AMD announced its latest generation of Ryzen desktop processors with integrated Radeon graphics at CES 2024. The new Ryzen 8000G series brings major performance improvements and new AI acceleration capabilities aimed at mainstream users.
Key Details on the Ryzen 8000G Series
The Ryzen 8000G series is built on AMD’s new “Hawk Point” architecture, which combines the latest Zen 4 CPU cores with RDNA 3 integrated graphics:
- Zen 4 CPU Cores – Fabricated on an upgraded 5nm process, the Zen 4 cores deliver substantial IPC and clock speed gains over previous generations. AMD claims up to a 35% increase in single-thread performance.
- RDNA 3 Integrated Graphics – The integrated GPUs based on AMD’s latest graphics architecture enable desktop-class gaming without a discrete graphics card. For example, AMD states the Ryzen 7 8700G competes with entry-level cards like the GeForce GTX 1650.
- AI Acceleration – A dedicated AI Processing Unit (APU) directly integrated into the Ryzen 8000G die accelerates common AI workloads, a first for desktop PCs. This brings AI inferencing from the data center to mainstream local devices.
| Processor | Cores/Threads | Base/Boost Clock | Graphics Cores | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 7 8700G | 8/16 | 4.7/5.4 GHz | 12 CUs | 65W | $329 |
| Ryzen 5 8600G | 6/12 | 4.5/5.1 GHz | 10 CUs | 65W | $229 |
| Ryzen 5 8500G | 6/12 | 3.7/4.6 GHz | 8 CUs | 65W | $179 |
The top-end Ryzen 7 8700G offers extremely competitive performance – early benchmarks show it competing directly with entry-level discrete GPUs like the GTX 1650 in games while costing substantially less. The AI capabilities also bring exciting new use cases like real-time video editing and effects to mainstream desktops.
Continued Support for Existing AM4 Platforms
In a surprise move, AMD announced the Ryzen 8000G series will continue support for existing AM4 CPU sockets. While AMD’s next-generation Zen 4 processors will require the new AM5 platform later this year, Ryzen 8000G buyers can use existing AM4 motherboards.
This should make adoption of the Ryzen 8000G far more affordable by avoiding the need for a brand new motherboard. AMD stressed their commitment to provide ongoing support and new capabilities for previous-generation AM4 platform owners.
AI and Real-Time Workloads in Focus
A major theme around the Ryzen 8000G launch was leveraging its integrated AI Processing Unit for emerging real-time workloads. AMD highlighted numerous demonstrations of the chips powering advanced effects like real-time upscaling and background blur in video calls.
Gaming also benefits from the AI acceleration, enabling techniques like super resolution upscaling to boost frame rates. AMD envisions the Ryzen 8000G as kickstarting an “AI PC revolution” bringing data center-class AI capabilities to mainstream local devices.
Developers are receiving toolkits to build applications leveraging the dedicated neural processing hardware. AMD is clearly hoping the Ryzen 8000G cements it as the AI platform of choice on the desktop.
Impressive Integrated Graphics Push Gaming Performance
While the AI capabilities grabbed headlines, gamers will be more interested in the impressive gains AMD extracted from the RDNA 3 integrated graphics. The top-end Ryzen 7 8700G ships with 12 RDNA 3 compute units – a healthy increase over the predecessor’s 8 Vega units.
Early benchmarks show the Ryzen 7 8700G competing directly with entry-level gaming cards like Nvidia’s GTX 1650. It handily outperforms older integrated graphics from both AMD and Intel by large margins. This brings a major boost to gaming and content creation performance from just the on-die integrated GPU.
The Ryzen 8000G series should enable smooth 1080p gaming in modern titles without demanding a expensive discrete graphics card. This makes Ryzen desktops far more well-rounded for gaming and multimedia uses where before the integrated graphics were fairly marginal.
Continuing to Push CPU Performance With Zen 4
While not the full Zen 4 launch expected later this year for the AM5 platform, the Ryzen 8000G series provides the first look at AMD’s next-generation CPU microarchitecture. The early benchmarks indicate Zen 4 will deliver on its promise of double-digit IPC gains to push single-threaded performance well beyond existing Zen 3 processors.
An upgraded 5nm manufacturing process allows Zen 4 cores to reach peak boost clocks up to an impressive 5.4 GHz while retaining a reasonable 65W TDP. With core counts staying similar to prior generations, Zen 4 is clearly focused on maximizing performance on existing workloads before increasing core counts further.
The substantial per-core performance improvements combined with upgraded RDNA 3 graphics and integrated AI hardware add up to an extremely compelling generational update for AMD’s bread-and-butter desktop processors even before the full Zen 4 launch.
Competitively Priced Parts Aim for Mainstream Market
While high-end PC enthusiasts may be holding out for the upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors and AM5 later this year, AMD is clearly positioning Ryzen 8000G to hit more mainstream and cost-sensitive markets in the interim period.
The competitive $329 pricing on the impressive 8-core Ryzen 7 8700G makes it a compelling alternative to current mid-range offerings from Intel. It brings integrated graphics performance rivaling an add-in GPU card most buyers need to hit reasonable gaming performance levels on Intel platforms.
And support for existing AM4 motherboards enables dropping in the upgraded chip as a simple CPU-only upgrade rather than a much costlier full platform overhaul. This almost certaintly kicked off a frantic scramble inside Intel to get competitive integrated graphics capabilities into their near-term roadmaps.
Outlook and Next Steps
With an AI-enhanced Ryzen 8000G now anchoring the low end and a slew of engineering samples suggesting Ryzen 7000 development is progressing rapidly, AMD finds itself in an extremely strong competitive position as we enter 2024.
The ball is now firmly in Intel’s court to respond on both pricing and integrated graphics capabilities or risk ceding even more desktop PC market share to AMD’s resurgent CPUs. Expect plenty of competitive maneuvering through the remainder of the year as Intel fights to blunt AMD’s momentum while AMD continues executing on its long-term roadmaps.
But for mainstream PC buyers, Ryzen 8000G provides a very compelling reason to choose AMD for a powerful, budget-friendly system over the coming year, cemented by AMD’s continued commitment to ensure existing AM4 motherboard owners can benefit from this latest generation of CPU innovation as well.
So in summary the Ryzen 8000G series delivers substantial generational improvements, a major integrated graphics boost enabling gaming, unique AI acceleration capabilities for emerging workloads, and critically retains support for existing AM4 motherboards making adoption far more cost-effective during this interim period before the full next-generation Zen 4 platform ships. For mainstream and gaming desktop users it presents an extremely compelling upgrade option over the coming year.
To err is human, but AI does it too. Whilst factual data is used in the production of these articles, the content is written entirely by AI. Double check any facts you intend to rely on with another source.
