AMD Ryzen 8000G DDR5 desktop APU is ready for the nex-gen AI-powered Windows

Back in November, AMD released an important AGESA firmware update that brought enhanced support for Phoenix APUs. The update followed another recent one which was meant to improve memory training issues that some of Ryzen 7000 series chips have been experiencing with high-speed DDR5 memory (typically above 5600MT/s).

And only a day after that, the alleged specification details of the Ryzen 8000 G-series desktop APUs were also shared online. While all of AMD new Ryzen processors (7000 series and newer) come with some integrated graphics in order to aid with display output and basic video decoding tasks, APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) are different as they come equipped with much more powerful integrated graphics.

For example, while the Ryzen 7000 series chips have just two Compute Units (CUs) of Radeon RDNA 3 graphics; the new 8000 G-series APUs have up to 12 CUs, which is six times more. This is the case with the flagship Ryzen 8000 G-series processor, the 8700G.

AMD compares the 8700G with Core i7-14700K in its CES 2024 presentation and apparently, the UHD 770 graphics on the latter is far behind in gaming. AMD adds the slightly slower 8600G with 6CU 760M is also going to be ahead of the UHD 770.

AMD also included another comparison where an i5-113400F paired up with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 was put up against the 8700G. Here, Team Red shows how the new 8000G series flagship APU is better even than Green and Blue combined, and it comes in cheaper. Both gaming and productivity numbers were provided. Although the system specs aren't available in these leaked presentation slide decks, we assume the company used decently fast memory for the comparison as we know APUs here rely on system memory.

We aren't sure how AMD measured the productivity numbers here and whether hardware (GPU) acceleration was used when available. Regardless, AMD says the 8700G is the better deal.

In our review of the Core i9-14900K and the i5-14600K, we noted that the 2CU Radeon graphics was no match for the Intel UHD 770 as it put up around half the score in the gaming benchmarks. However, the tide is probably set to turn now that AMD is set to unveil its full-fledged APU lineup. Even the lowest-end 4CU Radeon 740M should be able to trade blows or perhaps even surpass the Intel UHD 770. We don't however expect much of an improvement on the media processing block and perhaps Intel UHD will continue to be the slightly superior performer in this department.

Here are the full specifications of the four 8000 G-series APUs: the 8700G, the 8600G, the 8500G and the 8300G. The last one is apparently an OEM-only part.

While it is not apparent in the above image, AMD is seemingly going to adopt a hybrid approach with this 8000G Series (codenamed Phoenix 2). The 8600G and 8500G seem to have same specs in the image above but it appears to be so only because the 8500G also uses the smaller Zen 4c cores. While the 8600G will allegedly have six Zen 4 cores, the 8500G will pack just two Zen 4 and instead have four Zen 4c.

AMD, in fact, has already confirmed that no special optimizations should be required on Windows to get the best out of these hybrid processors. Plus these are also the first chips with Neural Processing Unit (NPU) built-in which should be ideal for the next gen Windows that is heavily focused on AI.

In terms of pricing, AMD says the 8700G is $329 while the 8600G is $229. The Ryzen 8500G on the other hand is $179. These new APUs will be available starting January 31. The company, alongside these new desktop APUs, also announced the new RX 7600 XT with 16 Gigs of VRAM.

Via: VideoCardz

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