Do the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G processors have enough gaming power to make you forget about your video card?

We love PCs equipped with the latest and greatest components, running games at maximum FPS in 4K resolution, but what do you do when your gaming budget doesn’t exceed the price of a second-hand flagship phone?

AMD answers the question and caters to budget gamers and casual gamers with the launch of the 8000G Series. This series could represent a solution for those who want to enjoy gaming experiences without investing considerable sums in hardware equipment. We tested the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G processors, and our conclusions are quite reserved.

Technical specifications of the 8000 series processors

Ladies and gentlemen, in order of the numbers on the shirt, the new players in the red team are: Ryzen 7 8700G (octa-core) and Ryzen 5 8600G (hexa-core), recommended for gaming in 1080p at an affordable price, alongside Ryzen 5 8500G (hexa-core) and Ryzen 5 8300G (quad-core), suitable for less demanding desktop, compact or home PCs.

Model	Ryzen 3 8300G	Ryzen 5 8500G	Ryzen 5 8600G
Cores / execution threads	4 / 8	6 / 12	6 / 12	8/16
Boost Frequency/Base Frequency	4.9GHz / 3.4GHz	5.0GHz / 3.5GHz	5.0GHz / 4.3GHz
Total Cache	12MB	22MB	22MB	24MB
TDP	65W	65W	65W	65W
NPU	N/A	N/A	Yes	Yes

We will not discuss the 8500G and 8300G, because they will be very difficult to find here. On the other hand, AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, which can be found in mioritic stores (at the time of this article) for 1700 and 1200 lei, respectively, bring to the fore the company’s latest Zen 4 and RDNA 3 architectures, marking their first upgrade of APU processors (Accelerated Processing Unit) from 2021, when they launched the famous 5000G series. Although APUs are not meant to rival or replace dedicated graphics cards, they provide sufficient performance through the integrated GPU.

The flagship of the 8000G series, i.e. Ryzen 7 8700G, features 8 cores, 16 threads, 24 MB of cache and Radeon 780M graphics subsystem, all with a TDP of only 65W. Right behind it, but not to be neglected, is the Ryzen 5 8600G, which offers 6 cores, 12 threads, 22 MB of cache memory and Radeon 760M graphics.

CPU model	Ryzen 5 8600G	Ryzen 7 8700G
iGPU model	Radeon 760M	Radeon 780M
Architecture	rDNA 3	rDNA 3
Pipelines	512	768
TMUs	32	48
ROPs	16	32
Raytracing kernels	8	12
iGPU frequency	1500 – 2800 (Boost) MHz	1500 – 3000 (Boost) MHz
Power Consumption	54W (35 – 54W TGP)
Monitors	maximum 4, HDMI 2.1, DP 2.1	maximum 4, HDMI 2.1, Dp 2.1

The chip’s Radeon 780M integrated graphics processor is the most powerful chip of its kind ever put on an APU, boasting 12 compute units (CUs). The elements of the graphics subsystem are based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, originally used in the Radeon 7000 series of graphics cards. On the Ryzen 7 8700G, the Radeon 780M integrated graphics processor operates at a frequency of 2.9GHz, being 100MHz faster than the identical Radeon 780M solution present in the laptop variant on the Ryzen 9 7940H.

Benchmark results of the Ryzen 8700G and 8600G processors

Okay, so beyond the technical specs, what can these new processors from AMD do? To find out the answer to that question, I ran some CPU, GPU tests and played a bit of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Forza Horizon. We only had the two powerful processors in the range, Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G. Let’s start with the results in the synthetic tests:

Score (points)	Ryzen 5 8600G	Ryzen 7 8700G	Ryzen 5 7600	Ryzen 7 7700
Cinebench R23 MC	12872	17239	14288	18658
Cinebench R23 SC	1675	1763	1844	1917

In Cinebench we can best see where the two processors from the 8000 series are placed. Thus, the Ryzen 7 8700G is a bit below the Ryzen 7 7700 (the difference being 7-8%) and the Ryzen 5 8600G is a bit weaker than the Ryzen 7600 (by 10%, to be exact). Where do these differences come from? Simple, the 7000 series has more cache memory. Let’s also quickly look at the graphics subsystem, in synthetic tests:

Score (points)	AMD Ryzen 5 8600G	AMD Ryzen 7 8700G	AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Superposition 4K Optimized	1995	2289	578
3DMark Time Spy	3016	3602	858
Graphics	2704	3208	736
CPU	8716	11907	14193
3DMark Fire Strike	7179	8176	2369
Graphics	7789	8865	2519
Physics	20152	24389	44314
Combined	2812	3169	827

Here I’ve tabulated the results from a Ryzen 7950X to give you an idea of ​​what an APU iGPU versus a normal CPU iGPU actually means. The differences are massive, with even the 8600G being 3-4 times more powerful than the Radeon included in the 7950X.

But let’s be honest, no one is waiting to see how they do in synthetic tests. We all want to see how they behave on the “playground”, more precisely in gaming. As I said earlier, I tested the two processors in Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza Horizon, GTA V and DOTA 2, with 1080p resolution and Low settings selected in all games. I chose games that are easier to run on low-end systems, because it’s clear that a Cyberpunk 2077 would be a slide show on this class of GPUs.

Average number of frames per second	AMD Ryzen 5 8600G
RDR2 1080p low	47.09	48.48
Forza Horizon 1080p low	54	71
DOTA 2 1080p low	175	187
GTA V 1080p low	124	130

The results are excellent, if you ask me. E-sports titles can be played quietly on the 8600G and 8700G, which we cannot say about other APUs. Red Dead Redemption 2 brings us down a bit, with neither processor managing to get close to 60FPS here. But let’s not forget that we’re talking about the integrated GPU here. As a comparison, the 7950X managed an amazing 32 FPS in Forza Horizon:

For a performance boost, you can play with the PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) function offered by AMD, but I recommend a more powerful cooler than the standard one, if you want to overclock the CPU (and GPU), which is already unlocked from the factory . And that’s because the temperatures in full load look like this: 79 degrees for the 8600G and 91 degrees for the 8700G. However, I have two caveats here: one hand, you won’t reach these temperatures in normal operation and two hand, you should only be concerned if the temperatures go over 95 degrees, which they don’t.

Who are these processors for, though?

So far, it sounds like a budget gaming processor, but we have some problems here. In order to use Ryzen 7x00G, an AM5 socket motherboard and DDR5 RAM are required, which are available at a fairly high price in the market. Yes, this setup is “future proof” and a great choice, especially if you’re building your PC from scratch and will later upgrade to a dedicated video card, but the low-budget part kind of flies in the face. window.

It should be taken into account that the previous series, i.e. Ryzen 5000G, continues to be an important player in the low-budget segment, especially after the launch of the new range. The Ryzen 7 5700G can be found at a price of 900 lei, an extremely attractive offer considering the affordable prices of AMD AM4 motherboards and DDR4 memory. Priced even lower, the Ryzen 5 5600G is available for just 650 lei, and all things considered, it remains an excellent choice for very low-budget users who want to perform basic tasks and enjoy gaming at 720p resolution, without the need to purchase a dedicated graphics card.

However, the 5000 series APUs are very far from the performance of the 8000 series. If for the 8000 series, gaming at 1080p is perfectly feasible, for the 5000 series you often have to go down to 720p. Of course, this is not the case with e-sports titles, but anyway, the differences are huge.

Another alternative for the 8000 series would be the combination of a low-end processor (14100f for example) and an equally low-end video card (NVIDIA’s GTX1650 for example). However, this solution does not have many advantages: the respective kit will be larger in size, will consume more and a possible upgrade to the video card will leave you with a not so great processor.

Overall, the Ryzen 7 8700G offers solid performance for its price, but the problem with the entire 8000 series is that it’s too expensive for users on a tight budget and too weak for more serious gaming. This problem has existed since the first APUs came out, but the 8000 series will not be the paradigm shifter. However, we are approaching the tipping point, and the 8700G is the best example of that.

Both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G can be options for gamers who haven’t budgeted for a video card or for users who want to build a more affordable or ultra-compact system. I think that in fact this is where most of the clientele for these processors will be: for mini-ITX, SFF (small form factor) office or gaming systems.