Ryzen 7 8700G & Ryzen 5 8600G Review: AMD Zen 4 With A Potent Radeon GPU

	AMD Ryzen 7 8700G -  MSRP $329 |  AMD Ryzen 5 8600G - MSRP $229 AMD Ryzen 8000G series APUs combine Zen 4 processor cores with integrated RDNA3 Radeon graphics in one, power-efficient package for socket AM5.
	Power Efficient Platform High Performance iGPU Competitive CPU Performance Affordably Priced	Best Perf With OC'd Memory Zen 5 Coming Later This Year

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AMD announced an array of new products at CES 2024 earlier this month, including new CPUs, a GPU, and software. We recently took a look at the Radeon RX 7600 XT, AMD’s latest mainstream consumer GPU for PC gamers, but today we’re going to shift gears and check out a couple of processors that are part of the new Ryzen 8000G series, more specifically, the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G.

The new Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G are mainstream APUs designed for AMD’s socket AM5, similar to the Ryzen 7000 series for desktops. Although their 8000-series branding suggests these are next-generation processors, the Ryzen 8000G series is actually based on existing technology. They feature Zen 4 processor cores, an RDNA 3-based integrated GPU, and target mainstream market segments. While Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors also feature Zen 4 cores and technically have an integrated GPU, the Radeons incorporated into the Ryzen 8000G series are much more capable and feature as many as 12CUs (Compute Units). There’s lots more to the story though, so let’s dig in…


There are four members of the Ryzen 8000G series including the aforementioned Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, which sit at the top of the stack, and the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G. AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs will available for DIY-ers, but the Ryzen 3 is intended for partners and system builders only.

Introducing the AMD Ryzen 8000G Series

The chips scale from 4 to 8 cores with boost clocks ranging from 4.9GHz to 5.1GHz, depending on the model, with up to 24MB of cache, and all of the parts have 65W TDPs. AMD's Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G feature either a 12CU (8700G) or 8CU (8600G) Radeon iGPUs, while the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G have only 4 CUs. Pricing for the models available at retail will range from $176 to $329. The Ryzen 3 8300G will obviously be the most affordable, but that part is mean to partner systems only.


The Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G also differ from their higher-end counterparts in that they feature of mix of Zen 4 and Zen 4c processors cores; the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G feature solely Zen 4 cores. The Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G we’ll be showing you here are based on AMD’s Phoenix design, while the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G are based on the scaled back Phoenix 2.


In addition to the differing mix of processor cores, Phoenix 2 also lacks the XDNA Ryzen AI NPU and it has fewer PCIe lanes. The lack of an NPU, different mix of cores, IO, and iGPU CU configurations are important considerations, which will have performance implications, so keep that in mind if these mainstream APUs appeal to you. We’ve only got the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G on hand for testing, so we can’t show you exactly how performance will differ just yet, but may be able to at some point down the line.

The Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G’s physical packaging is similar to any other processor designed for socket AM5. Save for the branding on their heat spreader, there’s nothing external to physically discern these parts from any other socket AM5 processor.

Mainstream Processors And Our Mainstream Test Bed

To use a Ryzen 8000G series APU, a motherboard with display outputs (and a compatible BIOS) is a must. Most socket AM5 boards will have at least one display output, but in keeping with the mainstream nature of the Ryzen 8000G series, they’ll most likely be paired with affordable mainstream motherboard as well. For testing, AMD recommended using a B650-based motherboard, which is what we set up.


All of our testing was conducted using an ASRock B650 Pro RS motherboard, paired to 32GB of G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo memory, which supports AMD’s EXPO memory tuning feature. We also used the basic AMD air-cooler included with the Ryzen 7 8700G. Of course, more powerful cooling is never a bad thing, but as you’ll see, the stock AMD cooler is more than enough to keep these chips humming along.