AMD says its Zen4c core frequencies for Ryzen 8000G APU series will max out at 3.7GHz

AMD's new Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" APU desktop processors launch next week, acting as the first update to AMD's APU series since the Ryzen 5000G series a few years ago.

3

The older-gen Ryzen 5000G series was powered by the Zen 3 architecture, while the new Ryzen 8000G series is based on the Zen 4 architecture, the newer AM5 platform, and supports faster DDR5 memory. AMD is using both Zen4 and Zen4c cores on the Ryzen 8000G series, with different CPU clock frequencies.

The larger Zen4 and smaller Zen4c cores will share the same instruction support, with the Zen4c cores not optimized for high frequencies, and also feature less cache. At first, AMD will introduce the Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G, but the Ryzen 3 8300G won't be making it to the DIY market at launch. AMD's new Ryzen 5 8500G will see its Zen4c cores with a 3.2GHz base CPU clock and will boost at up to 3.7GHz.

The information for the new Ryzen 5 8500G APU is coming directly from AMD, with the larger Zen4 cores with a base CPU clock of 4.1GHz, boosting at up to 5.0GHz. It'll roll out with 6 cores and 12 threads, which will make for an interesting mid-range APU.

• Read more: AMD launches more efficient Zen 4c cores inside of new Ryzen 7040U series APUs

Earlier this month, AMD said its new Ryzen 8000G APUs will be best teamed with DDR5-6000 memory; while the official specifications list DDR5-5200, it seems you'll want some faster DDR5 memory with a Phoenix APU.

These new AMD Ryzen 8000G series "Phoenix" APUs will have an integrated RDNA3-based GPU, which, along with the CPU side of things, should provide ample performance for 1080p gaming. We already see gaming handhelds powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen 7040 series APUs handling gaming at 1080p, powered by the RDNA3 GPU architecture.

3

It has to be noted that the Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 5 8500G sound very similar but feature vastly different integrated GPU capabilities. The Ryzen 5 8600G has 8 Compute Units based on the RDNA3 GPU architecture, enough for some fantastic 1080p gaming performance, but the Ryzen 5 8500G has just 4 Compute Units, half the GPU power. Be careful with the 8600G and 8500G if you do end up buying one.

AMD has confirmed its new Ryzen 7 8700G will cost $329, the Ryzen 5 8600G will cost $229, while the Ryzen 5 8500G will cost $179. The Ryzen 3 8300G isn't for the DIY market, so we won't know how much cheaper it is than the Ryzen 5 8500G. AMD will be launching its 8700G, 8600G, and 8500G APUs on January 31.