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AMD Ryzen 5000G APUs Review

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Exactly two years ago, AMD last introduced a series of APUs for desktops, consisting of the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G at the time. Lately, as a self-builder, you have been dependent on the regular Ryzens that always require a separate video card – not especially useful in times of video card shortages – or the officially not sold directly to consumers (and therefore often expensive) 4000G series. With the Ryzen 5000G APUs, AMD is finally supplying this segment again this week. We started with the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G.

Where the APU – AMD speak for a processor with integrated GPU – has long been at the center of AMD’s processor range, the processor designer at Zen chose to focus on Ryzen desktop chips without graphics. The desktop APUs with the G suffix are technically much more closely related to the chips made for laptops than to the regular desktop Ryzens. Since the laptop chips were always a generation behind, the APUs in the Ryzen 3000 series were still based on the older Zen+ cores, while the Ryzen 3000 CPUs already used Zen 2.

After effectively skipping a generation, the new Ryzen 5000G processors use state-of-the-art Zen 3 cores. In theory, this should allow the 5600G and 5700G to come close to the processor performance offered by the 5600X and 5800X. The enormous difference is, of course, that the G chips are also equipped with integrated graphics.

The Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G are available from Thursday, August 5, and should cost 269 and 369 euros respectively. The Ryzen 3 5300G, which AMD has been supplying to major PC manufacturers for some time, will not be available for single sale for the time being.

Where we were wildly enthusiastic about the ‘normal’ Ryzen 5000 processors, the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G leave us with mixed feelings. For specific usage scenarios, the new APUs are certainly valid choices, but by no means for everyone.

Ryzen 5 5600G
The Ryzen 5 5600G is a tenner cheaper than the 5600X and for that, you sacrifice something on the CPU performance, but of course, you do get an IGPU – although it is unfortunately not much faster than with the previous generations due to the outdated Vega architecture. That makes the 5600G a logical choice if you are not going to use a separate video card because you then not only save those ten euros, but also the necessary tens for a separate video card – which is a mandatory purchase with the 5600X.

Ryzen 7 5700G
The difference between the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 7 5800X is slightly larger, both in terms of price and performance. The 5700G is fifty euros cheaper and sometimes only a few percent slower, while the performance difference in specific tests is as much as 50 percent. Thanks to its higher TDP, the 5800X can boost much more aggressively and has twice as much cache. Also, in combination with a separate video card, the 5700G is clearly at a disadvantage.

Nail to the Intel 11th Gen coffin?

The Ryzen 5000G APUs are a solution for those who are not a gamer or content creator and therefore do not necessarily need a separate video card. The presence of an IGPU is one of the main arguments for making a Core i5 11600K or i7 11700K worthwhile, but now that trade-off will often turn out in favor of the 5600G and 5700G. The fact that you can also combine the APUs with an affordable older motherboard, up to the B450 chipset, also helps.

AMD leaves the budget segment out in the cold
At the same time, we must conclude that the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G are not successors to the 3200G and 3400G at all. Those processors were sold for 110 and 170 euros respectively, while the Ryzen 5 5600G already costs 269 euros. This release does not change the fact that AMD hardly plays a role in the segment under two hundred euros. Models like the Ryzen 3 3100, 3300X, 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G have all been discontinued, leaving Intel the exclusive right there with few exciting refreshes from 10-series CPUs. It is understandable that AMD prefers to sell expensive CPUs, but the manufacturer denies a group of buyers who often opted for AMD when the processor designer was not doing well.

Those who hoped for an affordable Apu for a media PC or the system of his or her (grand) parent, uncle, or aunt, therefore have little use for AMD’s latest achievement. However, if you want a powerful processor, but you don’t need the graphics processing power of a separate video card, the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G have two excellent options.

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amd-ryzen-5000g-apus-reviewThe Ryzen 5 5600G is a tenner cheaper than the 5600X and for that, you sacrifice something on the CPU performance, but you do get an igpu of course - although it is unfortunately not much faster than with previous generations due to the outdated Vega architecture.