AMD has revealed a bunch of new desktop processors at CES 2024, with a batch of Ryzen 8000G CPUs accompanied by some additions in the last-gen department, namely a quartet of fresh Ryzen 5000 chips (including a cheaper 3D V-Cache model).
Let’s start with those Ryzen 8000G processors of which there are also four new chips: the Ryzen 7 8700G, Ryzen 5 8600G, Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G.
All of these CPUs are built using the Zen 4 architecture (which powers the desktop Ryzen 7000 series). AMD is touting these as the fastest PC processors when it comes to an all-in-one solution – meaning they sport peppy integrated graphics accompanying the CPU, so you don’t need a separate GPU (and can save a considerable outlay because of that).
The integrated graphics are RDNA 3 – Radeon 700M series to be precise – and AMD further claims that the Ryzen 8000G models are the first desktop processors with a dedicated AI engine, specifically an XDNA-powered NPU (Neural Processing Unit). The latter accelerates AI workloads to considerable effect (as seen in Intel’s Meteor Lake silicon, although those are laptop processors).
The Ryzen 7 8700G is an 8-core CPU (16-threads) with boost of up to 5.1GHz and it’s combined with on-board Radeon 780M graphics.
With both the Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 5 8500G you’ll get 6-cores (12-threads) and boost speeds up to 5GHz, the difference being the integrated graphics, with Radeon 760M in the former, stepping down to Radeon 740M in the latter.
Finally, the lower-tier chip is the Ryzen 3 8300G which is a quad-core processor (8-threads) with boost of up to 4.9GHz and the same Radeon 740M graphics as seen in the 8500G. This chip has a lesser loadout of cache (12MB rather than 22MB for the others), but all of them have a TDP of 65W.
What we don’t yet know is how expensive these 8000G processors will be as AMD hasn’t yet provided the pricing details.
Turning to the Ryzen 5000 models, these are last-gen throwbacks which fill out the range somewhat and will be on shelves come January 31.
We’re getting a new 3D V-Cache CPU as mentioned, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, to sit under the existing 5800X3D. The 5700X3D has 8-cores (16-threads) with a boost of up to 4.1GHz and power usage of 105W. We do have pricing for these desktop CPUs, fortunately, and this one will sell at an MSRP of $249 in the US (that’s around £195, AU$370).
That’ll be accompanied by a vanilla Ryzen 7 5700, also with 8-cores (16-threads) and boost of up to 4.6GHz, priced at $175 (around £135, AU$260). Neither of these first two CPUs has integrated graphics.
The third new desktop CPU is the Ryzen 5 5600GT which has 6-cores (12-threads) and boosts to 4.6GHz, followed by the Ryzen 5 5500GT which is a quad-core CPU (8-threads) with a top boost of 4.4GHz. These two processors do have integrated graphics and are priced at $140 (around £110, AU$210) and $125 (around £100, AU$185) respectively, so they’re very affordable models.
Analysis: Affordability in spades
The leaks around these desktop CPUs turned out to be pretty much bang-on, and there’s a clear theme with these fresh introductions – they’re looking to make it easier to build a cheaper PC.
You’ve got APUs in the form of Ryzen 8000G chips that save you the cost of buying a standalone GPU – allowing you to add one later, when you can afford it – and some seriously affordable Ryzen 5000 offerings, including a new X3D model.
How they’ll perform is obviously the key question in terms of their overall value, and we’ve got a fair idea of that courtesy of some internal benchmarks AMD showed off at CES.
With the Ryzen 7 5700X3D we’re looking at a processor that can edge out Intel’s Core i5-13600K, which is what AMD picked for its comparative benchmarks here given that they both have the same MSRP. Of course, that isn’t the latest Intel CPU – it has been succeeded by the 14600K – but to be fair to AMD, that Raptor Lake Refresh model is more expensive, and at any rate, there’s very little indeed by way of generational gains for the latter (as we made clear in our 14600K review).
The upshot is the 5700X3D wins by a margin of about 6% on average in the games benchmarked, with some 12-13% victories (and some games where the margin is only a percentage point or two). So, that looks good for Team Red’s X3D newcomer, but as ever with internal benchmarking and marketing presentations, we need to be wary of how much cherry-picking has gone on with the games tested. Only our full review will reveal exactly how the Ryzen 7 5700X3D stacks up to Intel rivals (and whether it makes the cut for our list of the best processors).
As for the most affordable Ryzen 5 5600GT and Ryzen 5 5500GT chips, the benchmarks provided make these CPUs look like solid improvements on the 5600G and 5500G respectively – to the tune of 5% to 10% better with the 5600GT across various games and apps, and a more modest 2% to 5% uplift with the 5500GT.
We don’t have pricing for the 8000G processors yet, so trying to gauge the value proposition isn’t possible. However, looking at the benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 8700G manages to achieve 60 frames per second (on average) in Starfield and Alan Wake 2 – remembering that this is with integrated graphics. The catch is that this is at low details at 1080p resolution, and with AMD tech assisting (Hyper-RX, Fluid Motion Frames on), but still, that’s a juicy prospect, though exactly how juicy depends on how that pricing pans out.
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