The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G is, without exaggeration, a champion in its field, because it literally has no analogues on the market. It’s a compromise processor, but for a certain category of people, it’s almost the perfect solution. We have tested the APU in games, work programs, measured power consumption, and are ready to share our impressions.
Pluses:
the best APU on the desktop component market; low power consumption allows you to install the processor in budget boards;
Minuses:
the test sample suffered from artifacts of built-in graphics with overclocked RAM; despite the low TDP, it is very difficult to remove heat;
Content
Test bench
- MotherboardASRock B650 Pro RS s-AM5 B650
- ProcessorAMD Ryzen 7 8700G
- Cooling 1 AMD Wraith Spire (BOX)
- Cooling 2be quiet! Dark Rock Elite
- RAMG.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5 6400CL32
- AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card (Reference)
- Power supplyMSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W
- BodyMSI MPG QUIETUDE 100S
Technical characteristics AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
| Technical specifications of AMD Ryzen 7 8700G | |
| Lithography | 4 nm |
| Socket | AM5 |
| Number of cores | 8 |
| Number of threads | 16 |
| Base frequency | 4.2 GHz |
| Maximum frequency | 5.1 GHz |
| Level 3 cache | 16 MB |
| Basic TDP | 65 W |
| Type of RAM | DDR5-5200 |
| Maximum RAM | 256 GB |
| Embedded graphics | AMD Radeon 780M |
| Support for instructions | AES, AMD-V, AVX, AVX2, AVX512, FMA3, MMX(+), SHA, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, SSSE3, x86-64 |
| PCI Express support | 4.0 |
Packaging
The boxed version of AMD Ryzen 7 8700G includes the processor itself, packed in a separate blister, a Wraith Spire cooler with thermal paste, and a branded sticker. The cooler has an unusual screw mount for AMD, although in fact this method of mounting has been used for quite some time now not only for «blue» processors.
Wraith Spire is not the largest complete cooling system, because there is also Wraith Prism. We will test it with a box cooler and be quiet! Dark Rock Eliteto see how well standard cooling works and whether it makes sense to buy something more serious.
Workload performance of AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
| Benchmark / Cooler | Wraith Spire | Dark Rock Elite |
| CPU-Z Single | 687 | 718 |
| CPU-Z Multi | 7189 | 7531 |
| Cinebench 2024 Single | 103 | 104 |
| Cinebench 2024 Multi | 992 | 1075 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 2568 | 2629 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 13969 | 14755 |
| Speedometer 3.0 | 17,7 | |
| WebXPRT 4 | 311 | |
| Google Octane 2.0 | 95194 | |
| Geekenbeh Open CL | 35301 | 35409 |
| Geekbench Vulkan | 38730 | 42563 |
| Blender CPU | 235 | 245 |
| Blender iGPU | 364 | 362 |
| Corona 1.3 (sec) | 84 | 83 |
The difference between a boxed cooler and a top-of-the-line tower is not noticeable in all programs. The performance gain with unlimited TDP is small, as expected. In most working programs, the result is at the level of AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. A huge amount of cache is only useful in games, so we often have roughly parity, sometimes the 7800X3D is 1-3% faster.
Graphics rendering in Corona, Cinebench, and Blender is relatively slow. The built-in graphics do a better job than the processor, but they don’t work in every program. The rendering speed with Radeon 780M is 40-50% faster than on the processor. It’s enough to play around with Blender, but for serious work, you need a discrete graphics card. Conditional NVIDIA RTX 3050 6 GB 4–5 times faster.
Integrated graphics shows good results in Geekbench Open CL and Vulkan. The AMD Radeon 780M can only be compared to the NVIDIA GTX 1060, but the iGPU has almost unlimited memory. Let’s consider the high-speed RAM used during the tests because 6400CL32 is almost the maximum that the AM5 socket is capable of.
This integrated graphics is 2–3 times more productive than its predecessor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G. There are no competitors from Intel in the desktop segment, although the Iris XE iGPU has become a real hit among laptops.
The impact of integrated graphics on processor performance is small. Losses are less than 10% if you use a good cooler. This is a good result compared to what AMD used to have. It’s worth remembering the terrible FM2+ socket, where flagship APUs lost 40-50% of CPU power if the iGPU was fully loaded.
Let’s compare the processing power of the hero of the review with other popular processors to clearly understand its current status and place in the market. The gap between the AM4 APU and its predecessors is huge, so they are not competitors at all.
- COMP — esports graphics settings;
- LOW — low graphics settings;
- MED — medium graphics settings;
- ULTRA — maximum graphics settings;
Apex Legends you can play with integrated graphics. The frame rate rarely drops below 75 FPS, and in closed rooms it exceeds a hundred. The frame rate is not smooth at all, although it will do for a casual player. With AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX we have almost 300 FPS (the limit of the game engine).
Cossacks 3 with the most distant camera always rests on the capabilities of the processor. In the heaviest online battles, the frame rate is unlikely to drop below 30 FPS. There is no difference between the 780M and 7900 XTX in such games. If a player is interested in classic strategies, then there is no point in spending money on an unnecessary discrete graphics card.
Fortnite with the Performance profile almost never bumps into integrated graphics. The only nuance is that when using an iGPU, the processor performance slightly decreases, so we have a higher FPS with a discrete graphics card.
Forza Horizon 5 has excellent optimization, so it works with the Radeon 780M at medium graphics settings without any problems. Even without upscaling, the frame rate never dropped below 60 FPS. In theory, such high-quality AAA games can be run on a Quad HD monitor with Ryzen 7 8700G.
Starfield is too hard. It’s literally impossible to play at 17 FPS, and the graphics settings are already set to the minimum. Using a discrete graphics accelerator increases the FPS by 6 times.
For Diablo IV The power of the integrated graphics is a stretch. Destroying demons at 40+ FPS would be comfortable, if not for the twitching. The picture is not very smooth, and it also requires a lot of RAM. The game alone without background programs can consume up to 25 GB of RAM if you set the textures to the highest quality. This suggests that the owner of the 8700G should definitely buy a set of at least 2×16 GB, not 2×8 GB.
So, we can confidently determine the position of Radeon 780M on the market. Currently, it is the most powerful integrated graphics card for desktop computers, which allows you to play 99% of video games that have ever been released on the Windows platform. The rest, that is, 1% of the most demanding projects, will work, but the frame rate will leave much to be desired.
For the popular games played by the vast majority of gamers (World of Tanks, Fortnite, Dota 2, Counter Strike 2, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, War Thunder, Fall Guys, Minecraft, Rocket League, StarCraft 2), AMD Ryzen 7 8700G is completely sufficient.
Power consumption and heating of AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
In the stress tests, the processor required no more than 105 watts without power limits. In typical usage scenarios, the processor consumes 30–60 watts. In the motherboard firmware settings, we set the temperature limit to 85 °C and configured AMD Precision Boost Overdrive with the Negative 20 parameter, which reduced the core voltage by 20 mV. This resulted in a 2 to 9% performance gain in most benchmarks.
Despite its economy, it is very difficult to remove heat from a 4 nm crystal. With a box cooler, the CPU performance is still high, but there is an unpleasant noise in the room. 3000 rpm is 3000 rpm, physics cannot be fooled, so for comfortable use, it is recommended to buy a better cooling system.
With a boxed cooler, TDP drops to 65–70 watts, i.e. by 30-35%, but performance suffers less. You can artificially limit the fan speed, although in this case, the computer’s performance will decrease even more compared to a large cooling system.
Low temperatures can only be seen with liquid metal or top-of-the-line thermal paste. It is more difficult to cool a 100W AMD Ryzen 7 8700G than a 200W Intel Core i5-14600K. The Dark Rock Elite tower is one of the best air coolers on the market, but even it had a hard time, as the processor warmed up to 83 °C.
Probably, a flagship thermal paste (much better than MX-4) would have reduced the temperature by 1-3 °C, but for a serious result, you need liquid metal. It is almost impossible to see 65-70 °C in stress tests at a room temperature of 22 °C with this CPU. The complexity of heat dissipation is the price users pay for high performance at 1W. AM5 owners should get used to the fact that 80-90 °C on the processor is becoming the norm.
Noise with a box cooler reaches 55 dB near the computer, and in addition we have the low-frequency vibrations of the bearing of an inexpensive box fan. A meter away from the system unit, the sound level meter records 40-47 dB. With Dark Rock Elite, the unpleasant humming disappears completely, and only the pleasant rustling of the fan blades is heard.
The PC still can’t be called a quiet one because even with 280W, the tower is forced to operate at 1500 rpm in stress tests. Inside the PC, we have 47 dB at 5 cm from the cooler, and 35 dB at a meter away. Working in such conditions is much more pleasant, but the temperatures are still high — up to 85 °C. The power supply area of the motherboard is not stressed at all and remains the same as when watching a video. It is unlikely to get more than 40 °C on the motherboard.
Any motherboard with a simple power supply is suitable for the 8700G, but you will have to take care of cooling the crystal itself. Another option is to limit power consumption by lowering the maximum speed of the cooler. This way you will lose a little performance, but you will get a quieter computer.
In typical usage scenarios (not stress tests), the temperature is quite acceptable, so you should only make a problem out of it if you use your PC intensively, as if I paid for the product, I will utilize all its power 24/7.
Experience of use
During testing with the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G processor, a problem arose with the integrated graphics. With high-speed RAM, graphic artifacts could be seen on the screen. They were most noticeable on a white background, on the desktop, in the browser, and in games.
It’s enough to connect a video cable to a discrete video card, and everything works as it should. This strange behavior somewhat spoiled the experience of using the device because I had to spend a lot of time testing the built-in graphics. We hope that this is an isolated case and not a widespread problem.
Price and competitors of AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
The review’s hero is being asked for from 13,800 UAH, which is slightly cheaper AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. There are no direct competitors in AMD Ryzen 7 8700G no because it is currently the most powerful APU on the market. The closest alternative is the affordable (9200 UAH) AMD Ryzen 5 8600Gwhich will be an ideal choice for mini cases. Its review is coming soon to the website.
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G is the best APU for the AM4, although it is noticeably weaker than the 8700G, sometimes by several times. A good option for work and undemanding games. The price is 8200 UAH.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G — a great 6-core processor for the money. Despite the much lower processor performance, it is still relevant. The price is 5200 UAH.
Apple Silicon processors are also worth mentioning, as they have many times more powerful integrated graphics (at the level of mid-range NVIDIA RTX). The only caveat is that the computer is sold only as a complete unit, and for a lot of money. For the top version of Mac Studio with M2 Ultra will have to pay almost UAH 300,000.