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AMD’s new Ryzen 3000 desktop APUs have arrived, starting at $259

AMD has just announced the release of two new Accelerated Processing Units (APU) — the Ryzen 7 5700G and the Ryzen 5 5600G. Combining a CPU and GPU into one, these units are AMD’s response to Intel’s onboard graphics solutions. The company also talked about four new AMD Ryzen Pro 5000-series processors that are set to hit the market soon.

The last APUs launched by AMD were a part of the Ryzen 3000 Series. With this big of a jump, some kind of performance gain is inevitable. However, going by AMD’s benchmarks and the specifications of the new units reveals a lot of promise that goes beyond what you’d expect from an APU.

Both of the new models are 65-watt processors built for desktops and laptops. Ryzen 7 5700G is an eight-core, 16-thread APU with an up to 4.6 GHz clock speed, a 16MB L3 cache, and eight CUs (control units). The slightly less powerful sibling, Ryzen 5 5600G, is a six-core, 12-thread CPU. It comes with a 16MB L3 cache and seven CUs.

AMD APU
AMD

AMD promises impressive performance from the integrated graphics card, allowing content creators and gamers to consider the new Ryzen G-series APUs for their budget setups. The company’s internal benchmarks reveal that the Ryzen 7 5700G offers 1080p gaming with an average of 78 frames per second (fps) on high settings. Comparing this model to an Intel Core i7-11700 processor shows an up to 2.45x increase in frames in some titles.

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Of course, the gaming performance may vary depending on the title that you’re playing. When it comes to GPU-bound games, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, you won’t see a major improvement compared to previous APUs. However, CPU-bound games such as League of Legends might see an up to 60% boost.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

When it comes to the new Ryzen Pro desktop processors, AMD announced four new models made especially for business users — the AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 G-Series and GE-Series. The former were created for small form factor PCs, while the latter are aimed at ultrasmall desktops. 

These processors are not going to be RDNA 2 based — instead, they will use Vega just like their mobile counterparts. AMD is transitioning to Zen 3 cores, improving performance and power efficiency. The Pro CPUs were built for space-saving, quiet, and cool setups, so their power usage is low — 65W and 35W for G-Series and GE-Series respectively.

AMD Ryzen Pro
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The new G-Series processors offer up to eight cores and 16 threads, up to 4.6GHz, and a maximum 20MB cache. All of them feature a 7nm process node. AMD emphasized the importance of security in these processors, highlighting features such as AMD Shadow Stack to prove that safety was treated as a priority.

While we don’t know the pricing and availability of the new Pro series CPUs, AMD revealed that the new APUs are going to hit the market on August 5 this year. The Ryzen 7 5700G is going to be priced at $395, and the Ryzen 5 5600G — at $259. If the performance promised by AMD holds true, these CPU and GPU combos might make for interesting additions to budget desktops.

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Monica J. White
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
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