Update 02/23/24 Due to a highlighted issue with the Skin Temperature-Aware Power Management (STAPM), we retested the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G with the latest firmware, which reflects the removal of the STAPM limitations. In the interest of full disclosure, we have kept the results from our initial review and opted to add the latest results to show any performance gains and/or regressions. We also plan to add more chips to the data in the coming days, including the Ryzen 7 7700, and more results in our integrated graphics testing with some Intel chips, including the Core i5-14600K and i5-12600K.

One of the most desired desktop chips designed for low-cost systems has been AMD's APUs, or Accelerated Processing Units. The last time we saw AMD launch a series of APUs for desktops was back in 2021, with the release of their Cezanne-based Ryzen 5000G series, which combined Zen 3 cores with Radeon Vega-based integrated graphics. During CES 2024, AMD announced the successor to Cezanne, with new Phoenix-based APUs, aptly named the Ryzen 8000G series.

The latest Ryzen 8000G series is based on their mobile-focused Phoenix silicon, and has been refitted for AMD's AM5 desktop platform. Designed to give users and gamers on a budget a pathway to build a capable-yet-cheaper system without the requirement of a costly discrete graphics card hanging over their head, the Ryzen 8000G series consists of three retail SKUs, ranging from an entry-level Phoenix 2-based Zen 4 and Zen 4c hybrid chip, all the way to a full Zen 4 8C/16T model with AMD's latest mobile RDNA3 integrated graphics.

The Ryzen 7 8700G with 8C/16T, 16 MB of L3 cache, and AMD's Radeon 780M graphics are sitting at the top of the pile. The other chip we're taking a look at today is the middle-of-the-road AMD Ryzen 5 8600G, which has a 6C/12T configuration with fully-fledged mobile Zen 4 cores, with a third option limited to just OEMs currently, with four cores, including one full Zen 4 core and three smaller and more efficient Zen 4c cores.

The other notable inclusion of AMD's Ryzen 8000G series is it brings their Ryzen AI NPU into the desktop market for the first time. It is purposely built for efficiently executing local AI inferencing workloads, using a fraction of the power and resources that the CPU or GPU cores would otherwise take.

Much of the onus on the capability of AMD's Ryzen 8000G series will be how much of an impact the switch to Zen 4 and RDNA3 integrated graphics commands over the Ryzen 5000G series with Zen 3 and Vega, which is already three years old at this point. The other element is how the mobile-based Phoenix Zen 4 cores compare to the full-fat Raphael Zen 4 cores. In our review and analysis of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G APUs, we aim to find out.

AMD Ryzen 8000G Series: Zen 4 APUs w/ RDNA3 Graphics

As AMD strides into 2024, the spotlight is on artificial intelligence technology. The Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G models are both equipped with the embedded Ryzen AI NPU, enhancing on-chip AI inferencing capabilities. Consistent with AMD's approach in recent generations, the Ryzen 8000G series APUs are not built from entirely new silicon. Instead, they use AMD's existing monolithic "Phoenix" family of dies, which are already in use in the mobile market as the Ryzen Mobile 7000/8000 series. Both Phoenix (1) and its low-cost compatriot, Phoenix 2, are being drawn in by AMD for desktop use with the Ryzen 8000G series.

Targeting budget-conscious gamers and entry-level users, the Ryzen 8000G series amalgamates key features from the Ryzen 7000 desktop series and the Ryzen 8000 mobile series. Notably, each of the four models in the Ryzen 8000G series maintains a TDP of 65 watts. This is slightly higher than their mobile counterparts but offers more power headroom on desktops, especially useful for hitting (and sustaining) higher clockspeeds on things like the Radeon RDNA3-based graphics block.

Similar to its predecessors, including the previous Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5700G, Ryzen 5 5600G, and Ryzen 3 5300G, the latest Zen 4 Ryzen 8000G series of APUs from AMD continues to provide the dual advantages of a unified, mobile-oriented die architecture while maintaining a strong presence in the entry-level desktop market.

Shifting focus to their intended audience, AMD offers the assurance of 'ready to game out of the box at 1080p' performance levels. 1080p remains the most common resolution among gamers by far, as indicated by the latest Steam Hardware Survey. However, it's important to note that these chips are not tailored for high-end AAA gaming at 1080p. Users looking to play more graphically demanding games should be prepared to adjust the quality settings accordingly or opt to purchase a discrete graphics card – though if you're planning on using a discrete card from the start, you may want to look at AMD's traditional CPUs.

AMD Ryzen 8000G vs. Ryzen 5000G Series (Desktop) Zen 3 vs Zen 4 APUs (65 W)
AnandTech	Cores	Base Freq	Turbo Freq	GPU	GPU Freq	Ryzen AI (NPU)	L3 Cache (MB)	TDP	MSRP
Ryzen 7
Ryzen 7 8700G	8x Z4	4200	5100	R780M 12 CUs	2900	Y	16	65W	$329
Ryzen 7 5700G	8x Z3	3800	4600	Vega 8 8 CUs	2000	N	16	65W	$359 ($170 at Amazon)
Ryzen 5
Ryzen 5 8600G	6x Z4	4300	5000	R760M 8 CUs	2800	Y	16	65W	$229
Ryzen 5 8500G	2x Z4 4x Z4c	3500	Z4: 5000 Z4c: 3700	R740M 4 CUs	2800	N	16	65W	$179
Ryzen 5 5600G	6x Z3	3900	4400	Vega 7 7 CUs	1900	N	16	65W	$259 ($124 at Amazon)
Ryzen 3
Ryzen 3 8300G*	1x Z4 3x Z4c	3400	Z4: 4900 Z4c: 3600	R740M 4 CUs	2600	N	8	65W	OEM Only
Ryzen 3 5300G	4x Z3	4000	4200	Vega 6 6 CUs	1700	N	8	65W	OEM Only
*Currently OEM only (End of Q1 2024, other SKUs available 31/01/24

The Ryzen 7 8700G leads the lineup, rooted in AMD's Phoenix mobile silicon, offering eight Zen 4 cores (8C/16T). This top-tier model offers a turbo frequency of 5.1 GHz and a base frequency of 4.2 GHz, which, compared to the previous Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5700G, offers a 500 MHz bump in turbo clock speeds alone, as well as architectural advancements brought about by Zen 4.

As a true APU on AMD's AM5 desktop platform, it integrates Radeon 780M graphics based on the RDNA3 architecture, featuring advanced capabilities like Hyper-RX and Fluid Motion Frames (frame interpolation). The Radeon 780M is equipped with 12 CUs and 768 shader units (1536 ALUs), operating at a clock speed of 2.9 GHz.

Meanwhile, AMD rightly claims, the Ryzen 8000G series, with the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, are the first desktop processors on the market to come with a dedicated AI engine, namely Ryzen AI. On paper, the Ryzen 7 8700G is a powerhouse for on-chip AI inferencing, with AMD offering software developers an NPU, CPU, and GPU for AI inferencing, depending on their use case and performance needs.

The Ryzen 5 8600G is positioned just below the 8700G and features six Zen 4 cores (6C/12T), reaching a maximum turbo frequency of 5.0 GHz and a base frequency of 4.3 GHz. It also houses the Radeon 760M RDNA3 integrated graphics with 8 CUs and 512 shader units clocking at 2.8 GHz. Like the Ryzen 7 8700G, the 8600G model incorporates the Ryzen AI NPU engine, a technology AMD acquired through their 2022 Xilinx acquisition, highlighting both model's on-chip AI inferencing capabilities and bringing Ryzen AI directly from their mobile chipset straight to the desktop.

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G screenshot in CPU-Z

Although AMD hasn't sampled us with the Ryzen 5 8500G or the Ryzen 3 8300G, they are built differently than the other two Ryzen 8000G APUs. The Ryzen 5 8500G uses AMD's budget Phoenix 2 die, which blends two Zen 4 cores with four energy-efficient Zen 4c cores. The chip offers a base speed of 3.5GHz, while the big Zen 4 cores can turbo up to 5.0GHz, and the smaller Zen 4c cores have a peak clockspeed of 3.7GHz. This transition to the Phoenix 2 architecture drops the Ryzen AI NPU and scales down the integrated graphics to a 4 CU Radeon 740M with a 2.8GHz peak graphics frequency. Mirroring the mobile Ryzen 5 8540U in several aspects, the 8500G stands out with a higher 65W TDP, which is more adequately suited for AMD's AM5 desktop platform.

Complementing the lineup, the entry-level Ryzen 3 8300G, which is only being sold to system integrators and OEMs, and features a mix of one full Zen 4 core and three Zen 4c cores, with up to 4.9 GHz turbo speeds on the single Zen 4 core. This model also sees a reduction in L3 cache to 8MB, alongside 4MB of L2 cache, balancing its capabilities for basic computing tasks.

AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Ryzen 8000G I/O Configuration
AnandTech	Ryzen 7000 (Raphael)	Ryzen 8000G (Phoenix)	Ryzen 8000G (Phoenix2)
PCIe Lanes (Total)	28 x PCIe 5.0	20 x PCIe 4.0	14 x PCIe 4.0
PCIe Lanes (Usable)	24 x PCIe 5.0	16 x PCIe 4.0	10 x PCIe 4.0
PCIe Configuration	x16/x0 or /x8/x8 NVMe x4/x4	x8/x0 NVMe x4/x4	x4/x0 NVMe x4/x2*
PCIe Lanes (X670/E)	12 x PCIe 4.0
PCIe Lanes (B650/E)	8 x PCIe 4.0
USB4 (40 Gbps)	0	2	2
USB 3.2 G2 (10 Gbps)	4	2	2
USB 3.2 G1 (5 Gbps)	0	0	0
USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)	1	1	1
*Currently waiting for AMD to confirm these specifications to us

Although both the Ryzen 7000 desktop series and the Ryzen 8000G share the same AM5 platform, the way the I/O is configured between the families is different. For the Ryzen 7000 series, the chips have a total of 28 x PCIe 5.0 lanes. Of those, 24 x PCIe 5.0 are usable due to the DMI link between the CPU and the chipset using x4 of these. The Ryzen 8000G series is different in that they omit PCIe Gen 5 lanes and instead opt for PCIe 4.0 lanes, with the Phoenix (8700G/8600G) coming with 20 x PCIe 4.0 lanes, of which x16 are usable between graphics and M.2 storage. This means the Ryzen 7 8700G has a PCIe 4.0 x8 link for a graphics card (not x16), with 8 x PCIe 4.0 lanes for two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 SSDs.

Things get different once again when looking at the Phoenix 2-based CPUs, including the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G, which combine both Zen 4 with the smaller Zen 4c cores. The two Phoenix 2 Ryzen 8000G processors have just 14 x PCIe 4.0 lanes in total, with only 10 x PCIe 4.0 lanes being usable. This means that a graphics card should theoretically support a bandwidth-limited PCIe 4.0 x4 for the graphics, with/or 6 x PCIe 4.0 lanes for an SSD, likely in an x4/x2 configuration. We've contacted AMD to confirm the configuration the Phoenix 2-based silicon is using, but we're still awaiting a reply.

It's also worth noting that motherboard chipset support remains the same, whether that be X670E, X670, B650E, and B650. As the Ryzen 8000G series is newer and is designed for mobile devices such as laptops, they include native support for USB4 connectivity, with two ports supported natively. They do, however, drop support for two out of four of the USB 3.2 G2 ports that are supported on the Ryzen 7000 series.

For users looking to leverage the AMD Radeon RDNA3-based integrated graphics, a motherboard with at least one form of video output is required. The Ryzen 8000G series APUs are supported by all of AMD's AM5 chipsets, including X670E, X670, B650E, B650, and A620. Users looking to use a discrete graphics card can select any AM5 board currently on the market. However, as mentioned, the iGPU requires a video output such as a DisplayPort or HDMI output.

AMD Ryzen 5 8600G screenshot in CPU-Z

Regarding the target audience for AMD's Ryzen 8000G series processors, they are suited to users looking to build a competent system capable of gaming at lower resolutions and offering a good level of compute performance. At the lower end of the PC hardware spectrum, price is a key characteristic, and given that Ryzen 8000G only supports DDR5 memory through the AM5 chipset, we're not seeing the same value we saw with AM4.

This brings the overall value into question, with the top SKU, the Ryzen 7 8700G, coming with an MSRP of $329, which puts it $30 cheaper than the previous Ryzen 7 5700G ($359) at launch. The Ryzen 7 5700G is currently $170 at Amazon (at the time of writing), while the Ryzen 5 5600G costs just $124 at Amazon. Tie that into the MSRP of the Ryzen 5 8600G at $229. It's also worth pointing out how much cheaper adopting the AM4 platform with DDR4 memory can be at the entry-level market, and we're looking at some stern competition. The added benefit is that the Ryzen 8000G comes with Ryzen AI and on-chip AI capabilities, along with the jump in generational performance going from Zen 3 to Zen 4, DDR5 vs. DDR4, and of course, the latest RDNA3 mobile graphics too.

Test Bed and Setup: Moving Towards 2024

As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's highest officially-supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the highest official frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance.

While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC-supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

The Current CPU Test Suite

For our AMD Ryzen 8000G series testing, including the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, we are using the following test system. We have also included our test system of AMD's Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600 too:

	AMD Ryzen 8000G	AMD Ryzen 5000G
CPU	Ryzen 7 8700G ($329) 8 Cores, 16 Threads 65 W TDP Ryzen 5 8600G ($229) 6 Cores, 12 Threads 65 W TDP	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G ($359) 8 Cores, 16 Threads 65 W TDP Ryzen 5 5600G ($259) 6 Cores, 12 Threads 65 W TDP
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B650-A Gaming WIFI	ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 2x16 GB DDR5-5200 CL44	G.Skill Trident Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL22
Cooling	MSI MAG Coreliquid E360 360mm AIO	MSI MAG Coreliquid E360 360mm AIO
Storage	SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB PCIe 4.0 x4	SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB PCIe 4.0 x4
Power Supply	MSI A1000G 1000W	MSI A1000G 1000W
GPUs	AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, 31.0.12019	AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, 31.0.12019
Operating Systems	Windows 11 22H2	Windows 11 22H2

Our CPU 2024 Suite: What to Expect

We recently updated the CPU test suite to our 2023, but we've decided to update it again as we head into 2024. Our new suite has a more diverse selection of tests and benchmarks, focusing on real-world instruction sets and newer encoding and decoding libraries such as AV1, VP9, and HVEC. We have also included a range of AI-focused workloads and benchmarks, as we're seeing a direct shift from manufacturers to incorporate some form of on-chip AI processing, such as Ryzen AI and Intel's Meteor Lake AI NPU.

While we've kept some of the more popular ones, such as CineBench R23, we've added Maxon's latest CineBench 2024 benchmark to our test suite. We have also updated to the latest versions (at the time of incorporating the suite) in benchmarks such as Blender, V-Ray, and y-Cruncher.

With our processor reviews, especially on a new generational product such as Intel's Core i9-13900K/14900K, we also include SPEC2017 data to account for any increases (or decreases) to generational single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. It should be noted that per the terms of the SPEC license because our benchmark results are not vetted directly by the SPEC consortium, it is officially classified as an ‘estimated’ score.

We've also carried over some older (but still relevant/enlightening) benchmarks from our CPU 2023 suite. This includes benchmarks such as Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, Dr. Ian Cutress's 3DPMv2 benchmark, Blender 3.3, C-Ray 1.1 rendering, SciMark 2.0, and Primesieve 1.9.0. We've also kept UL's Procyon suite as a more holisitc system-wide test.

As for gaming, we're currently still revamping our CPU 2024 games suite, and as a result, we've tested gaming against our CPU 2023 suite. You can rest assured that our CPU 2024 games suite will be uploaded to the latest titles and will include even more technical aspects in play, such as Ray-Tracing, as this directly impacts CPU performance and frame rates. We will also include a similar methodology in terms of resolutions, including 720p/lower, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K.

The CPU-focused tests featured specifically in this review are as follows:

Power

• Peak Power (y-Cruncher using AVX)
• Power analysis with CineBench R23 MT + F1 2022 @ 1080p/High Preset

Productivity & Web

• UL Procyon Office: Various office-based tasks using various Microsoft Office applications
• UL Procyon Video Editing: Scores video editing performance on various parameters using Adobe Premiere software
• LibreOffice: Time taken to convert 20 documents to PDF
• JetStream 2.1 Benchmark: Measures various levels of web performance within a browser (we use the latest available Chrome)
• Timed Linux Kernel Compilation: How long it takes to compile a Linux build with the standard settings
• Timed PHP Compilation: How long does it take to compile PHP
• MariaDB: A MySQL database benchmark using mysqlslap

Encoding

• WebP2 Image Encode: Encoding benchmark using the WebP2 format
• SVT AV1 Encoding: Encoding using AV1 at both 1080p and 4K, at different settings
• Dav1D AV1 Benchmark: A simple AV1 based benchmark
• SVT-HEVC Encoding: Same as SVT AV1, but with HEVC, at both 1080p and 4K
• SVT-VP9 Encoding: Same as other SVT benchmarks, but using VP9, both at 1080p and 4K
• FFmpeg 6.0 Benchmark: Benchmarking with x264 and x265 using a live scenario
• FLAC Audio Encoding: Benchmarking audio encoding from WAV to FLAC
• 7-Zip: A fabled benchmark we've used before, but updated to the latest version

Rendering

• Blender 3.6: Popular rendering program
• CineBench R23: The fabled Cinema4D Rendering engine
• CineBench 2024: The latest Cinema4D Rendering engine
• V-Ray: Another popular renderer
• POV-Ray: A persistence of ray-tracing benchmark

Science & Simulation

• y-Cruncher 0.8.2.9523: Calculating Pi to 5M digits, both ST and MT
• 3D Particle Movement v2.1 (Non-AVX + AVX2/AVX512)
• Primesieve 1.9.0: This test generates prime numbers using an optimized sieve of Eratosthenes implementation
• Montage Astro Image Mosaic Engine: Benchmarking of an open-sourced mosaic engine via California Institute of Technology
• OpenFOAM: A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) benchmark using drivaerFastback test case to analyze automotive aerodynamics.
• Dwarf Fortress 0.44.12: Fantasy world creation and time passage
• Factorio v1.1.26 Test: A game-based benchmark that is largely consistent for measuring overall CPU and memory performance
• 3D Mark CPU Profile: Benchmark testing just the CPU with multiple levels of thread usage

AI and Inferencing

• ONNX Runtime: A Microsoft developed open source machine learning and inferencing accelerator
• DeepSpeech: A Mozilla based speech-to-text engine benchmark powered by TensorFlow
• TensorFlow 2.12: A TensorFlow benchmark using the deep learning framework
• UL Procyon Windows AI Inference: A benchmark by UL measuring total inference counts across multiple libraries

We are currently using our games from our CPU 2023 suite. Our current games in our CPU testing and those featured in this review are as follows:

• Civilization VI: 480p, 1080p, 1440p and 4K (both avg and 95% percentile)
• World of Tanks: 768p, 1080p, and 4K (both avg and 95% percentile)
• Borderlands 3: 360p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K (both avg and 95th percentile)
• Red Dead Redemption 2: 384p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K (both avg and 95th percentile)
• F1 2022: 720p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K (both avg and 95th percentile)
• Hitman 3: 720p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K (both avg and 95th percentile)
• Total War Warhammer 3: 720p, 1080p, 1440p and 4K (only avg fps measured)

As we have mentioned, we are updating our CPU 2024 suite with new games and the latest titles, and this will come before the next CPU review we publish.

While we normally analyze Core-to-Core latency on new CPUs, the fact that Intel's 14th and 13th Gen are identical architecturally, we opted to omit this from our testing.

Core-to-Core Latency

As the core count of modern CPUs is growing, we are reaching a time when the time to access each core from a different core is no longer a constant. Even before the advent of heterogeneous SoC designs, processors built on large rings or meshes can have different latencies to access the nearest core compared to the furthest core. This rings true especially in multi-socket server environments.

But modern CPUs, even desktop and consumer CPUs, can have variable access latency to get to another core. For example, in the first generation Threadripper CPUs, we had four chips on the package, each with 8 threads, and each with a different core-to-core latency depending on if it was on-die or off-die. This gets more complex with products like Lakefield, which has two different communication buses depending on which core is talking to which.

If you are a regular reader of AnandTech’s CPU reviews, you will recognize our Core-to-Core latency test. It’s a great way to show exactly how groups of cores are laid out on the silicon. This is a custom in-house test, and we know there are competing tests out there, but we feel ours is the most accurate to how quick an access between two cores can happen.

Looking at core-to-core latencies of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G, as this is a monolithic Phoenix die, we can see good inter-core latencies between each of the eight individual Zen 4 cores. Going within the core, we can see solid latencies of 7ns, while things inter-core range between 17 and 21ns, showing that the Ryzen 7 8700G uses a single core cluster of eight cores. 

Similar to what we've seen on previous iterations of Zen 4 and Zen 3, albeit on processors with multiple core complex (CCXs) such as the Ryzen 9 7950 and Ryzen 9 5950X, inter-core latencies are strong and low. In contrast, the Ryzen 7 8700G and other Ryzen 8000G monolithic chips on a single die remove the complications and penalties of connecting through AMD's Infinity Fabric interconnect. The Ryzen 7 8700G uses TSMC's refined 4nm manufacturing process, exactly the same as the Ryzen 7040 mobile, which is coincidentally the exact same design as the 8700G, given that AMD has repurposed Phoenix for use on AMD's AM5 desktop platform. 

The core-to-core latency performance is inherently strong on the Ryzen 7 8700G, with low inter-core latencies. As expected, latency degrades a little going across the entire complex, but certainly not within the range where we would expect these penalties to cause latency issues when cores have to communicate with each other.

CPU Benchmark Performance: Power, Productivity and Web

Our previous sets of ‘office’ benchmarks have often been a mix of science and synthetics, so this time, we wanted to keep our office and productivity section purely based on real-world performance. We've also incorporated our power testing into this section.

The biggest update to our Office-focused tests for 2024 and beyond includes UL's Procyon software, which is the successor to PCMark. Procyon benchmarks office performance using Microsoft Office applications and Adobe Premier Pro's video editing capabilities.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Power

The nature of reporting processor power consumption has become, in part, a bit of a nightmare. Historically the peak power consumption of a processor, as purchased, is given by its Thermal Design Power (TDP, or PL1). For many markets, such as embedded processors, that value of TDP still signifies the peak power consumption. For the processors we test at AnandTech, either desktop, notebook, or enterprise, this is not always the case.

Modern high-performance processors implement a feature called Turbo. This allows, usually for a limited time, a processor to go beyond its rated frequency. Exactly how far the processor goes depends on a few factors, such as the Turbo Power Limit (PL2), whether the peak frequency is hard coded, the thermals, and the power delivery. Turbo can sometimes be very aggressive, allowing power values 2.5x above the rated TDP.

AMD and Intel have different definitions for TDP that are, broadly speaking, applied the same. The difference comes from turbo modes, turbo limits, turbo budgets, and how the processors manage that power balance. These topics are 10000-12000 word articles in their own right, and we’ve got a few articles worth reading on the topic.

• Why Intel Processors Draw More Power Than Expected: TDP and Turbo Explained
• Talking TDP, Turbo and Overclocking: An Interview with Intel Fellow Guy Therien
• Reaching for Turbo: Aligning Perception with AMD’s Frequency Metrics
• Intel’s TDP Shenanigans Hurts Everyone

Using a broad range of processors from top to bottom in our analysis, we can see that both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G APUs pull just under 88 W at full load, which is around 35 W extra than the rated 65 W TDP. This is normal given that AMD and the AM5 platform use another power metric called Package Power Tracking (PPT), which allows more power to the CPU socket. Comparing the Ryzen 8000G series to the Ryzen 5000G series, the Zen 4 models pull around 6% more power at peak loads.

(Click to enlarge)

Looking a little deeper into the power of the Ryzen 7 8700G, we've used both the CineBench R23 Multi-Threaded test and the game F1 2022 at 1080p high settings to gauge their different power requirements. Typically, with a heavier CPU load, such as those employed when rendering, we can see CineBench R23 Mt; we consistently drew around 87 to 88 W of power, which is consistent with our peak values. 

Using F1 2022 to see how power varies between a rendering workload, depending on how intensive the scene was, we observed between 65 W and 82 W, including the Zen 4 cores and the Radeon RNDA3 graphics processor balancing performance between the two entities. As mentioned, this is above the rated 65 W TDP AMD has given this chip, but as we've found over the years, this isn't an exact science, and TDP figures are to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially on desktop platforms.

With power values at full load between 65 W and 88 W, this means that they are easier to cool, with both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G both coming with supplied AMD Wraith stock CPU coolers.

Update 02/01/24: We have investigated reports of Skin Temperature-Aware Power Management (STAPM) issues on the Ryzen 8000G APUs; our findings are below.

With F1 2023 as the game of choice and using the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G APU, we sought to investigate issues relating to STAPM limitations. As shown in the above graph, after 3 minutes of sustained gaming, the overall CPU package power dropped by around 22% from a sustained load of between 83-84 W down to around 65 W. Unfortunately, AMD has left STAPM limitations placed on their mobile chips in place for their ported to desktop Ryzen 8000G series, which poses as limiting power has a negative impact on performance, especially where an APU with integrated graphics is concerned. First reported by Gamers Nexus, AMD did respond to them directly about the issue, which is as follows:

"We found out that STAPM is being incorrectly applied to the desktop parts. It shouldn't be applied to the desktop parts. A future BIOS update should correct this behavior. If nothing else, you caught something that is going to help a lot of [customers], so better to catch it sooner than later."

Update 02/23/24: We have retested the prolonged power performance with the latest firmware, and our results are below.

Using the same game (F1 2023) at the same settings (720p High) with the latest firmware that removes STAPM, we can see that there is no power throttling, which we initially saw from our initial testing. We can see that power is sustained for over 10 minutes of testing, and we saw no drops in package power when gaming for a prolonged period of time. We did test this for much longer, but it would have made the chart unreadable, so we opted to show how power remained the same for 10 minutes. The latest firmware on whatever AM5 motherboard is being used, power, and, ultimately, performance remains consistent with what the Ryzen 7 8700G should have been getting at launch. This is also the same for other Ryzen 8000G APUs, as STAPM has now been completely removed from the firmware by AMD.

Productivity and Web

Across our web and productivity section of the suite, we saw performance where we expected to see it, typically above the Ryzen 5000G but below that of the 'proper' Zen 4 desktop chips. We did see strong performance in LibreOffice, which APUs typically do well in.

Re-benchmarking the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G with AMD and ASUS's latest firmware, which removes the STAPM limitations, we see a mixed bag in our results. In some of the benchmarks, we mostly saw some regression in performance overall. 

CPU Benchmark Performance: Encoding

Another of the interesting elements of modern processors is encoding performance. This covers two main areas: encryption/decryption for secure data transfer and video transcoding from one video format to another.

In the encrypt/decrypt scenario, how data is transferred and by what mechanism is pertinent to on-the-fly encryption of sensitive data - a process by which more modern devices are leaning towards improving software security.

We've updated our list of encoding benchmarks for our 2024 CPU suite to include some of the most relevant and recent codecs, such as AV1, HEVC, and VP9. Not only this, but we have also included FLAC audio encoding as well as WebP2 image encoding into the mix to show not only how the latest processors perform with these codecs but also to show discrepancies in performance throughout the different segments.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

When it comes to encoding performance, as expected, the performance of both the Ryzen 7 8700G and the Ryzen 5 8600G doesn't quite reach the levels of the typical desktop chips. Performance in this area is where we expected it to be, again with the Ryzen 7 8700G beating out the previous Ryzen 7 5700G APU, and the same with the Ryzen 5 8600G and the Ryzen 5 5600G.

With the latest firmware, which removes the STAPM power limitations, we can see that it doesn't really affect the Ryzen 7 8700G in our encoding tests. We do, however see some bumps in performance without STAPM limitations on the Ryzen 5 8600G, although in the vast majority of use cases, the performance is very marginal.

CPU Benchmark Performance: Rendering

Rendering tests, compared to others, are often a little more simple to digest and automate. All the tests put out some sort of score or time, usually in an obtainable way that makes it fairly easy to extract. These tests are some of the most strenuous in our list, due to the highly threaded nature of rendering and ray-tracing, and can draw a lot of power.

If a system is not properly configured to deal with the thermal requirements of the processor, the rendering benchmarks are where it would show most easily as the frequency drops over a sustained period of time. Most benchmarks, in this case, are re-run several times, and the key to this is having an appropriate idle/wait time between benchmarks to allow for temperatures to normalize from the last test.

Some of the notable rendering-focused benchmarks we've included for 2024 include the latest CineBench 2024 benchmark and an update to Blender 3.6 and V-Ray 5.0.2.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Another area where a mobile-based chip ported to a desktop doesn't quite match the bigger desktop chips is in rendering, a quintessential power and multi-threaded scenario where more cores and threads typically equate to higher performance. Both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G beat out the Ryzen 5000G series APUs, although the Ryzen 7 5700G consistently beats the Ryzen 5 8600G as we would expect from having two more cores with four more threads.

In our rendering tests without STAPM limitations, we saw notable gains in performance in Blender 3.6. The performance increase without sustained power loads being limited, we're seeing up to 7.5% better performance across the longer tests, with around 5% more performance in the shorter tests.

CPU Benchmark Performance: Science And Simulation

Our Science section covers all the tests that typically resemble more scientific-based workloads and instruction sets. Simulation and Science have a lot of overlap in the benchmarking world. The benchmarks that fall under Science have a distinct use for the data they output – in our Simulation section, these act more like synthetics but, at some level, are still trying to simulate a given environment.

In the encrypt/decrypt scenario, how data is transferred and by what mechanism is pertinent to on-the-fly encryption of sensitive data - a process by which more modern devices are leaning to for software security.

Adding to our 2024 CPU suite, we've included the Montage Astronomical Image Mosaic Engine (MAIM) benchmark and OpenFOAM 1.2 and retained our gaming simulation benchmarks, including our Dwarf Fortress and Factorio benchmarks.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

In our simulated and science-focused tests, much of the same happens here as we saw in encoding and rendering; bigger cores and more of them make the difference. We did see strong AVX performance, which is a given since Zen 4 supports AVX-512 workloads via two 256-bit channels. We also saw solid performance in y-Cruncher, with the Ryzen 5 8600G beating out the Ryzen 9 7900 in single-threaded performance. This shows that despite using more power-efficient Phoenix dies, Zen 4 on mobile still offers solid single-threaded performance when transitioned over to the desktop.

Testing without STAPM limitations in our Science and Simulation benchmarks and removing the sustained power management limits didn't really make much difference in performance in these tests.

CPU Benchmark Performance: AI and Inferencing

As technology progresses at a breakneck pace, so too do the demands of modern applications and workloads. With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) becoming increasingly intertwined with our daily computational tasks, it's paramount that our reviews evolve in tandem. Recognizing this, we have AI and inferencing benchmarks in our CPU test suite for 2024. 

Traditionally, CPU benchmarks have focused on various tasks, from arithmetic calculations to multimedia processing. However, with AI algorithms now driving features within some applications, from voice recognition to real-time data analysis, it's crucial to understand how modern processors handle these specific workloads. This is where our newly incorporated benchmarks come into play.

As chip makers such as AMD with Ryzen AI and Intel with their Meteor Lake mobile platform feature AI-driven hardware within the silicon, it seems in 2024, and we're going to see many applications using AI-based technologies coming to market.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

A major focal point of AMD's Ryzen 8000G series is the inclusion of the Xilinx-based Ryzen AI NPU. While AI benchmarks and those measuring capabilities using large language models (LLMs) are thin off the ground, none of our benchmarks utilize the NPU itself. Much of the Ryzen AI NPU is based and, as such, is focused on enabling software features such as those generative AI capabilities within Microsoft Studio Effects and software such as Adobe and Davinci.

In ONNX Runtime using the utilized INT8 model, we can see that the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G don't offer world-beating AI performance, but we intend to investigate this more deeply.

Using the latest firmware, which removes the STAPM limitations, we can see that the Ryzen 5 8600G shows the most gains, especially in DeepSpeech 0.6, where we saw a 12% bump in performance. The Ryzen 7 8700G also posted some very impressive gains in the UL Procyon Windows AI Inferencing benchmark, with a 34% jump in performance in our charts, but this could be a case where it underperformed in the MobileNet V3 test in the first place.

iGPU Gaming Performance: 720p And Lower

The reason we test games in CPU reviews at lower resolutions such as 720p and below is simple; titles are more likely to be CPU bound than they are GPU bound at lower resolutions. This means there are more frames for the processor to process as opposed to the graphics card doing the majority of the heavy lifting.

There are some variances where some games will still use graphical power, but not as much CPU grunt at these smaller resolutions, and this is where we can show where CPU limitations lie in terms of gaming.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

The bread and butter of AMD's Ryzen 8000G is in integrated graphics performance, with upgraded RDNA3-based mobile graphics used over AMD's aging Vegas graphics found within the Ryzen 5000G series. Depending on the title at 720p, we can see the combination of Zen 4, and RDNA3 proves much more effective at 720p than Zen 3 and Vega.

In Strange Brigade, we saw a massive 53% uplift in performance when comparing the Ryzen 7 8700G to the Ryzen 5 5700G, with the Ryzen 5 8600G also proving much more suited to gaming at 720p than any other processor with integrated graphics we've tested.

Regarding our retest with the latest firmware, we can see that both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G performance is marginally better at 720p. The issue with gaming benchmarks is that they typically don't represent sustained loads, and we expect these performance figures to be sustained over longer periods of time with STAPM limitations removed.

iGPU Gaming Performance: 1080p

There are limitations with integrated graphics, even those on the latest APUs, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G with Radeon RDNA3-based graphics. That being said, we have tested our new suite of games for 2024 in this review, at least at 1080p on the integrated graphics. As we expand into 2024, we'll be benching all our CPUs on the new titles in our list, including the latest F1 2023, Returnal, the updated Cyberpunk 2077, and the demanding Company of Heroes 3 RTS.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Using the new games in our test suite to compare performance between the Ryzen 8000G and Ryzen 5000G APUs, we can see a stark difference in gaming performance between the two generations of APUs. Firstly, the Ryzen 7 8700G is consistently ahead when using Medium settings at 1080p than the Ryzen 7 5700G, while the Ryzen 8600G is also comfortably ahead of both Ryzen 5000G APUs. 

To add a little variation, we also tested Cyberpunk 2077 with AMD's FidelityFX image quality toolkit and saw fantastic performance. Not only did we see an uplift of around 37% in performance between the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 7 5700G, but with AMD FidelityFX applied, we saw an uplift of over 53%, which is impressive. Of course, not every game or title has FidelityFX, but applying it can certainly improve framerate performance with AMD's Ryzen 8000G series APUs.

Retesting the latest firmware, we can see that the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G performance is marginally better at 1080p, just as we experienced at 720p on the Radeon 700M series integrated graphics. Gaming benchmarks are that they typically don't represent sustained loads, and we expect these performance figures to be sustained over longer periods of time with STAPM limitations removed.

dGPU Gaming Performance: 720p And Lower

The reason we test games in CPU reviews at lower resolutions such as 720p and below is simple; titles are more likely to be CPU bound than they are GPU bound at lower resolutions. This means there are more frames for the processor to process as opposed to the graphics card doing the majority of the heavy lifting.

There are some variances where some games will still use graphical power, but not as much CPU grunt at these smaller resolutions, and this is where we can show where CPU limitations lie in terms of gaming.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

World of Tanks

Borderlands 3

Red Dead Redemption 2

F1 2022

Hitman 3

Total War: Warhammer 3

Looking at performance with a discrete graphics card and at 720p and lower, we start to see the limitations of having a more power-efficient mobile Zen 4 core, as performance doesn't come close to that of the regular and higher-powered desktop processors. While we generally see an uplift in performance going from the Ryzen 8000G to the Ryzen 5000G processors, they don't quite show the raw grunt of the other desktop processors.

With STAPM limitations removed, we see nearly identical performance when testing with a discrete graphics card as we did with STAPM implemented.

dGPU Gaming Performance: 1080p

Moving along, here's a look at a more balanced gaming scenario, running games at 1080p with maximum image quality.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Civilization VI

World of Tanks

Borderlands 3

Red Dead Redemption 2

F1 2022

Hitman 3

Total War: Warhammer 3

At 1080p resolutions, we see the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G in a better light, but they still generally underperform compared to the fully-fledged desktop chips. While we can see that adding a discrete graphics card will improve performance at 1080p resolutions, we would still recommend users opt for a chip such as the Ryzen 5 7600X over the Ryzen 7 8700G if a user plans to buy a graphics card during the system planning stage.

With STAPM limitations removed, we see nearly identical performance when testing with a discrete graphics card as we did with STAPM implemented.

dGPU Gaming Performance: 1440p

In our Ryzen 7000 series review, we saw users commenting about testing games for CPU reviews at 1440p, so we have duly obliged here. Those interested in 1440p performance with minimal image quality – particularly the esports crowd – will be glad to know that we will be testing at this resolution going forward into 2023 and beyond.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL22 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL44 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Civilization VI

Borderlands 3

Red Dead Redemption 2

F1 2022

Hitman 3

Total War: Warhammer 3

At 1440p, performance here depends on how well the game or title is optimized for CPU cores. In games like Total War Warhammer 3 and F1 2022, the Ryzen 8000G APUs paired with a powerful discrete graphics card don't lag behind other chips. In titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Borderlands 3, we can see that this isn't the case, and the AMD Phoneix port to desktop does suffer here. This is not the target market for an APU, so keep that in mind.

With STAPM limitations removed, we see nearly identical performance when testing with a discrete graphics card as we did with STAPM implemented.

dGPU Gaming Performance: 4K

Last, we have our 4K gaming results.

We are using DDR5-5200 memory as per the JEDEC specifications on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, as well as DDR4-3200 on the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G. The same methodology is also used for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series and Intel's 14th, 13th, and 12th Gen processors. Below are the settings we have used for each platform:

• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 8000G
• DDR4-3200 CL22 - Ryzen 5000G
• DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 14th & 13th Gen
• DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
• DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen

Civilization VI

World of Tanks

Borderlands 3

Red Dead Redemption 2

F1 2022

Hitman 3

Total War: Warhammer 3

Lastly, we have discrete gaming performance at 4K resolutions, which is inherently a more GPU-bound resolution than it is CPU. We see much the same thing as we did at 1440p, with Total War Warhammer 3, F1 2022, and Hitman 3 showing beneficial performance to the APUs when paired with a discrete graphics card. Other titles, such as Civilization VI and Borderlands 3, which do require adequate CPU grunt to improve framerates, show where the limitations of the Ryzen 8000G lie. 

With STAPM limitations removed, we see nearly identical performance when testing with a discrete graphics card as we did with STAPM implemented.

Conclusion

Update 02/23/24 Due to a highlighted issue with the Skin Temperature-Aware Power Management (STAPM), we retested the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G with the latest firmware, which reflects the removal of the STAPM limitations. In the interest of full disclosure, we have kept the results from our initial review and opted to add the latest results to show any performance gains and/or regressions. We also plan to add more chips to the data in the coming days, including the Ryzen 7 7700, and more results in our integrated graphics testing with some Intel chips, including the Core i5-14600K and i5-12600K.

As we've touched on over the years, the desktop processor landscape is vast, with many options ranging from entry-level chips to mid-range and flagships such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D. Many of these options require a discrete graphics card, such as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, to provide enough grunt for gaming, as they come with very basic levels of integrated graphics. AMD's Accelerated Processing Units, or APUs as they are more commonly known, bridge that gap between the entry-level and mid-range desktop market with good compute performance and offer gamers on a budget access to gaming capabilities without breaking the bank.

In 2011, AMD unveiled their 'Llano' based on AMD's K10 microarchitecture, the first time AMD had packaged a CPU and GPU onto a single die in a desktop processor. This became the APU, which, compared to today's technologies and advancements in AMD's CPU architecture, is much more potent than it once was. Through the days of Trinity, Richland, and Kaveri all leaving their mark, AMD's Ryzen-based APUs through the Zen architecture and various denominations of it such as Zen 2 and Zen 3, have ultimately paved the way for Zen 4 APUs, namely the Ryzen 8000G series.

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G installed into the ASUS B650-A Gaming WIFI AM5 motherboard

Based on their mobile Phoenix-based architecture, the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G aim to conquer the entry-level desktop market, much like their Zen 3-based counterparts, the Ryzen 5000G series, did so back in 2021. Even today, both the Ryzen 7 5700G (9th) and Ryzen 5 5600G (3rd) feature in the top 10 best-selling CPUs at Amazon and have been a mainstay in this list for well over a year based on their low-cost and high capability in such a small package. While the Ryzen 5 8600G (and the Ryzen 3 8300G) are based on the Phoenix 2 silicon with their amalgamation of full-fat Zen 4 cores and smaller Zen 4c cores, today we're focusing on what is Phoenix mobile repackaged and repurposed for desktop APUs.

So, as we've seen with AMD's mobile ported APUs on desktops over the years, they offer solid levels of gaming performance for a price, especially when combined with the fastest cores AMD offers. Both the Ryzen 7 8700G ($329) and Ryzen 5 8600G feature Zen 4 cores, which are built on the TSMC 4nm FinFET node, precisely the same as their latest Ryzen mobile counterparts; both are Phoenix silicon, except these APUs have been packaged and designed to fit within the AM5 desktop socket.

As part of our analysis of both the Ryzen 7 8700G (8C/16T) and the Ryzen 5 8600G (6C/12), we're going to split things into two main areas: gaming performance, both on the RNDA3 integrated graphics compared to the previous Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000G series APUs, as well as with a discrete graphics card against other desktop chips. The other element we will analyze is the compute performance, as these are effectively lighter and more power-efficient Phoenix Zen 4 (4nm) cores designed for mobile.

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G & Ryzen 5 8600G: Gaming Performance Analysis

First, we will analyze the latest Zen 4 APUs (Ryzen 8000G) compared directly to the Zen 3 APUs (Ryzen 5000G) in gaming performance at 1080p using integrated graphics.

When comparing the Ryzen 8000G APUs to the previous Ryzen 5000G series, we saw a significant uplift in integrated graphics performance, as expected from the jump in graphics architectures (RDNA3 vs Vega). In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p medium, we saw an uplift of around 37% going from the Ryzen 7 5700G to the newer Ryzen 7 8700G in an apples-to-apples comparison. This shows impressive performance gains in both core and iGPU performance compared to the previous generation.

When applying AMD's FidelityFX Super-Resolution (FSR 2.1) on the quality setting in Cyberpunk 2077, we achieved over 50% of the performance compared to the Ryzen 7 5700G, which is impressive. AMD FSR 2.1 is a temporal resolution upscale, allowing the game to render at a lower resolution with the aim of boosting framerates. While there are many iterations of upscale out there, both NVIDIA and AMD feature their own open source implementation of the technology.

Looking at performance in Far Cry 5 at 720p with low settings on the Radeon 700M series integrated graphics, we can see that both the Ryzen 7 8700G (780M) and Ryzen 5 8600G (760M) are around 18% quicker than the previous Ryzen 7 5700G which uses Zen 3 cores and Radeon Vega graphics cores.

We see a similar jump in performance in Grand Theft Auto V at 720p low settings, with gains of around 16% between the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 7 5700G. This shows a marked improvement in integrated graphics performance going from Vega to RDNA3, at least in a mobile-based SoC design such as this. Even though the Ryzen 6 8600G has two fewer Zen 4 cores and 4 RDNA3 CUs less than the 8700G, it still performs remarkably well at 720p, where things are more CPU limited than graphics limited, allowing the Zen 4 cores more headroom, albeit they are mobile Zen 4 cores.

Touching on the mobile Zen 4 cores on the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, we can see a slight variance between these chips and the desktop Raphael-based cores (TSMC 5nm). One major thing that must be highlighted is that the Ryzen 8000G series (Phoenix) is limited to a PCIe 4.0 x8 link to the graphics card slot, whereas other chips tested outside the APUs aren't bandwidth-limited. In the last CPU review with our trusty AMD Radeon RX 7950 XT graphics cards, which are being retired for newer MSI GeForce RTX 4080's (Thanks MSI), we can see in Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p maximum settings the Phoenix cores on the 8700G and 8600G have a slight discrepancy in performance.

While this is expected given the nature of the design between both cores (Phoenix is designed for laptops), there are some variances once things become more GPU-dependent at 1440p and 4K resolutions. However, this depends on whether or not the game is optimized well for CPU cores. As we can see in Borderlands 3 at 4K low settings, the Phoenix-based Zen 4 mobile cores don't do as well as the Raphael desktop cores. Where the GPU is king to performance at higher resolutions, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G are fine, but we suggest pairing a good discrete graphics card with a fully-fledged processor for the best results. After all, APUs are not designed for use with discrete graphics cards, although they can still do so. 

We can see that the Ryzen 7 8700G has a distinct advantage over the previous Ryzen 7 5700G and other chips we've tested in our suite when using the integrated graphics. Adding RDNA3-based graphics from the mobile side proves fruitful for gamers on a budget, and they aren't entirely fussy about having to play a game at a lower resolution. The only issue is that even the latest Ryzen 8000G APUs in relatively new titles still don't allow gamers to use more aggressive and detail-rich settings unless they are willing to suffer below 60 fps frame rates. It's not such an issue at 720p, and in titles with lower graphical demands, such as MOBAs, including League of Legends, 60 fps and above is more than achievable.

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G & Ryzen 5 8600G: Compute Performance Analysis

As we've highlighted numerous times, while both the Ryzen 7000 series for desktops, such as the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Ryzen 8000G series, including the Ryzen 7 8700G, use Zen 4 cores, they aren't quite the same. The Ryzen 8000G series uses the same monolithic die found in AMD's Ryzen 7040 Mobile series and, as such, doesn't have the advantage of a chiplet-based design as seen in the Ryzen 7000 for desktops.

One advantage of a monolithic design and one Ryzen 7040 mobile utilizes is a smaller die through the more refined TSMC 4nm node, which typically draws less power and has better power efficiency as a result. Ultimately, the chiplet-based design for Zen on desktops introduced in Zen 2 offered faster access to the L3 cache, with the I/O wholly separated from the CCX. At the same time, Zen 3 took things further with a unified Core Complex Die (CCD), which boosted gaming performance, among other things.

Taking the chiplet on desktop (Raphael Zen 4) versus the monolithic on mobile (Phoenix Zen 4) comparison into the equation, even with a higher 65 W TDP compared to what the Ryzen 7040 mobile series has on offer, we saw a consistent drop in compute performance between the two chip types. As we can see in Blender 3.6 using the Pabellon Barcelona test, the Ryzen 7 8700G with 8C/16T has a drop of around 20% in performance compared to the fully desktop Raphael-based Ryzen 7 7800X3D. While not too much of an issue when you consider the architectural differences between the chips themselves, it's worth pointing out that Raphael is a better core for tasks such as rendering than Phoenix.

Update: 02/23/24 - We have included our results testing the latest firmware without STAPM implemented, so here is some extended analysis.

As we can see in the Blender 3.6 Pabellon Barcelona test, we saw an increase of around 7.5% on the Ryzen 7 8700G compared to the previous firmware. This is a nice increase in performance, but the key areas where we saw most of the performance gains without STAPM are the benchmarks that took the longest to run. This is because AMD forgot to remove STAPM limitations, which is a Ryzen Mobile feature designed to throttle and constrict power based on specific thermal parameters from sensors integrated into the chassis and behind the keyboard, etc. With it removed, we do see gains of between 5 and 7.5% in our rendering benchmarks, but in tasks such as encoding and office-based applications, we actually saw some regression in some cases.

Although there isn't a 'de facto' AI benchmark currently available, iterations are using LLMs and specific models based on AI. One benchmark that uses this is UL Procyon, which includes a Windows AI inferencing benchmark. Given the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G include the Xilinx Ryzen AI Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which is an additional chip designed to tackle and bolster on-chip AI capabilities such as generative AI for better power efficiency, we can see that Ryzen AI in itself is basic, with AMD highlighting within the documentation that it only supports INT8.

In the UL Windows AI Inference benchmark using the MobileNet V3 neural network, we see the Ryzen 5 8600G (6C/12T) still outperforms the Ryzen 9 7900 (12C/24T), which is quite impressive. However, none of the benchmarks we've tested highlights the performance or AI capabilities or even touches the NPU. It doesn't quite reach the highs of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D with 96 MB of 3D packaged L3 cache. However, given the nuances of a monolithic mobile-focused design offering desktop performance levels, it is decent nevertheless. It's worth noting that without STAPM applied, the Ryzen 7 8700G performed much better in this test than we saw previously.

While there are a lot of cool generative AI features through Windows and other software vendors such as Abode, among others, that Ryzen AI can be used for, we would argue why anyone would specifically buy an APU specifically for the Ryzen AI NPU, not that having it will be a detriment to the chip in any way.

Are Zen 4 APUs Good Enough for 1080p Gaming?

Given the advancements in combined core and graphics performance in APUs from AMD over the years, we always end up at the same crossroads. Do APUs provide enough gaming performance for the typical user to ditch a discrete graphics card? The short answer is that we're not quite there entirely if the benchmark metric is 60 fps at medium settings at 1080p; we're still a short way away from that, but it's certainly closer than ever. Of course, this entirely depends on the title, as a game such as League of Legends or DOTA 2 has much fewer graphical requirements than an AAA title such as Cyberpunk 2077.

The biggest takeaway from the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G is that they are a considerable upgrade in integrated graphics performance compared to the previous Ryzen 5000G series, including the Ryzen 7 5700G. The jump from the now-aging Vega graphics architecture to the latest RDNA 3 proves a fruitful upgrade for users on a strict budget is a very viable one. While opting for a mobile-based platform and architecture such as Phoneix and implementing it into the desktop, much like AMD has done before with previous iterations of their APUs, does have limitations.

These limitations primarily come in highly intensive multi-threaded workloads such as rendering or encoding, where the performance of processors such as the Ryzen 7000 desktop series, but the key point is that these APUs aren't inherently designed for these tasks in mind, and users looking for more CPU grunt are almost certainly likely to opt for a higher grade processor with faster cores, more cores, and more threads. This is also prevalent in certain games when paired with a discrete graphics card, which shows the native desktop chips in a better light. Still, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G are more than capable of doing these things, with lesser performance.

The other point to consider in the equation is the price; the Ryzen 7 8700G has an MSRP of $329, and the Ryzen 5 8600G has a price tag of $229. For the price, there is undoubtedly a lot of potential and performance to be had from both these processors, and they offer a jack of all trades but a master of but one thing: integrated graphics performance at lower settings. That is the bread and butter of the Ryzen 8000G series, offering solid performance for users on a budget who want to game but can't quite stretch to the price of a dedicated discrete graphics card.

Final Thoughts: AMD Ryzen 8000G APUs Offer a Solid Upgrade to Ryzen 5000G

At the price point, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G certainly hit a sweet spot between compute and integrated graphics performance, more so than we've seen before with any generation of AMD Zen-based APUs. It's been a long time coming as we've anticipated AMD to release a Zen 4 APU to the market. For users waiting for this day (today), there's certainly a lot to be had for the price when opting for either the Ryzen 7 8700G or the Ryzen 5 8600G.

It does, however, prove fruitful to point out that there's still value to be had from the Ryzen 5000G series, even more so since the turn of the year. The Ryzen 7 5700G can be purchased from Amazon for just $170, which represents impeccable value for money, given how cheap the AMD AM4 motherboards can be purchased, as well as the DDR4 memory. Even cheaper still, the Ryzen 5 5600G is only $124 at Amazon (at the time of writing), and all things aside, it still proves an excellent proposition for users on a stringent budget but who want to do basic tasks and light gaming at 720p while avoiding the cost of a discrete graphics card.

Overall, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G offer solid performance for the price, but the next step in the evolution of the APU may yet still be to come, as AMD is preparing Zen 5 for launch, which, according to their roadmap, is scheduled for this year. It'll be a while after that until we see Zen 5-based APUs (if at all), but we appreciate the concept of the APU and what it offers to users on a budget in an increasingly inflated hardware market.

As we've re-tested our data without AMD's STAPM limitations applied, our opinion on the cost-effectiveness and performance hasn't changed. We still recommend both the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G to gamers on a budget or for users looking to build a lower-cost system without needing a discrete graphics card.