Vega 11 and Factorio

[Blank]

Hey so I'm making a PC for my boyfriend that needs to meet the system requirements of Factorio. The screen will be 4K60. The game doesn't necessarily have to run at that resolution, but it would be nice. Anyway, I'm trying to get an APU that can run this game well all by itself without a discrete graphics card. I'm currently looking at the Ryzen 5 3400G, because it has Vega 11. I'm wondering if anyone here has this processor or another with Vega 11 and if so, how well does Vega 11 handle Factorio, and how well does the processor itself handle maps with tons of stuff going on in them?

[PunCrathod]

My educated guess is that it will run just fine. Maybe not at 4k but atleast 1080p. Tough you need to take into account that it will use ram as vram and ramspeeds are going to be really important. This is because factorio likes faster ram and ryzen cpu:s like faster ram and the gpu is going to use up a lot of the bandwidth. And everything will take more ram than is specified in the minimum requirements too as the gpu needs to store everything in ram instead of its own vram. Basically you need to get the fastest ram you can. And preferably 16Gb or more.

[Blank]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

My educated guess is that it will run just fine. Maybe not at 4k but atleast 1080p. Tough you need to take into account that it will use ram as vram and ramspeeds are going to be really important. This is because factorio likes faster ram and ryzen cpu:s like faster ram and the gpu is going to use up a lot of the bandwidth. And everything will take more ram than is specified in the minimum requirements too as the gpu needs to store everything in ram instead of its own vram. Basically you need to get the fastest ram you can. And preferably 16Gb or more.

I'm aware of this. I just need to be able to play Factorio and Terraria on this PC for the time being, and I'll upgrade to a discrete graphics card like the RTX3070 later. Do you think the 3400G would bottleneck an RTX3070 at 4k resolution?

[PunCrathod]

Originally posted by Actual Cancer:

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

My educated guess is that it will run just fine. Maybe not at 4k but atleast 1080p. Tough you need to take into account that it will use ram as vram and ramspeeds are going to be really important. This is because factorio likes faster ram and ryzen cpu:s like faster ram and the gpu is going to use up a lot of the bandwidth. And everything will take more ram than is specified in the minimum requirements too as the gpu needs to store everything in ram instead of its own vram. Basically you need to get the fastest ram you can. And preferably 16Gb or more.

I'm aware of this. I just need to be able to play Factorio and Terraria on this PC for the time being, and I'll upgrade to a discrete graphics card like the RTX3070 later. Do you think the 3400G would bottleneck an RTX3070 at 4k resolution?

Depends on the game. Some games could suffer some fps drops because of the cpu. But if you want a cpu that would not limit the framerate you would need to spend a lot of money.

Resolution also usually depends mostly on the GPU. So if you can run a game at 1080p but not 4k you usually only need to get a better GPU.

My opinion is that getting a ryzen 3400G now and a discreet GPU later is a valid plan. Just don't prepick the gpu now. Check what is the best for the amount of money you want spend when you actually buy it.

Also it is actually very common for people to upgrade parts of their gaming setups at different times. CPU+motherboard+ram usually are done as a set. But everything else can be swapped one part at a time. Infact the computer I'm currently using has a 10 year old CPU and a 2 year old GPU and I have swapped my GPU 3 times since I bought the CPU.

[Blank]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

Originally posted by Actual Cancer:

I'm aware of this. I just need to be able to play Factorio and Terraria on this PC for the time being, and I'll upgrade to a discrete graphics card like the RTX3070 later. Do you think the 3400G would bottleneck an RTX3070 at 4k resolution?

Depends on the game. Some games could suffer some fps drops because of the cpu. But if you want a cpu that would not limit the framerate you would need to spend a lot of money.

Resolution also usually depends mostly on the GPU. So if you can run a game at 1080p but not 4k you usually only need to get a better GPU.

My opinion is that getting a ryzen 3400G now and a discreet GPU later is a valid plan. Just don't prepick the gpu now. Check what is the best for the amount of money you want spend when you actually buy it.

Also it is actually very common for people to upgrade parts of their gaming setups at different times. CPU+motherboard+ram usually are done as a set. But everything else can be swapped one part at a time. Infact the computer I'm currently using has a 10 year old CPU and a 2 year old GPU and I have swapped my GPU 3 times since I bought the CPU.

This isn't my first time building a computer, but thanks for the advice all the same. I know the GPU is the main determinant for framerate and resolution in a game. My concern is whether this specific processor would be capable of sending 4k60 instructions to a discrete GPU reliably without eating up too many resources or, god forbid, would it simply not function under that workload? The GPU does all the heavy lifting, but if the processor isn't powerful enough, I won't get the full benefit of the GPU. I need to find out where that fine line is between a CPU that's just powerful enough to keep up with a top of the line GPU in modern games at 4k60, but not so powerful where I'll need to sell my liver to afford it.

I'm thinking of going with an X570 chipset to have processor upgradability up to the upcoming Zen 3 series, just in case I need it. But that costs quite a premium and I'm not entirely sure if I would need it in the first place anyway, but it would be the safest option.

[PunCrathod]

Originally posted by Actual Cancer:

My concern is whether this specific processor would be capable of sending 4k60 instructions to a discrete GPU reliably without eating up too many resources or, god forbid, would it simply not function under that workload?

The thing is that this depends on how the graphics pipeline of a specific game is built. Most games the cpu has to send the same amount of instructions and data no matter the resolution but some games do clever tricks to gain extra performance and some of those tricks involve doing extra stuff on the cpu based on the resolution used.

However I have not yet seen a game that would become unplayable with increased resolution because of the cpu. Off the top of my head the most I remember seeing is a 10% drop in framerate when increasing the resolution caused by cpu not being fast enough. And that was a game ported from ps3 where it was more common to use the cpu to do some of the graphics pipeline.

With a 3400G and currently released games you should not have trouble reaching 60pfs outside of a few exceptions like an rts with unitcaps in the thousands. And because of how fast computer technology progresses you should not even try future proofing your setup. By the time your cpu is not fast enough to run the games you want to play any future proofing you did by selecting a better motherboard or ram is going to be obsolete.
If you think that you are going to replace the cpu in the near future then the correct choice is to get a cheaper cpu+motherboard+ram now so you have more money to buy better stuff later. Same with the GPU. Since you are planning on getting a better GPU later it makes more sense to get a really cheap one or use an APU now so when you do get the better GPU you can get a better one.

Really the only things you can future proof somewhat are the PSU and storage space.

Edit: And like I said I'm still using a 10 year old CPU even tough I have swapped the GPU three times since buying it. And I play a lot of games both old and new. Sure I could get more FPS in some games if I had a newer CPU but so far none have been unplayable.

[KaszkaManna]

Originally posted by Actual Cancer:

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

My educated guess is that it will run just fine. Maybe not at 4k but atleast 1080p. Tough you need to take into account that it will use ram as vram and ramspeeds are going to be really important. This is because factorio likes faster ram and ryzen cpu:s like faster ram and the gpu is going to use up a lot of the bandwidth. And everything will take more ram than is specified in the minimum requirements too as the gpu needs to store everything in ram instead of its own vram. Basically you need to get the fastest ram you can. And preferably 16Gb or more.

I'm aware of this. I just need to be able to play Factorio and Terraria on this PC for the time being, and I'll upgrade to a discrete graphics card like the RTX3070 later. Do you think the 3400G would bottleneck an RTX3070 at 4k resolution?

Yes.

[Zarinthal]

generally you can type into youtube "(any game) (any graphics card/IGPU)" and there is almost always a video or 20 showing that setup on that game. I did that for Factorio on Vega 11 and not much came up haha but that's because both games have the ability to run on potatoes, even though you can enhance them quite a bit.

lots of people on reddit say you can play terraria and factorio on a 2400g, so the 3400g should be fine, but thewy don;t say much of map size pr performance, and that CPU will bottleneck on an RTX 3070 almost every game if the settings are high enough, so I suggest saving up for a Ryzen 5 with more cores, a very cheap discreet GPU (like $40-$80 will absolutely play factorio and terraria) and straight away get a PSU that can run an RTX card (usually 600-700watts).

This way, the only thing you are replacing is that cheap discreet GPU, and everything else can stay as-is for the RTX. Of course, that is assuming you are willing to wait/spend the extra to go that route.

Of course for option 2 aka your original plan-ish, getting a PSU that can run a 3400G with no discreet GPU is still pretty cheap, for that "game right meow!" goal, and then you only need a new PSU when you get the RTX 3070 the RTX 3070, and then you can decide from there if you need a stronger CPU or if that 3400G is doing well enough.

Either way, I have 2 major suggestions: get a 500 series board instead of 400, as the prices are close at the lower end, and get 2X8GB RAM at 3200Mhz or better. Both of those are fairly cheap future proofing.

[Marteun]

Originally posted by KaszkaManna:

Originally posted by Actual Cancer:

I'm aware of this. I just need to be able to play Factorio and Terraria on this PC for the time being, and I'll upgrade to a discrete graphics card like the RTX3070 later. Do you think the 3400G would bottleneck an RTX3070 at 4k resolution?

Yes.

you can't think of anything better than saying yes?

[Zarinthal]

Originally posted by Marteun:

Originally posted by KaszkaManna:

Yes.

you can't think of anything better than saying yes?

that MAY have had a bit of impact a month ago, but it comes off as a bit self serving at this point, despite being correct

[Mr_Crazy_Manno]

A 3400g will most likely bottleneck a RTX 3070. 4 cores is not much these days, i would go for atleast 6 cores as newer games have gotten better at using more cores.

I would recommend Atleast 16GB in dual channel mode, for best performance and as high speed as you can. It will have the biggest effect while using the IGPU in the 3400G

[Cryptix]

Why don't you want a graphics card?