Power Consumption and Thermal Performance

The power consumption at the wall was measured with a 4K display being driven through the HDMI port. In the graphs below, we compare the idle and load power of the ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U with other low power PCs evaluated before. For load power consumption, we ran the AIDA64 System Stability Test with various stress components, and noted the maximum sustained power consumption at the wall.

Idle Power Consumption

The idle power of 10.45W is a tad too high compared to the Intel NUCs. The peak power consumption is also low, compared to other systems.

Our thermal stress routine starts with the system at idle, followed by four stages of different system loading profiles using the AIDA64 System Stability Test (each of 30 minutes duration). In the first stage, we stress the CPU, caches and RAM. In the second stage, we add the GPU to the above list. In the third stage, we stress the GPU standalone. In the final stage, we stress all the system components (including the disks). Beyond this, we leave the unit idle in order to determine how quickly the various temperatures in the system can come back to normal idling range. The various clocks, temperatures and power consumption numbers for the system during the above routine are presented in the graphs below.

ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U System Loading with the AIDA64 System Stability Test

The frequencies stay above the base value (1.8 GHz) advertised. Being actively cooled, the temperature of the package doesn't exceed 95C. The key is the package power - for CPU alone, the steady state is around 15W. With the GPU in the mix, it goes up to around 20W (though instantaneous values go as high as 30W for very short bursts).

ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U System Loading with Prime95 and Furmark

The artificial power virus test of both Prime95 and Furmark results in the package temperature going as high as 100C. According to the official specifications, the maximum permitted temperature of the Ryzen 7 4800U is 105C. The thermal solution is able to keep it below that number, allowing the processor to deliver its advertised performance in a sustained manner.

HTPC Credentials - II Concluding Remarks
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  • Stoinis MO - Thursday, December 3, 2020 - link

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  • deil - Thursday, November 26, 2020 - link

    About ram it depends on how you work, I have 32GB and it daily goes above 24GB used, while browser/slack/spotify/30tabs on ff and few other things that I just never close take ~6GB. (I am on linux, it does use ram way more conservative that windows) When I last time used windows for work it did abuse all 32GB and started to slow down.
    its up to what you do and on 16GB it mostly work, but at least in my case 2-3 times a day I need a bit more, and like once a week 16GB is just not enough.
    as It costs just like 70$ once, and it saves me few minutes daily, I think it paid for itself in my health at least.
  • damianrobertjones - Thursday, November 26, 2020 - link

    Plus there's also SUperfectch that caches various duties. A lot of people forget that.
  • Spunjji - Friday, November 27, 2020 - link

    "...I've had more crashes in a month than in years of Intel/Nvidia systems. I've lost more time to lost work than when I was using Windows 98..."

    I'm calling bullshit on that. My understanding is that the APU driver situation isn't as good as discrete components (which I'm currently running without issue), but I can't believe that it's *worse than Windows 98*.
  • philehidiot - Monday, November 30, 2020 - link

    Bullshit? Perhaps because you've just made assumptions about the set up? Read properly before accusing people of lying.

    Thanks.
  • at_clucks - Thursday, December 3, 2020 - link

    I guess they were saying it's PEBKAC. Which it is. Having even 2 or 3 crashes in a month is already too much to be caused by AMD, their hardware, or their drivers, or else tens or hundreds of thousands of people would be affected and you'd hear about it. Not saying their drivers are perfect but if your PC is constantly crashing *you* have a problem. You probably don;t really know what's happening in there but you heard a rumor...

    I lost count of how many acquaintances had rootkit encrusted PCs, full of every garbage known to man after clicking on everything that fell under their mouse, everything running with hacks, cracks, and other torrented junk, from the OS image to the "security" software. They had no idea what's going on but all had some form of (ridiculous) theory based of stuff they heard from someone, or read on the internet but probably neither them nor their source understood it.

    Fix your stuff, stop blaming the tools. Also having at least a decent meal before drinking helps.
  • Radhouse - Friday, November 27, 2020 - link

    Interesting experience. I've been using an ASUS PN50 R5 4500 system for 2 months as my entertainment computer without a single crash, and typically keep 25+ web pages open in Chrome. It is configured with 32 GB 3200 MHz Crucial memory and an 500 GB EV0 970 Plus SSD running Windows 10 Pro 20H2. (Initially installed V 2004) In addition to Chrome, I'm a heavy user of the following Apps; Netflix, Amazon, & Hulu.

    I'm not sure where the source of your problems, but I've been also running a PN50 R3 system as a workstation without any issues.
  • Targon - Friday, November 27, 2020 - link

    No problem with AMD drivers for my X370 based motherboard, Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, or Vega64 reference model video card(yes, I need a 6800X or 6900X, just waiting on the 6900X to be released at this point). People who claim to have this or that problem may be encountering problems between components that in turn cause their issues with Radeon cards. Looking for what is in common between people who have a problem and then looking at those without problems to see what the differences are is something that most people don't seem to understand.

    QA process: Reproduce problem, identify source of problem, figure out workaround or fix for the problem.
  • philehidiot - Monday, November 30, 2020 - link

    Your set up is very close to mine. 3900x, vega64, but I'm on the x570 mobo.

    What is very strange is these crashes are happening at low load (as is when working). No crashes during games or when I'm hammering it. It is unlikely to be a dodgy background application as it's a fairly new install and I routinely avoid installing bloat, etc. Only stuff required to make it go is enabled on start up to this end.

    I'm on the verge of shifting to Linux but for one major issue - I have a decent sound card which is not supported in Linux. I'm unwilling to unplug and ditch a few hundred quid worth of kit. Hopeful Linux drivers will emerge but creative aren't exactly helpful.
  • damianrobertjones - Monday, November 30, 2020 - link

    Shift. Do it. Go to linux. You might then appreciate Windows a little more. Maybe. Both platforms have issues.

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