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AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G review: integrated graphics for the win

Affordable chips that pair nicely with discrete GPUs too.

amd ryzen 8700g apu
Image credit: AMD

AMD's first Ryzen 8000 desktop processors are here: the $329/£309 8700G, $229/£219 8600G, $176/£169 8500G and OEM-only 8300G. These 4nm APUs look to be adaptations of the Ryzen 7040 laptop processors we tested late last year, with current-gen Zen 4 CPU cores and powerful RDNA 3 graphics capabilities. AMD sent us the top two chips, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, which come with dedicated Ryzen AI hardware not afforded to the rest of the stack.

To get the measure of these new models, we've tested their performance both standalone (page two) and when paired with a discrete graphics card (pages three to five). On both counts, we've uncovered some impressive capabilities - which could make a Ryzen 8700G or 8600G a canny pick for straight-up entry-level gaming, media PCs or as a stop-gap solution while waiting for a next-generation graphics card.

Looking at the specs makes for fascinating reading. While the eight-core Ryzen 8700G and six-core 8600G are separated by a sizeable $100 MSRP gap, the two chips are surprisingly similar in most respects, with the 8700G boasting only 2MB of extra L2 cache (8MB vs 6MB), 100MHz higher rated boost speed (5.1GHz vs 5.0GHz) and a beefier Wraith Spire cooler versus the smaller Wraith Stealth provided with the 8600G. TDP, L3 cache size and AI performance are all the same. However, greater differences are evident in GPU performance, with the 8700G getting a more capable 12CU Radeon 780M graphics solution versus the 8600G's 8CU 760M.

amd ryzen 5 8600g on a motherboard
These Ryzen 8000 APUs use the same AM5 socket as Ryzen 7000, but don't feature the same capacitors around the periphery - which makes for a cleaner look. | Image credit: Digital Foundry
CPU design Boost Base L3 cache TDP RRP
Ryzen 7 8700G Zen 4 8C/16T 5.1GHz 4.2GHz 16MB 65W $329
Ryzen 5 8600G Zen 4 6C/12T 5.0GHz 4.3GHz 16MB 65W $229
Ryzen 5 8500G Zen 4 6C/12T 5.0GHz 3.5GHz 16MB 65W $176
Ryzen 3 8300G Zen 4 4C/8T 4.9GHz 3.4GHz 8MB 65W OEM-only
Ryzen 9 7950X3D Zen 4 16C/32T 5.7GHz 4.2GHz 128MB 120W $699/£699
Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 16C/32T 5.7GHz 4.5GHz 64MB 170W $699/£739
Ryzen 9 7900X3D Zen 4 12C/24T 5.6GHz 4.4GHz 128MB 120W $599/£599
Ryzen 9 7900X Zen 4 12C/24T 5.6GHz 4.7GHz 64MB 170W $549/£579
Ryzen 9 7900 Zen 4 12C/24T 5.4GHz 3.7GHz 64MB 65W $429/£519
Ryzen 7 7800X3D Zen 4 8C/16T 5.0GHz 4.2GHz 96MB 120W $449/£375
Ryzen 7 7700X Zen 4 8C/16T 5.4GHz 4.5GHz 32MB 105W $399/£419
Ryzen 7 7700 Zen 4 8C/16T 5.3GHz 3.8GHz 32MB 65W $329/£349
Ryzen 5 7600X Zen 4 6C/12T 5.3GHz 4.7GHz 32MB 105W $299/£319
Ryzen 5 7600 Zen 4 6C/12T 5.1GHz 3.8GHz 32MB 65W $229/£249
Ryzen 5 7500F Zen 4 6C/12T 5.0GHz 3.7GHz 32MB 65W $200/£255*

*Includes A620 motherboard

Before we get into our results, it makes sense to briefly cover the hardware we're testing these CPUs with. In short, we're using the same basic setup as our Ryzen 7800X3D review. That means AMD-recommended G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 CL30 RAM and Asus' RTX 3090 Strix OC graphics card. Cooling is provided by an Eisbaer Aurora 240mm AiO.

Our motherboard for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs is the ASRock X670E Taichi, while the Gigabyte Aorus Z790 Master takes care of our Intel CPUs. (AMD did also send on a cheaper ASRock B650 Pro RS board that's a more sensible choice for a low-cost APU, but we didn't want to unnecessarily introduce another variable into our testing.)

For storage, we're using a 4TB Lexar NM790 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and a 1TB Corsair MP600 Mini for some additional games. Our rig is completed with a 1000W Corsair RM1000x power supply. Testing was performed with the latest Windows updates and BIOS revisions (2.06.AS03 Beta) installed.

Before we get into the iGPU and CPU gaming benchmarks that make up pages three to six, let's quickly run through some quick content creation benchmarks: a Cinebench R20 3D render and a Handbrake video transcode. These results are useful even in a gaming context as they set expectations for both single-core and multi-core performance.

Cinebench's R20 single-thread benchmark shows only a small gap between the two APUs, with the 8700G at 664 and the 8600G at 621 - both noticeably behind the 700s recorded for Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs and more in line with prior-gen Ryzen 5000 models - not unexpected for an APU based on a laptop part that dedicates much of its die area to graphics.

The multi-core results also show reduced performance against the full-fat desktop Ryzen 7000 CPUs, with the 8700G trailing the 7700X despite having the same core count (6888 vs 7894) and the same to be said for the 8600G and 7600X (5304 vs 6063). Still, these are still well ahead of Ryzen 5000 parts, meaning that you won't be heavily disadvantaged even in the most demanding multi-core workloads.

CB R20 1T CB R20 MT HB h.264 HB HEVC HEVC Power Use
Ryzen 7 8700G 664 6888 43.86fps 20.83fps 216W
Ryzen 5 8600G 621 5304 36.46fps 17.89fps 195W
Ryzen 9 7950X3D 788 13807 95.73fps 40.70fps 232W
Ryzen 9 7950X 798 14837 105.15fps 45.10fps 368W
Ryzen 9 7900X 791 11324 79.38fps 33.77fps 288W
Ryzen 7 7800X3D 706 7108 52.99fps 23.14fps 190W
Ryzen 7 7700X 768 7894 56.69fps 25.95fps 266W
Ryzen 5 7600X 750 6063 44.35fps 20.28fps 236W
Ryzen 5 7600 706 5632 41.09fps 18.72fps 196W
Ryzen 5 7500F 665 5574 40.78fps 18.57fps 193W
Ryzen 9 5950X 637 10165 70.28fps 30.14fps 237W
Ryzen 7 5800X3D 546 5746 42.71fps 19.10fps 221W
Ryzen 7 5800X 596 6118 44.18fps 19.50fps 229W
Ryzen 5 5600X 601 4502 31.75fps 14.43fps 160W
Core i9 14900K 896 15962 103.12fps 41.20fps 433W
Core i5 14600K 800 9349 62.68fps 27.29fps 288W
Core i9 13900K 873 15570 104.67fps 41.20fps 473W
Core i5 13600K 767 9267 62.37fps 26.44fps 254W
Core i9 12900K 760 10416 70.82fps 29.26fps 373W
Core i7 12700K 729 8683 57.64fps 25.67fps 318W
Core i5 12600K 716 6598 44.27fps 19.99fps 223W
Core i5 12400F 652 4736 31.77fps 14.70fps 190W
Core i9 11900K 588 5902 41.01fps 18.46fps 321W
Core i5 11600K 541 4086 29.00fps 13.12fps 250W

The Handbrake video transcode test is a more realistic example of a probable workload for anyone recording video - often you record uncompressed video and need to compress it down before sharing it - and shows similar results.

The ~44fps and ~36fps averages here for h.264 encoding place the two APUs a tier down from where their core count would indicate - the 7800G closely resembles the 7600X, while the 7600G trails the 7500F by some margin. HEVC encoding is slower, as it always is, with ~21fps and ~18fps results that are similarly solid but uninspiring. Power usage doesn't appear markedly improved versus Ryzen 7000 alternatives of the same core count, though of course running these APUs without a graphics cards attached would result in lower total power draw.

Now, let's get into the meat and potatoes of our testing - a range of games and scenes that test these APUs' integrated graphics and raw processing grunt in different ways. Pick out your favourite titles from the links below or just hit the next page button to continue.

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G analysis