Engineering samples of an unreleased AMD APU are for sale on eBay. Not only that, but there are some benchmarks out there, and they are impressive. Behold, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G. [According to images scooped up by Twitter user harukaze5719, it is said to be an 8-core processor capable of playing with up to 16 threads, which would put the Ryzen 7 5700G in line with the previous generation Ryzen 7 4700G in core count. However, this chip appears to be listed as a Cezanne chip. This means that it matches under the hood the Ryzen 5000 mobile chip launched earlier this year with the Zen 3 architecture, rather than the previous generation Zen 2 architecture and some newer low-power chips.

All the advantages Zen 3 brings to APUs. Incidentally, Zen 3 has many advantages. In addition, it has a boost clock of 4.5 GHz and a base clock of 3.7 GHz, a 100 MHz improvement over the 4000 series. These are engineering samples and are subject to change.

The listing also oddly lists possible overclocks for this chip: "Buyer feedback: boost to 4.7GHz at 1.425V (depends on high-end MB and skill), 4.6GHz at 1.3V.

The seller does not know what the chip's TDP is. We don't know, but it is probably 65W and can be configured up to 45W if needed.

It is not only the CPU that you get with AMD APUs, but the graphics as well. In this case, AMD's semi-non-branded "Radeon Graphics" will surely be included, which is a slightly modified version of the 8-core Vega architecture.

Expect the 5000 series APUs to be available, unlike the 4000 series; the Ryzen 4000 series desktop APUs are OEM-only and you can't pick one off the shelf for a DIY build.

This is a bit disappointing. Not only were these desktop APUs perfect for low-budget gamers who might upgrade to a GPU in the future, but they were also perfect for small form factor builds that could actually deliver a 1080p gaming experience. Granted, these graphics are by no means excellent, but you'll rarely see anything like them if you limit yourself to OEMs.

The list also includes one Cinebench R23 benchmark, which shows the performance of an 8-core chip, as one would expect from an 8-core Zen 3 processor. This benchmark shows that the 8-core Zen 3 processor performs as expected.

According to a sketchy eBay listing, such an engineering sample can be had for $500 (down from $1000 just a few weeks ago). Is it worth it? Probably not, not even the graphics driver support needed to make most parts of it work. But it's a fun piece of AMD engineering, albeit almost certainly obtained illegally, and the DIY-friendly Ryzen 5 3400G was $149 when it first came out. But whatever the final price, it may be ephemeral anyway, as we're still not convinced we'll see this product outside of the OEM market.

That is not a reason to buy it now. Again, the legal situation here is shaky.