WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 In our look at AMD's Ryzen 8000G series processors, 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:09.640 we are gonna be laser focused on the two SKUs that AMD actually wants anybody talking about, 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:13.580 the 8700G and the 8600G. 00:00:13.580 --> 00:00:17.980 And the reason for that is the other ones are really a lot less exciting. 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:21.020 AMD didn't mention this to me when we covered these chips 00:00:21.020 --> 00:00:28.680 at their announcement at CES this year, but the two lower end chips not only use Zenfors C cores, 00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:32.360 the more compact ones, they also have fewer PCIe lanes, 00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:36.080 which could be a problem for the future expandability of your system. 00:00:36.080 --> 00:00:41.400 If you kind of see our conclusion on these chips, you're gonna see why we think is a pretty big problem. 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:44.920 For now though, let's focus on the 8600G and 8700G. 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:48.760 They come packaged about like you'd expect from AMD. Got your little sticker in there. 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:52.960 And as with any of their AM5 socket processors, 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:58.360 there are no pins on the back. Instead, it uses an LGA or pad style mounting mechanism 00:00:58.360 --> 00:01:02.800 with the pins being inside the CPU socket. They don't come with much in the way of accessories, 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:07.800 but unlike AMD's X series chips, they do at least come with a cooler. 00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:11.920 It's a simple aluminum heatsink with what appears to be a 92 millimeter fan. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:16.960 Of course, if you step up to the Ryzen 7 variant, you get a simple aluminum heatsink 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:21.040 with a 90 millimeter fan, but taller. 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:25.520 Which it doesn't need to be. Its height was fine as it was the way before. 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:28.680 No, and I'll seriousness, being taller is better in this case, 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:30.280 more heat dissipation. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:39.760 In all seriousness, the main claim to fame of these chips is not that they have better CPU performance. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:43.420 They use the same Zen 4, or in the case of the lower end ones, 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:47.880 Zen 4C chips that we've seen in AMD's previous processors, 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:51.840 but they're a new model year. So they get a new number 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:56.640 because that's apparently how AMD does things now. And they have onboard graphics 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.320 that is now on par with what AMD has been shipping in their mobile solutions. 00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:04.360 So just like we've seen in mobile consoles, 00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:07.480 like the ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go, 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:10.600 we can run AAA games. 00:02:10.600 --> 00:02:15.600 Okay, not high details, 120 FPS, but 1080p low, 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:21.280 30 to 60 FPS, does that seem realistic? Maybe even a little faster, 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:27.120 because we're running in a desktop form factor now, which means we can unlock a little bit more power budget. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.280 Although my understanding is that most of this has gone 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:35.920 to enabling higher base clocks on the CPU portion of the chip rather than the GPU. 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:40.620 Though it should be noted that only the 8,700G actually gets the higher base clocks. 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:44.000 The 8,600G is on par with its mobile equivalent. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.240 I've got a bunch of benchmarks from the Labs team, which we will take a look at very soon, 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:52.600 because AMD claims that these things are in a similar performance class 00:02:52.600 --> 00:02:56.600 as an Intel CPU paired with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU 00:02:56.600 --> 00:03:00.360 at around the same price, which is a pretty bold claim indeed, 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:04.320 230 to $330. 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:07.920 That is a lot to spend on a CPU in a system 00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:12.080 where the budget didn't account for a dedicated graphics card. 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.600 However, if we think of this as a CPU and a graphics card, 00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:22.800 well, all of a sudden it starts to become more reasonable. Now it should be noted that there are CPU-GPU combos 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:26.600 that would net you a better value than this today, 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:29.860 like if you were to go for AMD's own AM4 platform 00:03:29.860 --> 00:03:35.120 and then an RX 6,600GPU. But as long as this is close, 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:39.320 I think it's a lot more compelling. And the reason for that is that 00:03:39.320 --> 00:03:42.680 you're not buying into a dead platform. 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:47.920 And I'm an upgrade, right? Like I think of every PC as a PC of Theseus. 00:03:47.920 --> 00:03:52.720 So if there's something that I'm going to be able to add to over time, having Zenfone cores, 00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:56.120 having a more modern platform, that's something that's gonna appeal to me a lot. 00:03:56.120 --> 00:04:00.320 Immediately, I'm noticing that loading times are about what I would expect for a modern platform, 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:04.200 which makes sense. You get anywhere from six to eight Zenfone cores 00:04:04.200 --> 00:04:09.800 with the two chips we're looking at today. And golly gee whizzikers, 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:15.360 I don't have an FPS counterup, but this is Cyberpunk 2077, 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.080 running at 1080p low. 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:24.640 And if I had to guess, I'd say this is running at anywhere from 30 to 40 frames per second. 00:04:24.640 --> 00:04:30.640 Maybe even 40, 45. That is super cool. 00:04:30.640 --> 00:04:32.480 How about this cop? 00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:39.600 Look at that, I won. The power of AMD compels me. 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.080 Now obviously AMD's being a little bit optimistic 00:04:43.080 --> 00:04:47.900 in their marketing materials for these chips. I mean, when they say 60 FPS, 00:04:47.900 --> 00:04:52.740 they mean with FSR, their upscaling technology. 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:57.640 But if you can get 30 without upscaling technology, 00:04:57.640 --> 00:05:01.980 you will be experiencing Cyberpunk, gosh darn it, and without a GPU. 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:06.420 All those years ago, AMD was all AMD fusion, man. 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.620 We're gonna put CPUs with GPUs in the same chip, man. 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:14.580 It's gonna be so cool. And here we are, what, 10, 11 years later, 00:05:14.580 --> 00:05:18.700 and they're finally doing it. And there's even workloads that really will take advantage 00:05:18.700 --> 00:05:23.660 of both of those elements of the chip. Okay, we didn't really test an event with the GPU, 00:05:23.660 --> 00:05:27.180 but we could have, and this really highlights what I was mentioning before 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:32.180 about how much better it is to have a modern platform with modern cores compared to going AM4. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:36.260 A Ryzen 5,500, 600G falls way behind these chips. 00:05:36.260 --> 00:05:39.760 Also in Blender, they put up very competitive CPU numbers 00:05:39.760 --> 00:05:43.980 with in particular the 8,700G outclassing anything else 00:05:44.020 --> 00:05:47.780 in this kind of price range. If on the Intel side, you had to account 00:05:47.780 --> 00:05:52.660 for that you need a dedicated GPU because they do not have anything even near 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:57.860 this kind of performance in onboard graphics. And as for 7-Zip, it's pretty much the same story. 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:02.740 These are powerful CPUs with really decent GPUs on them. 00:06:02.740 --> 00:06:07.340 And some workloads like stable diffusion will make a lot of sense to run on the GPU. 00:06:07.340 --> 00:06:10.820 Actually, for that matter, they could make sense to run on the AI course, 00:06:10.820 --> 00:06:14.260 but much like AMD's promises 10 years ago with Fusion, 00:06:14.260 --> 00:06:18.900 we haven't seen too many consumer applications for these AI cores just yet. 00:06:18.900 --> 00:06:23.900 We're just kind of hoping that by the time we would use them every day, this chip is not completely irrelevant. 00:06:23.900 --> 00:06:27.300 Oh, what were the cyberpunk numbers? I never actually confirmed. We're pretty close. 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:33.980 Oh man, I'm good. 46, 37 FPS, 1% lows, average 46, dang. 00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:38.780 I don't even need frame view, man. If we move on to something like Rocket League, 00:06:38.780 --> 00:06:43.060 I mean, this is 100 FPS easy. 00:06:43.060 --> 00:06:48.180 And it's not just the smoothness of the animations. A big part of what makes higher frame rates feel better 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:51.980 is that there's less latency. So I can really feel that my inputs 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:55.900 are being registered on the screen much more quickly. Having a look at the rest of our results, 00:06:55.900 --> 00:07:00.220 it's clear that whether you choose the 8700G or the 8600G, 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:03.660 no, you're not going to be on par necessarily 00:07:03.660 --> 00:07:09.860 with an entry-level GeForce card. But what you will be is able to game now 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:13.780 with the potential to upgrade to a real graphics card in the future, 00:07:13.780 --> 00:07:17.860 like one that comes on a card, while still retaining these high performance 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:21.580 ZenFour CPU cores. Is this going to be the right path for everybody? 00:07:21.580 --> 00:07:27.060 No, I don't think so at all. If you are looking for the absolute best bang for your buck, 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:31.500 I'm always going to advocate for going for what gives you the most FPS per dollar today. 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:35.740 And a lot of the times that's going to be something that's not going to have as much of an upgrade path 00:07:35.780 --> 00:07:40.380 or it's going to be something that comes secondhand. In terms of something that could be reasonably future-proof, 00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:43.940 I love this as much as I did when AMD first announced it. 00:07:43.940 --> 00:07:46.980 Finally, something for the entry-level gamers out there, 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:50.860 a viable option that isn't just, well, why don't you buy our old stuff? 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:54.380 Which isn't to say that I don't have some annoyances with AMD about this launch. 00:07:54.380 --> 00:07:58.300 One of the things they glossed over when they did my briefing was the number 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:05.300 of PCIe lanes on these chips. The 86 and 8700G do not have enough PCIe connectivity 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:10.100 to connect a graphics card at the full Buy 16 link width. 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:13.420 So you're limited to a Buy 8 link to your GPU. 00:08:13.420 --> 00:08:19.100 With PCIe being as fast as it is these days, it's probably not going to impact things too much 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:23.860 unless you were putting a much older GPU on it, which you wouldn't because it has a powerful GPU on it 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:28.180 already, but especially on the lower-end chips 00:08:28.180 --> 00:08:31.740 where they only get a Buy 4 link to a GPU, 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:35.900 they're really shooting themselves in the foot if part of the value of these chips 00:08:35.900 --> 00:08:39.020 is supposed to be that PCIe upgrade story 00:08:39.020 --> 00:08:43.940 because I would not want to use a Buy 4 link to my GPU. 00:08:43.940 --> 00:08:47.620 Unless I was on a laptop using Thunderbolt or something like that. 00:08:47.620 --> 00:08:52.940 So still room for improvement, but overall, I'm happy to have an entry-level desktop option 00:08:52.940 --> 00:08:57.540 because that just hasn't made sense to me for so long that they have these great integrated GPUs on mobile, 00:08:57.540 --> 00:09:01.780 but we have to slum it on the desktop with these super cut-down versions. 00:09:01.780 --> 00:09:08.820 If you guys enjoyed this video, why don't you check out our unboxing of the RX7600XT, a new GPU from AMD that is an option. 00:09:10.100 --> 00:09:11.300 Subscribe to Shred Circuit.