Struggling to find graphics cards in this era of silicon scarcity, AMD may be suggesting that with the new Ryzen 7 5700G, graphics cards may not necessarily be necessary for PC gaming today.

AMD's Ryzen 5000 series CPUs have been very well received, but like other processor and graphics card manufacturers, AMD has been affected by problems in the overall semiconductor market. Limited supply has made the production of high-end chips a priority in both the red-team CPU and GPU stacks. This means that no truly affordable Zen 3-based processors have appeared, at least in the retail market.

That will not necessarily change today with the introduction of the "Cezanne" family of APUs. The first of these is the $359 8-core Ryzen 7 5700G. This is joined by the $229 hexa-core Ryzen 5 5600G and the quad-core Ryzen 3 5300G. This is slightly below the current prices of the GPU-less Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X, and arguably a better value.

But finally, AMD has a processor that combines the powerful Zen 3 architecture with high-performance Vega-based integrated graphics. These are the first in the retail market since the Zen+-based 3200G and 3400G were released in mid-2019.

That said, it feels like a strange reversal with Steam Deck's new APUs, which combine the older Zen 2 CPU architecture with the two-generation-old RDNA 2 graphics core.

AMD has traditionally offered strong integrated graphics solutions; even during the pre-Ryzen doldrums, the company's APUs always filled a solid niche in the market. And even more so during the current chip crisis when many gamers could not find or afford discrete graphics solutions.

The promise of Zen3 cores and best-in-class integrated graphics is eagerly awaited, and we will keep a close eye on how the complete 5000G series models penetrate the market. After all, it was difficult to find AMD APUs for sale even before the latest chip supply problems began in earnest. The 5000G series, however, is intended to help AMD regain full competitiveness in the low- to mid-market, even though the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X have yet to be replaced by Zen 3-compatible products.

I still find it quite shocking that Intel's 11th generation Core i5 11400 and i5 11500 are currently the best budget CPUs, while AMD's 12 and 16 core models are aimed at enthusiasts. Traditionally, the processor market has been completely the opposite.

Moving on to the specs of the 5700G, it is a Zen 3-based processor with 8 cores and 16 threads on a 7nm, 180mm2, 10.7 billion transistor monolithic die. By monolithic, we mean that unlike the chiplet designs of other Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, everything is squeezed into one traditional package design.

The 5700G has a base frequency of 3.8 GHz and a boost frequency of 4.6 GHz, but a TDP of 65W. However, to achieve this 65W target, several sacrifices had to be made. It was not simply a matter of downclocking the 5800X and adding integrated graphics. [it] lost half of its L3 cache (16MB versus the 5800X's 32MB) and PCIe 4.0 support. The latter is certainly undesirable, but aside from losing the peak performance of NVMe SSDs, much of the target market may not notice. Official memory support is DDR4-3200, the same as other Zen 3 chips.

Notably, it also includes AMD's Wraith Stealth cooler. This is a nice addition, but adequate at best, and would be surpassed by most aftermarket AM4 CPU coolers.

Integrated graphics are best in class, though reworked and optimized, but still based on the outdated Vega architecture, consisting of eight compute units and 512 GCN cores, running at 2 GHz. RDNA based graphics will have to wait at least one more generation, not to mention RDNA 2.

AMD's integrated Vega GPUs are known to benefit from faster memory, so if you plan to game with this GPU, add a few dollars to the standard DDR4-3200 memory support and buy a decent set of DDR4-3600 RAM for a few frames I would recommend increasing the number of frames. It will really show in game performance.

CPU performance

Forget the graphics side for a moment and you will find that the Ryzen 7 5700G is a perfectly capable general purpose processor.

Productivity and gaming tasks are all a big step forward over the popular Zen 2 Ryzen 7 3700X. The exception is SSD sequential performance, where the lack of PCIe 4.0 puts it at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the Ryzen 5000 class; the 5800X performs better due to its higher boost clock, TDP leeway, and increased cache. This is to be expected, and the extra cache certainly helps in terms of getting higher frame rates under CPU-limited gaming loads.

As always, the advantage of a faster processor itself diminishes as the load shifts back to the GPU; it is worth noting that the 5700G equals or exceeds the Intel Core i9 9900K, a CPU still found in many high-end gaming rigs today.

1080p iGPU gaming performance

720p iGPU gaming performance

However, when it comes to integrated graphics performance, there is the 5700G, and then there is a bright spot in the competition: Valve's Steam Deck (upgraded 8 compute unit with RDNA 2 GPU silicon) should be exciting for anyone who wants to know even a little bit about how it performs, the fact that the older Vega chips can deliver 1080p gaming at low settings on a loaded title like "Metro Exodus".

This means that games from a few years ago and less demanding esport titles are perfectly playable. Intel's Xe is a step forward over older UHD graphics, but the 14nm Rocket Lake processors have too few EUs to be competitive.

Will Alder Lake turn things around again; AMD still has RDNA 2.

Zen 3 processors offer great power efficiency, and the 5700G follows suit. Core i7 11700K, for example, consumes three times that much.

On the temperature front, the 5700G is not demanding; even with a 240mm Corsair cooler, peak temperatures were in the mid-60s with little stress. Even modest aftermarket air-cooled coolers would not be stretched by the 5700G.

Summing up the 5700G needs to be done in context: the 5700G is very good in most respects, but competing solutions have certain advantages: the 5800X is a superior processor with more cache and PCIe 4.0; Intel's i5 Rocket Lake processor is more affordable and excels at gaming with discrete GPUs.

While the 5700G's graphics performance is certainly class-leading, it is as true as ever that integrated graphics cannot offer the horsepower of low-end discrete GPUs.

Would the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G be considered inferior? While an aftermarket cooler and discrete GPU are absolutely necessary to run the Ryzen 7 5800X, the eight-core Rocket Lake chip runs hotter and can consume three times more power. [The 5700G offers great convenience, substantial processing and graphics performance, and it does it within the 65W range. [If you are looking for a powerful HTPC, a small form factor machine, a PC for heavy multitasking, or something with integrated graphics as a bridge until the GPU market returns to normal, the 5700G is a great APU. It would also be a great upgrade for those with systems that are a few years old. Add a high-end GPU, even a GeForce RTX 3090 or Radeon RX 6900 XT, and with all the eye candy up, you will hardly lose any real-world performance compared to other processors.

We know that many PC gamers have been patiently waiting for the Zen 3 APU, and the powerful IPC and multi-threaded performance that Zen 3 brings, combined with top-end integrated graphics, is just the ticket. You can enjoy basic gaming with a monitor or two, or more serious gaming with older or eSports titles, and still keep the TDP around 65W. If you're looking for a high-performance, do-everything silicon, look no further than AMD's Ryzen 7 5700G.