Incredible value and a great performer. The new AMD APU's are touted as a great entry level gaming setup while the insanely high video card prices continue. While I don't use mine for gaming but for a Home Theater PC (HTPC) to drive my 42" bedroom TV, I would agree. I did run some games through it and was impressed. Some were concerned that because these CPU dies are not soldered to the IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) but instead some thermal compound (usualled called TIM (Thermal Interface Material)) was used to help save cost they would run hotter I think that it's a non-issue. Sure the processor and integrated graphics solution are overclockable with The B and X series motherboards, and a soldered die would perform better in this situation, people are overclocking these and they are doing well. I'm using a very basic A320 motherboard that doesn't support overclocking and I'm not an overclocker anyway. Anyway again I'm mainly using this as an HTPC so gaming is not a focus. To see gaming benchmarks there are plenty on Youtube.
Installation was a little bit complicated because I was using an motherboard I had laying around for the past few months. That mobo was originally intended for use on my Linux workstation but they just didn't really get along. I used a different motherboard for that Ryzen 3 1300X build and this one went into a box. I had to install the latest BIOS on this A320 mobo in order for it to work with the new APU. I borrowed the CPU out of my linux machine, got into the BIOS and updated it. Put the CPU back in my linux machine and put it back together, and the next day the 2200G arrived from Amazon. I installed the CPU and admittingly didn't use the included cooler. It's a great cooler honestly but I had the larger CPU cooler from the Ryzen 7 1700 that's in my Windows gaming PC. Yeah I have a lot of Ryzen based systems now. :D
Anyway, I downloaded the latest Windows 10 64bit ISO from Microsoft, used a programmed called Rufus to put the ISO into a 16GB USB flash drive and installed it onto a 250GB SATA SSD. Windows ran poorly at first. Very slow. I installed the chipset drivers. This improved things. Video performance was also better but it still was not running 100 percent smoothly. I then downloaded the latest video drivers from AMD specifically for the integrated Vega GPU and it ran MUCH better, but still seemed a bit sluggish. I also noticed at 4K via HDMI it defaulted to 30FPS. I was able to go into the driver and up it to 60 FPS. After that there was a Windows 10 update that wanted to be installed. Now it was running as quickly as I expected. All that was left to do was transfer my Windows 10 license via my Microsoft account. This was fairly easy.
The very first 4K YouTube video I played worked fine at first but got corrupted for some reason in full screen. Taking it out of full screen and reloading the page seemed to fix this. It has happened one other time since I built this PC the day after launch day up to now. It's an odd issue but seems like it's a driver thing and I'm sure it will go away after a few updates.
SO that was my method that I would normally do while building a PC anyway, download the latest Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft, install Windows, install Chipset driver, then video driver. This was later confirmed because Gamers Nexus and some other early reviewers had a lot of trouble doing it any other way. So.. yay me?
Finally, at the time of writing this, this seems to be the method for a good experience building a PC on this platform. I think as the drivers, BIOS, & Windows get caught up with this new release it will go much easier. Also, it's super nerdy but if you are reading this you are probably buying this CPU to build a PC and would be checking on this anyway, but keep a close eye on still newer BIOS releases for your motherboard and I would avoid any beta BIOS releases. Just check the product support page for your mobo from time to time to make sure you're always current.
Hope all this helps. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.
| Processor | 3.7 GHz ryzen_3_2200g |
|---|---|
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11a |
