5600X > 5600G - Upgrade?

[Giggling3999]

Hi

I am thinking of upgrading my 5600X > 5600G due to it having a lower power usage. This appears to come with a few tradeoffs. One being the PCIe lanes (I think I would get the same) and them being PCIe gen 3 rather than 4. I am willing to take the hit on that though, as gen 3 is still pretty fast for my SSDs.

One thing that would aid me in this decision is if it is possible to pass through the graphics portion of the processor through to a VM? This is something I do on another machine currently so it would definitely be a benefit.

I have found conflicting answers to this, online

 

[leesteken]

One being the PCIe lanes (I think I would get the same)

Yes but the integrated graphics gets 8 of them, unfortunately. Unless you have an X570(S) motherboard, you can only passthrough one x16 slot (with the other 8 lanes) and one M.2 (at most) with 4 lanes.

One thing that would aid me in this decision is if it is possible to pass through the graphics portion of the processor through to a VM? This is something I do on another machine currently so it would definitely be a benefit.

Passthrough of integrated graphics is always more problematic and you will need to "break" the IOMMU group isolation (which is a security risk). Please check beforehand if someone else (recently) succeeded with passthrough of the exact same APU, if you want to avoid unhappy surprises. But I guess that's why you are posting there.

 

[Giggling3999]

I also read some conflicting info on the pcie lanes. I have a x570 motherboard, but I have quite a few pcie devices. So it may not be worth it. A hyper card which breaks out a x16 into 4 m.2 & a LAN card.

This is why I am asking the question.

If it is also a struggle to get the integrated passed through; it may be more hassle than it is worth (it's already sounding like it is)

 

[leesteken]

I also read some conflicting info on the pcie lanes.

Ryzen AM4 has 24 lanes, 16 (or 2 times 8) for one or two PCIe slots (one, with 8 lanes, s taken by integrated graphics if present) and 4 for M.2 and 4 for the motherboard chipset (which is shared between all motherboard devices and other PCIe and M.2 slots).

I have a x570 motherboard, but I have quite a few pcie devices.

That's the most flexible and support passthrough the best as not all motherboard devices (and additional slots) are in one big IOMMU group. But it is the most power hungry chipset (so I did not expect you to have it).

So it may not be worth it. A hyper card which breaks out a x16 into 4 m.2 & a LAN card.

You won't have a PCIe slot with 16 lanes because of the integrated graphics. It will only provide 8 PCIe lanes and maybe you get 2 M.2 from that card, or 4 but they share the bandwidth or maybe it does not work at all. It really depends whether you need to bifurcate the PCIe slot in the mottherboard BIOS (to x4x4x4x4) and whether the card has additional PCIe multiplexers (which might not support passthrough).

This is why I am asking the question.

Good question and smart to check it out before, but it depends on the card.

If it is also a struggle to get the integrated passed through; it may be more hassle than it is worth (it's already sounding like it is)

I noticed that 5600X and 5600G both thave a 65W TDP. Do you expect to get some savings just because you don't need an addition GPU? Yes, passthrough might be a hassle. Maybe you could save (more) power by a simpler/cheaper AM4 motherboard instead?

 

[Giggling3999]

So because the 5600G is monolithic and is on a newer process node, it consumes quite a bit less power.

It's a series of trade offs at this point.

I have NAS type VMs with ZFS, so PCIe and storage is definitely good to have at a decent speed. I wasn't fully sure if the integrated graphics would indeed take up some of those lanes. Add on top the difficulty in passing through the iGPU and it's not looking great, to save some power