When integrated graphics are enough?

The new 8000G series is interesting as it combines both Zen4 and RDNA3 into a single relatively inexpensive chip. The Ryzen 5 8600G, has six multi-threaded Zen4 cores running at 4.3GHz, 5.0GHz Turbo and Radeon 760M with 8CUs and hits 2.8GHz for $229. The more powerful Ryzen 7 8700G has eight multi-threaded cores running at 4.2/5.1 GHz, the same Radeon 760M but with 12 CUs and can go up to 2.9 GHz costs an extra hundred bucks at $329. These two desktop versions of the mobile chip both run at 65W, which is very important if they are going to be used in tiny systems.

We are already quite familiar with Zen 4 performance and the 8000G series performs as you would expect, indeed the Ryzen 7 8700G outperforms the Ryzen 7 5800X. This sentence was somewhat painful to write on a rig powered by the same chip. Graphics are the big ask for potential APU users, and 3D Guru has put it to the test both the Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 7 8700G in a series of tests.

In Far Cry 6 the Ryzen 5 8600G isn’t great as the older Ryzen 9 7950X completely wipes it out, while the Ryzen 7 5800X … provides essentially the same results. Assassins Creed: Mirage is a little kinder to the 5800X, but that’s the only exception. It seems that in general the extra CUs and slight frequency bump do not translate into better performance. You’re better off relying on a 4GB RX 6500 XT with any chip.

If you’re not gaming though, these are great APUs for light browsing and watching videos, but you’ll be disappointed if you were hoping to play Crysis.