, what matters most is the overall performance and stability we have experienced during our testing process. Comparing these 3A pre-built computers from domestic mainstream manufacturers with other DIY computers in the same price range, they undoubtedly have a significant advantage in terms of reliability in components. Considering the long-term usage, this can also be seen as AMD’s sincerity and care for mainstream gamers.