We Found Problems: AMD Ryzen 5 8600G & R7 8700G APU Benchmarks & Review

This review of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G benchmarks performance vs. a cheap CPU and GPU at the same price points (roughly) and looks at viability of the R5 8600G & R7 8700G APUs as SFF/HTPC options or just a cheap gaming component. The new 8000-series AMD Ryzen APUs get tested here for gaming performance and framerate, power consumption, CPU-only performance, efficiency, and frequency. Although we already know they're not strictly "worth it" as cheap gaming parts if the only goal is the cheapest possible combination of a CPU and GPU, they still have valid use cases. If AMD ever adds VRAM to APUs in a big way, it's possible they compete with cheap graphics cards in the future. But we'll see. Testing is different from our normal CPU reviews: We have a combination of memory scaling tests with DDR5-6400 vs. DDR5-6000 and DDR5-5600, but also a mix of GPUs or IGPs. As a result, a lot of the data is not comparable to other prior reviews, especially with the GPU swapping. We're also spending a lot of time on STAPM power throttling behavior.

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - AMD Ryzen 5 8600G & R7 8700G Review
02:43 - AMD's Statement & But WHY?
06:00 - AMD 8600G & 8700G Specs & Prices
08:38 - ASRock's Broken-Ass BIOS
10:42 - Frequency Drops & All-Core
11:57 - Single-Core Frequency Boosting
12:36 - Power Consumption (All-Core, Default)
13:37 - Power Efficiency (Default)
14:00 - Test Methodology Notes & STAPM
16:55 - CPU-Only Benchmarks First (If Upgrading to a dGPU)
17:20 - Blender 3D Rendering Benchmarks
18:24 - File Compression Benchmarks
19:08 - File Decompression Benchmarks
19:41 - Game Benchmarking
20:23 - Baldur's Gate 3 - 1080p, Low Commentary, & 1440p
23:32 - Rainbow Six Siege Benchmarks - 1080p & 1440p
25:25 - Starfield Benchmarks
26:08 - F1 2023 Benchmarks
28:13 - FFXIV 8700G & 8600G Benchmarks
29:46 - Conclusion

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Steve Burke: Writing, Testing, Host, Editing
Patrick Lathan: Testing
Mike Gaglione: Testing, Editing
Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera, Editing
Tim Phetdara: Camera

[GamersNexus]

So, if there's only one thing to take away, it's that the STAPM behavior is on AMD's side and is being changed (improved) soon. And if there are two things to take away, it's that ASRock is working on BIOS updates to fix the bugs we found and reported. Next up, the 4080 Super -- what are the bets on its performance?

[AshtonCoolman]

No other reviewers caught the STAPM issue or Asrock bugs. This is how we know that Gamers Nexus is conducting THOROUGH, accurate testing.

[lyledal]

"You probably don't have your tower in your lap..."

Speak for yourself, Steve. YOU DON'T KNOW ME!

[ilovelimpfries]

I was wondering why GN review of the APU was not on the embargo lift day. Good job guys.

[timtimethymetie]

GN dropping reviews AND replying to comments at like 2 AM their time is crazy. Y'all are absolute machines.

[chubbysumo]

The only reason no other reviewer has caught this, is because no other reviewer does frequency validation. Thank you Steve and team, for holding Parts makers accountable to what they offer and sell.

[alangarde]

GN, the new QA team for AMD. Great job in getting to the bottom of what you saw. Also Kudos to AMD for taking it seriously and responding rather than dismissing it til lots of people complained.

[OpalMonkey.]

13:28 Go home, Steve, you're tired! 😂

Seriously though, don't work yourself to death. We need to keep an industry treasure like you around as long as possible.

[SoulTouchMusic]

"you're probably not holding the case and you're probably not holding the tower in your lap"

lan parties can get wild!

[lmfmcqi]

Man, I love GN. Detailed and super informative videos, but always with a sprinkle of hilarious additions.
So fun to watch. Thanks Steve!

[jwiz]

LTT: fails to remove the protective film from a mouse before testing. GN: Catches odd behavior in an AMD CPU that AMD’s engineers missed.

[ConsecDesign]

You're really out here making a difference, GN! thanks guys!

[robertdascoli]

15:40 "We don't review a companies hopes and dreams"

That's why GN is the best. Thanks for keeping the bar high.

[TracksideViews]

Please make a t-shirt that has “Before that…” on it!

[BecauseynotGaming]

Great find on the stapm behavior I read several reviews and watched a couple videos and no one but you mentioned it. Keep up the great work GN team!

[flinzlogik]

This is why I always come back to your reviews... you have the most in-depth and thorough analysis of products. Catching the STAPM issue would have gone unnoticed by nearly every other reviewer, who don't/can't run as in-depth analysis as you do.

Top tier review as usual.

[sharksizzle]

I've been using the 5700g and I managed to get a year and a half of good gaming in before I finally upgraded to a discrete graphics card. I'm quite happy with my purchase, it's cool to see AMD take the APU route, it made so much sense to me at the time when GPU prices were bad.

[cppctek]

It’s never a good sign when you have to thank the reviewer for finding an issue they should have found first. This has become a scary trend where we as consumers end up being the test subjects 😂😊 great review though!!!
Amd - “thanks Steve”

[sorinadrian]

GN has become the final boss for all these huge corporations :D
Thank you so much!

[blackbirdpctech]

I really respect and appreciate the fact that you guys delayed the launch of this video to dig deeper and understand what is really going on ... there are unfortunately not a lot of YouTubers in this space that would do that and you guys should be applauded for it.