AMD Radeon Vega 11

AMD Radeon Vega 11
AMD Radeon Vega 11 graphics card review

AMD Radeon Vega 11: Tests, FPS in Games, and Should You Buy It Today

AMD Radeon Vega 11 is the integrated graphics solution for the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 5 3400G processors, which was one of the fastest iGPUs of its generation. It features 11 compute units and 704 stream processors, allowing many games to run without a discrete graphics card. Today, Vega 11 is already weak for modern AAA titles, but it still appears in inexpensive used PCs and remains suitable for older games, less demanding online projects, and everyday tasks.

The main nuance of Vega 11 is its strong dependence on RAM. It has no dedicated video memory, so DDR4 frequency and especially dual-channel mode directly impact performance and FPS.

In Which Processors and Computers Is Radeon Vega 11 Found

The main desktop processors featuring Vega 11 are the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 5 3400G. The graphics has also appeared in pre-built computers from major manufacturers.

Device Processor Integrated Graphics
Lenovo IdeaCentre 510A-15ARR Ryzen 5 2400G / 3400G Radeon RX Vega 11
HP Pavilion 590-p0044 Ryzen 5 2400G Radeon Vega 11
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 15 Ryzen 7 3780U Radeon RX Vega 11 Microsoft Surface Edition

Lenovo officially released the IdeaCentre 510A-15ARR with both the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 5 3400G. The HP Pavilion 590-p0044 also came with the Ryzen 5 2400G, while the Surface Laptop 3 features a special mobile Ryzen 7 3780U with Vega 11.

The Surface Laptop 3 cannot be directly compared to desktop systems. The Ryzen 7 3780U is designed for significantly lower power consumption, so the mobile Vega 11 operates under different conditions, despite having the same number of compute units.

Radeon Vega 11 Tests in 3DMark: What Score to Consider Normal

Even among desktop Ryzen APUs, Vega 11 results vary significantly. A good example is the 3DMark Time Spy Graphics Score, which is less dependent on the performance of the CPU itself than the overall Time Spy score.

Test System APU RAM Time Spy Graphics
HP OEM, board 83E9 Ryzen 5 2400G 16 GB DDR4-2924 881
ASRock B450M Pro4 Ryzen 5 3400G 16 GB DDR4-3200 1 278
ASUS Prime B450M-A Ryzen 5 3400G 32 GB DDR4-2930 1 307

These are individual real user results, not a lab comparison with identical settings. Therefore, the differences between them cannot be perceived as a precise comparison between the Ryzen 5 2400G and 3400G. The table rather shows the characteristic variance of Vega 11 in different systems.

With HP using the Ryzen 5 2400G, the graphics score came to 881 points, while the two systems with the Ryzen 5 3400G are around 1280-1310 points. The final outcome is influenced not only by the APU itself but also by the memory frequency, mode, cooling, BIOS settings, and background Windows features.

Why Dual-Channel Memory Significantly Accelerates Radeon Vega 11

For a discrete graphics card, system RAM plays a comparatively minor role, but for Vega 11, the situation is different. The GPU uses regular DDR4 alongside the processor and depends on its bandwidth.

Thus, a configuration of 1 × 8 GB is significantly worse for Vega 11 than 2 × 4 or 2 × 8 GB at comparable frequencies. Notebookcheck also notes the advantage of fast dual-channel DDR4 for this graphics solution.

If an old computer with Vega 11 operates with only one memory stick, installing a second compatible module could yield a greater performance boost in games than a slight overclock of the GPU. When buying a used PC, this is one of the first parameters to check.

AMD Radeon Vega 11 in Games: How Much FPS Does It Deliver

Old gaming benchmarks clearly show what level of load Vega 11 was designed to handle.

Game Settings Average FPS
Apex Legends 1280×720, Low 64.6
Apex Legends 1920×1080, Medium 32.6
F1 2019 1920×1080, Medium 43
Forza Horizon 4 1920×1080, Medium 38
Metro Exodus 1280×720, Low 26

Apex Legends on the Ryzen 5 2400G showed around 65 FPS at 720p and minimum settings, but in Full HD at Medium, the result dropped to about 33 FPS. In F1 2019 and Forza Horizon 4, Vega 11 could still maintain around 40 FPS at 1080p and medium quality.

Metro Exodus already shows the GPU's limits: even at 1280×720 and low settings, the result was about 26 FPS, while in Full HD at Medium, it dropped to just 11 FPS.

These figures relate to old versions of games and drivers and should not be taken as a performance forecast for modern releases. In terms of new heavy games, Vega 11 no longer provides acceptable FPS even after significant settings downgrades.

Radeon Vega 11 vs Vega 8: Which Integrated Graphics Is Faster

Vega 11 features 11 compute units compared to the eight found in the commonly used versions of Vega 8 from the same generation. With the same architecture and comparable memory, Vega 11 is generally faster, although the actual difference heavily depends on the specific APU, graphics core frequency, and DDR4.

The name “Vega 11” does not mean 11 GB of video memory. The number refers to the count of compute units. The GPU has no separate VRAM-it reserves a portion of the computer's RAM.

Should You Buy a PC with Radeon Vega 11 Today

If you already own a computer with Vega 11, it can still be used for browsing, video, office applications, emulators, and older games, especially if at least 16 GB of memory is installed in dual-channel mode.

However, actively looking for a system with the Ryzen 5 2400G or Ryzen 5 3400G for the sake of Vega 11 is not advisable anymore. Modern integrated Radeon graphics are significantly faster, and older OEM computers may further limit upgrades to the power supply, memory, or graphics card.

Vega 11 should now be regarded as a bonus of an older Ryzen APU rather than a reason to purchase such a system. If a PC is being sold at a really low price and a discrete graphics card is not needed, it can still perform basic tasks and run games of its generation. For a modern gaming PC, Vega 11's performance is already insufficient.

Basic

Label Name
AMD
Platform
Integrated
Launch Date
September 2019
Model Name
Radeon Vega 11
Generation
Picasso
Base Clock
300MHz
Boost Clock
1400MHz
Bus Interface
IGP
Transistors
4,940 million
Compute Units
11
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
44
Foundry
GlobalFoundries
Process Size
14 nm
Architecture
GCN 5.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
System Shared
Memory Type
System Shared
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
System Shared
Memory Clock
SystemShared
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
System Dependent

Display and Media

Outputs
No outputs

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
11.20 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
61.60 GTexel/s
FP16 (half)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.
3.942 TFLOPS
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
123.2 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
2.01 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
704
TDP
15W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.2
OpenCL Version
2.1
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (12_1)
Power Connectors
None
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
8
Shader Model
6.4

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
2.01 TFLOPS
Blender
Score
84

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
2.132 +6.1%
1.976 -1.7%
1.932 -3.9%
Blender
1408.56 +1576.9%
802 +854.8%
391 +365.5%
191.62 +128.1%