AMD Ryzen 7 8700G tested in a gaming test

Over 60 frames per second without a graphics card. This is the promise made by AMD on a slide at the presentation of the Ryzen 8700G APU (Accelerated Processing Unit). The built-in Radeon 780M graphics unit is supposed to make this possible. I check this promise and run the APU through my games test course.

Processors

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AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

AM5, 4.20 GHz, 8 -Core

7

Processors

EUR264,–

AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

AM5, 4.20 GHz, 8 -Core

7

You can find the specifications and more information about the APU in the article introducing Florian Bodoky.

Test setup and method

I used the following components for the review. They were provided to me by the manufacturers for the tests:

Processors

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AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

AM5, 4.20 GHz, 8 -Core

7

Motherboards

EUR259,09

Gigabyte GIGA X670 AORUS ELITE AX AM5/DDR5/ATX

AM5, AMD X670, ATX

24

CPU water coolers

Arctic Liquid Freezer II - 360

213

RAM

EUR116,34

G.Skill Ripjaws S5

2 x 16GB, 6000 MHz, DDR5 RAM, DIMM

66

SSD

Crucial P5 Plus

1000 GB, M.2 2280

74

Graphics card

EUR270,56

Gigabyte VGA PCIE16 RX7600 8GB GDDR6/GV-R76GAMING OC-8GD

8 GB

The system runs on Windows 11 version 23H2 (22631.3085). I use BIOS version F21 and activate XMP. Otherwise I leave everything on standard, Resizable BAR is activated. For the graphics cards, I use version 23.20.24.2310 of the iGPU driver and 23.19.05 of the dedicated graphics card.

Here is an overview of the various games:

• "Anno 1800"
• "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla"
• "Civilisation VI"
• "Cyberpunk 2077"
• "Far Cry 6"
• "Gears of War 5"
• "Red Dead Redemption 2"
• "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"

As a rule, I also test "Forza Horizon 5" with an in-game benchmark. However, the game does not yet recognise the iGPU at the time of testing and I therefore cannot make any settings. Since V-Sync is activated, I only achieve 60 frames per second when playing. Still, that's not bad for an integrated graphics unit.

I run all benchmarks three times and take the best result. I use the lowest and highest possible default settings for the games. Otherwise, I leave everything on default except for the 1080p resolution. I leave FSR deactivated. In this review, I'm interested in the rasterisation performance of the games without additional tools. I will go into the upscaling technologies in a separate section.

The performance in games: 60 frames per second is not always enough

On the following slides, you can see the arithmetic mean of the frames per second (FPS) of the eight benchmark games compared to the Radeon RX 7600. I chose this card because it is the weakest dedicated graphics card of the current generation from AMD. If you click further in the galleries, you can see the results of the individual games.

Even though the RX 7600 is currently the weakest dedicated AMD GPU, the iGPU Radeon 780M doesn't stand a chance. At the lowest possible settings, the RX 7600 is 147 per cent ahead, at the highest possible settings even 197 per cent.

The difference in the percentiles is not quite as great. The measured values of the percentiles are frame times classically measured in milliseconds. In other words, the time intervals from frame to frame. 99 percentile means that 99 per cent of all measured values are faster than the specified measured value. Here, the 780M is 122 per cent faster than the 7600.

The 780M performs better in terms of efficiency

The differences in games sound enormous at first. However, if I add the required performance in watts, it doesn't look so stark. In the following diagram, you can see the average power in watts in different scenarios. In the first case, only the performance of the APU and in the second case, the APU and the dedicated GPU combined.

With the highest possible setting in 1080p, the APU and the dedicated GPU draw 190 per cent more power than the APU alone. Calculated in watts per FPS, things also look better for the APU: the APU needs 1.93 watts per FPS and the APU needs 1.97 watts per FPS in combination with the dedicated GPU. A small difference, but still.

There is one small caveat to this result: as the iGPU relies on the RAM, it requires more power when gaming. To be precise: 2 watts more. But even so, only the APU performs better with 1.88 watts per FPS. The system is therefore efficient.

Another note on the temperatures: In my tests, the 8700G reached an average temperature of 52 degrees Celsius while gaming. This is extremely cool, but with a maximum power output of 85 watts, this is to be expected.

Over 60 FPS thanks to upscaling

As you can see from the graphics above, the 8700G does not achieve 60 FPS at the lowest possible level of detail in all games. This changes when I activate FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). This is the upscaling technology from AMD. This increases the frame rates in games. In "Cyberpunk 2077", this is available in version 2.1. If I activate FSR with the Balanced setting, I achieve exactly the promised 60 FPS. With the Ultra Power setting, it's even 88.

This also changes things in other games in which FSR is available. In "Assassin's Creed Valhalla", 83 FPS is possible with medium settings and FSR Balanced. In "Far Cry 6" with the highest settings and FSR Balanced even 73 FPS. The difference in "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" is not as great. But at least the 780M delivers 65 FPS, ten more than without FSR on the lowest possible settings.

Conclusion: Gaming without a dedicated graphics card, but with limitations

The Ryzen 8700G actually fulfils what AMD promises: smooth gaming without a dedicated graphics card in 1080p resolution. However, the APU only achieves this thanks to AMD's FSR upscaling technology

This "only" is a little harsh. Because the 8700G's performance is still enormous. Without upscaling, it achieves 45 FPS in 1080p resolution and the lowest detail settings in the now somewhat outdated blockbuster "Cyberpunk 2077". Something that was unimaginable just two years ago. Certain games, such as "Far Cry 6", can even be played at over 60 FPS at the highest settings thanks to upscaling.

Overall, the 8700G is a good APU for people who can't afford or don't want a dedicated graphics card but still want to game from time to time. The APU is also perfect for small systems, as the heat development is limited thanks to the standard power consumption of 65 watts. At 329 francs, the APU is also fairly priced.