The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is an entry-level, dual-core APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) that was announced in 2020. The Ryzen features two Zen cores, with SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading) enabled for a total of 4 threads, running at a base clock speed of 2.6 GHz and a boost clock speed of 3.5 GHz. The Ryzen 3 3250U also features a Radeon RX Vega 3 graphics adapter with 3 Compute Units and 192 unified shaders, running at a maximum clock speed of 1,200 MHz.
The Ryzen 3 3250U is similar to the older Ryzen 3 3200U, with the only difference being the lower peak operating temperature of 95 °C compared to the 105 °C of the 3200U. The Ryzen 3 3250C is a special edition of the Ryzen 3 3250U that is designed for use in Chromebooks and has the same specifications and performance figures as the 3250U.
The Ryzen 3 3250U utilizes the older Zen architecture and is manufactured on the 14 nm TSMC process, the same process used for the Ryzen 2000-series laptop-grade processors. This has some repercussions, including limited RAM support, with only DDR4-2400, DDR4-2133, and lower modules being supported. The CPU has several PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and is compatible with NVMe SSDs, but read and write rates will be limited to 3.9 GB/s. The Ryzen 3 3250U is soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP5 socket interface) and is not user-replaceable.
In terms of performance, the Ryzen 3 3250U is an entry-level processor as of 2021 and directly competes with the Intel Core i3-10110U, Core i3-1110G4, and AMD Athlon Gold 3150U in terms of multi-thread performance. The processor is suitable for mundane tasks such as web browsing and casual gaming, but it is not a powerhouse.
The Vega 3 graphics adapter is similar to Intel's UHD Graphics 620 in terms of performance and capabilities. It supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 fps and can HW-decode VP9, AVC, HEVC, MPEG-2, and other popular video codecs. However, the latest AV1 codec is not supported and will have to be decoded via software, with the limited CPU horsepower imposing a hard limit on the resolution that can be played back without stuttering. The Vega 3 graphics adapter allows for some light gaming, with games such as F1 2021 running well at 720p/Low settings. The performance of the graphics adapter can be improved with quality RAM, but it should be noted that the Vega 3 has no VRAM of its own.
The energy efficiency of the Ryzen 3 3250U is not great due to the 14 nm manufacturing node being obsolete by now. The default TDP (Thermal Design Power) of 15 W makes the Ryzen 3 3250U a good fit for actively-cooled tablets, tiny mini-PCs, and lightweight laptops. OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) have the option to reduce the TDP to as low as 12 W or increase it to as high as 25 W, with corresponding changes in clock speeds and performance.
In conclusion, the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is an entry-level processor that is suitable for mundane tasks and light gaming. It utilizes the older Zen architecture and is manufactured on the 14 nm TSMC process, which has some limitations in terms of RAM support and energy efficiency. The Vega 3 graphics adapter is similar to Intel's UHD Graphics 620 and allows for some light gaming.
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