AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Review: Fastest Integrated Graphics Ever

AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Review: Fastest Integrated Graphics Ever

By Paul Alcorn 12 September 2021

Our Verdict

If you’re willing to accept lower fidelity and a limited selection of titles, AMD’s Ryzen 7 5700G brings unbeatable 1080p and excellent 1280×720 gaming to iGPUs. However, its less expensive sibling, the Ryzen 5 5600G, is a better value.

• + Faster Zen 3 CPU cores
• + Solid 1080p gaming, excellent 720p
• + Superior power consumption and efficiency
• + Expansive overclocking headroom
• + Bundled cooler
• + Compatible with some AM4 motherboards

Against

• – 5600G model has better price-to-performance ratio
• – PCIe 3.0 connectivity

Ryzen APUs Level Up

• Page 1: Ryzen APUs Level Up
• Page 2: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Power Consumption, Overclocking and Thermals
• Page 3: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G iGPU Gaming Benchmarks
• Page 4: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Discrete GPU Gaming Performance
• Page 5: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Application Benchmarks
• Page 6: Conclusion

The eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G marks the arrival of AMD’s first 7nm ‘Cezanne’ Zen 3 APUs for desktop PCs. AMD plans to use the Cezanne chips to plug big price gaps in its Ryzen 5000 lineup that dominates our Best CPU list and CPU Benchmark hierarchy, but they were previously limited to the OEM market until the full retail launch on August 5, 2021. Anticipation was high, though, so we grabbed an off-the-shelf system from HP to take the Ryzen 7 5700G for a spin for an early look at performance. Now we’re back to fill in the final gaps with some additional testing, including overclocking.

The Cezanne chips are the first AMD APUs available at retail since the quad-core Zen+ “Picasso” models landed back in 2019. AMD actually replaced its Picasso chips with the eight-core Zen 2-powered Ryzen Pro “Renoir” series in 2020, but in a disappointing development, it reserved those chips for OEMs. Unfortunately, that means APUs with the aging Zen+ architecture were the best you could find at retail, even though AMD has already progressed through three chip generations in the interim (Zen 2, XT, Zen 3).

AMD’s decision to keep those chips off the retail market couldn’t have come at a worse time. The pandemic triggered an unprecedented PC upgrade cycle right as supply chain disruptions and component shortages rocked the globe and cryptomining reemerged, all conspiring to create the most severe GPU shortage in history. With discrete GPUs nowhere to be found, the Renoir chips and their serviceable integrated GPUs would have been a godsend for gamers looking to wait out the GPU shortage, but the shortage found even AMD’s last-gen Picasso chips disappearing entirely from shelves.

AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 chips in the interim, but the company’s pivot to premium pricing exposed two weaknesses in its product stack, including a steep $300 minimum price of entry to the Zen 3 family and a big $150 gap between its Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 families. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel’s Rocket Lake blasted in a few months ago and plugged those pricing gaps, catching AMD uncharacteristically flat-footed.

The Cezanne APUs, which come with Zen 3 execution cores paired with the Radeon Vega graphics engine, look to solve several problems at once. Instead of its traditional separation of the CPU and APU lines, AMD slots the Cezanne chips right into its Ryzen 5000 stack — AMD says they fill the role of the standard “non-X” models that traditionally offer more attractive price points at a given core count by sacrificing peak clock speed for a lower TDP. That means the 5700G should essentially slot in as a Ryzen 7 5800, which doesn’t make a lot of sense given that AMD actually has a Ryzen 7 5800 that is OEM-only. We’ll dive into that a bit more later.

According to AMD, Cezanne is the cure for all of Ryzen 5000’s pricing ills, with the $359 eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G plugging the gulf between the Ryzen 7 and 5 lineups, while the $259 six-core Ryzen 5 5600G reduces the steep price of entry to the Zen 3 lineup. Both chips also come with a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler, sweetening the deal.

AMD is still holding back several of its lower-end APUs from the retail market, but given the ongoing graphics card shortages, the Cezanne APUs could be a welcome sight for the gaming market. That is if the chips actually slot in between the performance of their Ryzen counterparts. That’s a tall order given that the tradeoffs associated with their monolithic die design, which differs significantly from the chiplet-based Ryzen 5000 chips. Let’s see how it all works out.

Ryzen APUs Level Up

• Page 1: Ryzen APUs Level Up
• Page 2: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Power Consumption, Overclocking and Thermals
• Page 3: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G iGPU Gaming Benchmarks
• Page 4: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Discrete GPU Gaming Performance
• Page 5: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Application Benchmarks
• Page 6: Conclusion

The eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G marks the arrival of AMD’s first 7nm ‘Cezanne’ Zen 3 APUs for desktop PCs. AMD plans to use the Cezanne chips to plug big price gaps in its Ryzen 5000 lineup that dominates our Best CPU list and CPU Benchmark hierarchy, but they were previously limited to the OEM market until the full retail launch on August 5, 2021. Anticipation was high, though, so we grabbed an off-the-shelf system from HP to take the Ryzen 7 5700G for a spin for an early look at performance. Now we’re back to fill in the final gaps with some additional testing, including overclocking.

The Cezanne chips are the first AMD APUs available at retail since the quad-core Zen+ “Picasso” models landed back in 2019. AMD actually replaced its Picasso chips with the eight-core Zen 2-powered Ryzen Pro “Renoir” series in 2020, but in a disappointing development, it reserved those chips for OEMs. Unfortunately, that means APUs with the aging Zen+ architecture were the best you could find at retail, even though AMD has already progressed through three chip generations in the interim (Zen 2, XT, Zen 3).

AMD’s decision to keep those chips off the retail market couldn’t have come at a worse time. The pandemic triggered an unprecedented PC upgrade cycle right as supply chain disruptions and component shortages rocked the globe and cryptomining reemerged, all conspiring to create the most severe GPU shortage in history. With discrete GPUs nowhere to be found, the Renoir chips and their serviceable integrated GPUs would have been a godsend for gamers looking to wait out the GPU shortage, but the shortage found even AMD’s last-gen Picasso chips disappearing entirely from shelves.

AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 chips in the interim, but the company’s pivot to premium pricing exposed two weaknesses in its product stack, including a steep $300 minimum price of entry to the Zen 3 family and a big $150 gap between its Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 families. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel’s Rocket Lake blasted in a few months ago and plugged those pricing gaps, catching AMD uncharacteristically flat-footed.

The Cezanne APUs, which come with Zen 3 execution cores paired with the Radeon Vega graphics engine, look to solve several problems at once. Instead of its traditional separation of the CPU and APU lines, AMD slots the Cezanne chips right into its Ryzen 5000 stack — AMD says they fill the role of the standard “non-X” models that traditionally offer more attractive price points at a given core count by sacrificing peak clock speed for a lower TDP. That means the 5700G should essentially slot in as a Ryzen 7 5800, which doesn’t make a lot of sense given that AMD actually has a Ryzen 7 5800 that is OEM-only. We’ll dive into that a bit more later.

According to AMD, Cezanne is the cure for all of Ryzen 5000’s pricing ills, with the $359 eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G plugging the gulf between the Ryzen 7 and 5 lineups, while the $259 six-core Ryzen 5 5600G reduces the steep price of entry to the Zen 3 lineup. Both chips also come with a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler, sweetening the deal.

AMD is still holding back several of its lower-end APUs from the retail market, but given the ongoing graphics card shortages, the Cezanne APUs could be a welcome sight for the gaming market. That is if the chips actually slot in between the performance of their Ryzen counterparts. That’s a tall order given that the tradeoffs associated with their monolithic die design, which differs significantly from the chiplet-based Ryzen 5000 chips. Let’s see how it all works out.

Ryzen APUs Level Up

• Page 1: Ryzen APUs Level Up
• Page 2: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Power Consumption, Overclocking and Thermals
• Page 3: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G iGPU Gaming Benchmarks
• Page 4: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Discrete GPU Gaming Performance
• Page 5: AMD Ryzen 5 5700G Application Benchmarks
• Page 6: Conclusion

The eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G marks the arrival of AMD’s first 7nm ‘Cezanne’ Zen 3 APUs for desktop PCs. AMD plans to use the Cezanne chips to plug big price gaps in its Ryzen 5000 lineup that dominates our Best CPU list and CPU Benchmark hierarchy, but they were previously limited to the OEM market until the full retail launch on August 5, 2021. Anticipation was high, though, so we grabbed an off-the-shelf system from HP to take the Ryzen 7 5700G for a spin for an early look at performance. Now we’re back to fill in the final gaps with some additional testing, including overclocking.

The Cezanne chips are the first AMD APUs available at retail since the quad-core Zen+ “Picasso” models landed back in 2019. AMD actually replaced its Picasso chips with the eight-core Zen 2-powered Ryzen Pro “Renoir” series in 2020, but in a disappointing development, it reserved those chips for OEMs. Unfortunately, that means APUs with the aging Zen+ architecture were the best you could find at retail, even though AMD has already progressed through three chip generations in the interim (Zen 2, XT, Zen 3).

AMD’s decision to keep those chips off the retail market couldn’t have come at a worse time. The pandemic triggered an unprecedented PC upgrade cycle right as supply chain disruptions and component shortages rocked the globe and cryptomining reemerged, all conspiring to create the most severe GPU shortage in history. With discrete GPUs nowhere to be found, the Renoir chips and their serviceable integrated GPUs would have been a godsend for gamers looking to wait out the GPU shortage, but the shortage found even AMD’s last-gen Picasso chips disappearing entirely from shelves.

AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 chips in the interim, but the company’s pivot to premium pricing exposed two weaknesses in its product stack, including a steep $300 minimum price of entry to the Zen 3 family and a big $150 gap between its Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 families. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel’s Rocket Lake blasted in a few months ago and plugged those pricing gaps, catching AMD uncharacteristically flat-footed.

The Cezanne APUs, which come with Zen 3 execution cores paired with the Radeon Vega graphics engine, look to solve several problems at once. Instead of its traditional separation of the CPU and APU lines, AMD slots the Cezanne chips right into its Ryzen 5000 stack — AMD says they fill the role of the standard “non-X” models that traditionally offer more attractive price points at a given core count by sacrificing peak clock speed for a lower TDP. That means the 5700G should essentially slot in as a Ryzen 7 5800, which doesn’t make a lot of sense given that AMD actually has a Ryzen 7 5800 that is OEM-only. We’ll dive into that a bit more later.

According to AMD, Cezanne is the cure for all of Ryzen 5000’s pricing ills, with the $359 eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G plugging the gulf between the Ryzen 7 and 5 lineups, while the $259 six-core Ryzen 5 5600G reduces the steep price of entry to the Zen 3 lineup. Both chips also come with a bundled Wraith Stealth cooler, sweetening the deal.

AMD is still holding back several of its lower-end APUs from the retail market, but given the ongoing graphics card shortages, the Cezanne APUs could be a welcome sight for the gaming market. That is if the chips actually slot in between the performance of their Ryzen counterparts. That’s a tall order given that the tradeoffs associated with their monolithic die design, which differs significantly from the chiplet-based Ryzen 5000 chips. Let’s see how it all works out.