AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Review — 1080p-Capable Gaming Comes to Integrated Graphics

Zen 4, RDNA 3, and AM5 excite.

Ryzen 7 8700G
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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AMD Ryzen 7 8700G Discrete GPU Gaming Performance — The TLDR 

This class of chip isn't meant to be paired with a discrete GPU, but this could be useful info if you upgrade to a more powerful GPU in the future. We include these results for the sake of being complete, but the iGPU benchmarks on the preceding page are far more relevant for these APUs.

Below, you can see the geometric mean of our gaming tests at 1080p and 1440p, with each resolution split into its own chart. As per our standard policy, we tested with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 to reduce GPU-imposed bottlenecks as much as possible, but differences between test subjects will shrink with lesser cards or higher resolutions.

These are cumulative metrics of our dGPU test suite, so individual wins vary on a per-title basis, which you can see further below. Some of these same benchmarks appeared in our integrated GPU testing on the prior page, but we used (much) higher quality settings for the tests below.

We added a few of AMD's Ryzen 7000 models to the mix for this round of testing, and they clearly have much higher overall performance with a discrete GPU than the Ryzen 8000G models.

For instance, the eight-core Ryzen 7 7700X delivers 20% more performance at stock settings than the Ryzen 7 8700G, and even though the latter's overclock does improve its standing, the 7700X is also overclockable, which would provide it a further lead. Additionally, the less-expensive Ryzen 7 7600X also delivers 10% more performance than the 8700G. Both of these chips are available as 'non-X' models, the Ryzen 7 7700 and the Ryzen 5 7600, which are ~$30 less than their X-equipped counterparts yet provide nearly the same performance. We use the 'X' models as proxies, but you can find an even better deal and similar performance from the Zen 4 camp for less than shown here.

Intel's Core i5-13400 lands between the Ryzen 5 8600G and the Ryzen 7 8700G, with slim margins on either side. In contrast, the Core i5-14600K blows past both Ryzen 8000G processors, delivering 25% more 1080p gaming performance than the Ryzen 7 8700G.

The Ryzen 7 8700G is a big upgrade over its prior-gen siblings; it's 21% faster than the Ryzen 7 5700G and 25% faster than the Ryzen 5 4700G. Overclocking can also squeeze out an extra 4~5% performance, but that's a limited improvement compared to the cost it will add to your build.

The Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G aren't the best options if you plan to use a discrete graphics card. Both AMD and Intel have much better options for systems focused on discrete GPUs.

We've included the full gaming benchmarks below, but given that this isn't the targeted use case for this chip, we'll skip the commentary.  

Borderlands 3 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Cyberpunk 2077 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

F1 2023 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Ryzen 7 8700G

(Image credit: Future)

Far Cry 6 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Hitman 3 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Minecraft on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Ryzen 7 8700G

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2021 on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Watch Dogs Legion on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Factorio on AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

  • usertests
    AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Hyper-RX, Power Consumption, Overclocking, Test Setup
    Hyper-RX -> HYPR-RX
    "The Ryzen 7 8700G utterly destroys the previous-gen Ryzen 7 8700G"

    This review appears to be much more favorable to the 8700G. AnandTech did all testing at DDR5-5200.

    Gamers Nexus found an issue with STAPM being enabled and degrading performance. That's Skin Temperature Aware Power Management, which obviously is not relevant to desktop APUs in a desktop computer.

    There have been good bundles in the US with 7600X/7800X3D + motherboard + DDR5. Micro Center obviously but also Newegg.

    https://slickdeals.net/f/17261224
    If you do live near a Micro Center, take note of the stupidly low open box prices on DDR5-6000 kits. These returns aren't happening because the memory is bad. Maybe it's because they were included in so many bundles:
    https://www.microcenter.com/category/4294966965/desktop-memory-ram?storeid=181
    Reply
  • suryasans
    I will wait another year to buy Ryzen 8000G series as these APUs are still not a good value in terms of price/performance.
    Reply
  • suryasans
    The included AI accelerator needs to be exposed in Gaming. It Will become a break through if the Ryzen 8700G GPU+NPU can be combined with discrete Graphics like Radeon RX 7600 to accelerate ray tracing effects in Gaming in the same FPS like Ray tracing effects disabled.
    Reply
  • logainofhades
    For the price of an 8700g, 32gb ddr5 ram, and motherboard, you could build something like a 5700x, 32gb ddr4, b550 board, and an RX 6600, that would destroy the IGP in the 8700g. The price is simply too high.
    Reply
  • jxdking
    8700G is weird.
    Only with half the L3 cache of 7700x, it doesn't perform well in game even with a dgpu.
    Reply
  • logainofhades
    jxdking said:
    8700G is weird.
    Only with half the L3 cache of 7700x, it doesn't perform well in game even with a dgpu.

    Some of those issues may be related to what GN discovered, as mentioned earlier.
    Reply
  • Tom Sunday
    suryasans said:
    I will wait another year to buy Ryzen 8000G series as these APUs are still not a good value in terms of price/performance.
    The kids in their 'VANS T-Shirts' at GameStop are of a different opinion regarding all of the hoopla being now offered on the various tech channel reviews. Their argument is that the 8700G will not in real life have the same juice or capability of a (2019) GTX 1650 mobile and which so far allowed them playing quite satisfactory 80%+ of their mostly outdated and now starkly reduced on-sale games. And no matter what AMD is now promising the new 'Phoenix' chips are being capable off!

    For me these new Phoenix editions are essentially pointless as well. The three-star rating here in way telling the story! The Phoenix line I also think represents a niche product and the niche here is even smaller than with the once mighty Threadripper. Making me wonder why AMD would even bring this kind of new product to the market! Talking about niches:
    Office PC: Too much GPU performance
    Gaming PC: Much too little GPU performance
    Parents PC: Too much GPU performance
    Multimedia PC: Marginal at best
    Children's PC (simple games): PossibleAccording to current rumors, Zen5 x3D will not come onto the market until 2025 and which would be my first consideration all things considered. Finally it will be curious to see in see how AMD sells or will market these new APUs through their strategic partners.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    For very compact gaming PC only ... otherwise , not worth the money.
    Reply
  • usertests
    suryasans said:
    The included AI accelerator needs to be exposed in Gaming. It Will become a break through if the Ryzen 8700G GPU+NPU can be combined with discrete Graphics like Radeon RX 7600 to accelerate ray tracing effects in Gaming in the same FPS like Ray tracing effects disabled.
    16 TOPS is weak. It has an efficiency advantage in laptops when it can be used. I don't think there's any chance that it can make upscaling or raytracing better.

    We'll see how XDNA 2.0 does at a significantly higher 45-50 TOPS. But I would still bet that it is not utilized by games anytime soon, or for offloading functions that are already handled by a dGPU. (I would love to be proven wrong, I still think it's a neat accelerator to have.)

    jxdking said:
    8700G is weird.
    Only with half the L3 cache of 7700x, it doesn't perform well in game even with a dgpu.
    Should be interesting to see how Strix Point does with increased 24 MiB L3 cache, but also a dual-CCX design.
    Reply
  • artk2219
    AM5 really does need a cost reduction on the chipset, to help lower motherboard pricing since you cant do much about the RAM cost. Hopefully that can be addressed whenever they release the x700 series, i'm sure theyre also not worrying about it as its selling anyway, even with the high price. In the long run it's likely not sustainable, hopefully they figure that out before they have another socket 939 moment.
    Reply