AMD forgot to un-throttle its Ryzen 8700G 8600G AM5 desktop APUs leading to performance loss

On January 8th at the CES 2024 show, AMD released its much-awaited Ryzen 8000 G-series APUs. These APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) are the first of many: the first APUs on the Socket AM5 platform, the first APUs on a desktop to support DDR5 memory, and also the first desktop x86 parts that debut with the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) or dedicated hardware AI accelerator.

It is also the first desktop APU to feature integrated RDNA graphics and the performance shows very notable improvements when compared to previous generation Vega-based APUs (Ryzen 5000/4000/3000 and 2000G series).

However, although they are mighty impressive, these 8000G APUs are currently only able to perform to their fullest for only a limited time before they begin to thermally-induced power throttle. This is because the current firmware implementation is bugged as it applies a STAPM limit to the power after a short burst of full power output.

In case you may not know, AMD STAPM or Skin Temperature Aware Power Management is a feature that is designed for power and thermal management on mobile AMD Ryzen and Athlon devices like laptops and notebooks. The STAPM tries to measure thermal headroom in such devices and it is also responsible for throttling in case the STAPM is not favorable in such an instance.

For example, the STAPM was responsible for throttling my Ryzen 2500U Lenovo IdeaPad laptop that I have as a spare. It quickly went from 25 Watts down to 15 Watts in 10 minutes.

However, it seems AMD has inadvertently put in STAPM limitations on its new desktop APUs too. As a result, the chips are throttling after a while as discovered by YouTuber Gamers Nexus. As such, the power draw drops from around 80 watts to as low as nearly 50 watts, and both the 8700G and the 8600G took this hit.

AMD has confirmed in a statement to Gamers Nexus that the issue will be fixed with a future firmware update and such STAPM limits will be removed. The company stated:

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.

As such, customers who have bought the 8000 G-series APUs or are willing to make the purchase should expect to see a major firmware update soon and that should allow the chips to perform to their fullest for a sustained period rather than for a few short bursts.

Source and images: Gamers Nexus ( YouTube)

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