Quirky Ryzen 3200G - FYI for new builds

[rving]

Planned to invest in a Ryzen build, and started off with a MOBO because it was on sale - the Asus Prime B450 MK.

 

Added on RAM, (the store guy was just changing the prices on his website that day, and it's now 30% higher vs 10 days ago here in India!) got lucky with prices so 16GB of 3000Mhz Vengeance LPX, got a great deal on Silicon Power 1 TB NVMe SSD, and the 3200G as an interim solution until I get a 5700XT in my budget next month and a higher end Ryzen the month after.

 

The stupid thing wouldn't start up. I know I was rusty on PC building, but not this much. The MOBO speaker would give a POST beep too, but no display.

 

After some tough luck finding someone in the vicinity with an older Ryzen, gave up and had to travel 20km away, spend 4 hrs, and 30 dollars worth of bargaining wasted, to get the BIOS updated.

 

This post is for other hapless souls like me trying to make the 3200G/3400G work on previous gen MOBOs.

 

And I do not know whether it was because I used a VGA-HDMI adapter or whether AMD has stupid software but the screen wouldn't fill my TV aspect ratio nor would give resolution beyond 1080p, which looked horrible (4K TV, either direct attached or through an XBOX One S)

 

Whereas the puny GT710 I have as backup and benched lower scores gave a great QHD output! (No serious loads, just Windows) and covered the entire screen.

 

AMD software was a pain to install, the Nvidia one was on the other hand a pain to get rid off - it kept enabling itself/reinstalling drivers when I was trying to get the Radeon graphics up and running. I had to remove the GT710 from the board for the AMD software to finally meekly succeed in installing itself.

 

Had to revert back to the GT710 for the HDMI output, and am now having an idle Graphics component on the APU.

 

Long story short - 

No updated BIOS = Blank screen

Connecting to TV(high resolution & wide aspect ratio) = maybe get a MOBO with HDMI out (50:50 chance I'm right - others could chime in)

No NVIDIA cards on APU system - NVIDIA driver monster will make your Vega 8 hide under the bed.

 

Otherwise, the experience is great - considering I'm updating from a 2012 dual core mid level Intel PC. Can't wait for my 5700XT next week and Ryzen 7/9 the month after!

[Jurrunio]

11 minutes ago, rving said:

Can't wait for my 5700XT next week and Ryzen 7/9 the month after!

I hope they dont get to sit in the same board

[rving]

Why not?

[5x5]

You'll be fine with a 3700X as long as you don't OC.

[SenioRR]

The maximum resolution supported by VGA is 2048x1536 so the motherboard tried to fill your 4K TV but it simply can't because of the VGA limitations.

A motherboard with HDMI would work just fine.

4 minutes ago, rving said:

Why not?

I doubt it can handle the Ryzen 9 3900x from the looks of the VRMs.

If you want a list of motherboard that are ready for the 3900x as well as Ryzen 3000 series in general, I recommend you check out this video from Buildzoid:

 

[rving]

Thanks a lot! Probably helped me in avoiding another costly mistake