AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G review: both offer solid levels of gaming performance for $329 and $229, respectively, especially with AMD's fastest cores
One of the most desired desktop chips designed for low-cost systems has been AMD's APUs, or Accelerated Processing Units.
Context & Ripple Effects
AMD positioned these desktop chips as a priced tier of Zen 4 processors with Radeon 780M graphics in its January 2024 launch lineup, including a lower-cost 8500G. This review supplies the practical performance evidence for the two higher-end models.
The release extends AMD’s longstanding desktop-APU strategy, following its earlier Raven Ridge desktop APU launch aimed at entry-level and mid-range PCs. It matters because the review finds the integrated-graphics proposition remains viable at $229 and $329.
First-order effects
- Buyers assembling lower-cost desktop systems can weigh the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G as processors that deliver solid gaming performance without the review identifying a separate graphics card as necessary for that use case.
- AMD gains third-party validation for the 8700G’s $329 and 8600G’s $229 positioning, with the fastest CPU cores highlighted as a key part of their appeal.
Second-order effects
- Desktop builders and system vendors targeting value gaming PCs can compare an integrated-graphics build more directly against configurations that add discrete graphics, increasing pressure to justify component cost in that segment.
- The performance gap between the two reviewed models and the announced $179 8500G becomes more consequential for AMD’s product segmentation, since buyers now have review-based evidence at the upper two price points.
Third-order effects
- If integrated graphics continue to provide acceptable gaming performance in mainstream desktop chips, the entry-level PC market could increasingly compete on the balance of CPU capability, graphics integration and total system cost rather than on discrete GPU inclusion.
- This reinforces the broader shift toward heterogeneous processors: the value of an APU rests on tightly combining different compute functions in one desktop platform, though the corpus does not establish how quickly that will displace discrete graphics.
The trend: Desktop processors are becoming more capable all-in-one platforms, pushing integrated graphics further into value-oriented gaming and general-purpose PC builds.