AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G review: integrated graphics for the win

Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3 and Ashes of the Singularity Escalation.

Review by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry

Updated on 31 Jan 2024

Our benchmark results are presented a little differently to what you might be used to elsewhere on the web. On mobile, you'll get a basic overview, with metadata from the video capture of each CPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat experience with embedded YT videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each CPU handled the scene as it progresses; you can even choose exactly what CPUs at what resolutions you're interested in and it'll update in real time. Below the real-time stuff is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. As always, all the data here is derived from video captured directly from each CPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

We'll start with three games that offer a stern test for gaming CPUs (and APUs!): Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3 and the benchmarker's favourite, Ashes of the Singularity Escalation.

Flight Simulator 2020

Flight Sim is our first contender, with our benchmark encapsulating the first 10K frames on an autopiloted evening flight from London City Airport to London Heathrow over some of the British capital's most well-known landmarks.

The big question surrounding the 8600G and 8700G we want to look at in this section is how these CPUs hold up when paired with a discrete GPU, a common use case if these CPUs dip below Ryzen 7000 models in terms of asking price, or if you've started with integrated graphics and later upgraded to a discrete graphics card to unlock more performance. You don't want your APU to hold you back, so how do they fare?

From the FS2020 results, it's clear that Ryzen 8000 is fully capable of hanging with full-fat Ryzen 7000 desktop chips. The 8700G narrowly outperforms the cheapest Ryzen 7000 option, the OEM-only 7500F, with the 8600G close behind. In fact, the 8700G is only six percent faster than the 8600G at 1080p, a closer margin than I was expecting given the core count difference.

Versus the Intel competition, the two APUs turn in a performance between the cheaper 13400F and the more expensive 13600K, with the latter a good 20 percent faster on average in this bench.

Flight Simulator 2020: DX11, Ultra, TAA

Hitman 3

Hitman 3's Dartmoor benchmark comes next. Of the two integrated benchmarks provided in the pre-game options menu, Dartmoor offers the greater CPU load than Dubai, with a comprehensive demonstration of the Glacier Engine's destruction physics that is pretty fun - even if it isn't too indicative of normal stealthy gameplay.

Here there's more of a gap between the 8600G and 8700G, with a 10 percent lead for the more expensive option. Intel overperforms here, with the 13400F holding a paltry two percent lead - and tying with the Ryzen 5 7500F. Ryzen 7000 chips are overall more performant here, as we'd expect, with it's not until you look at the 7800X3D and 7950X3D results that you see what I'd call a significant advantage on the same AM5 platform.

Hitman 3: DX12, Default, TAA

Ashes of the Singularity is historically a RAM benchmark for us, but its surprisingly modern, thread-aware design is still a good test of processor performance - even at 1080p, its dense CPU benchmark can bring a modern CPU to its knees. Let's look at the RAM situation first - we see a familiar five percent improvement from 5200MT/s to 6000MT/s RAM on the 8600G, the same as the 7500F we tested recently, with a larger seven percent lead on the 8700G.

In terms of the raw CPU results, the 8700G almost equals the 14600K... if the 8700G gets 6000MT/s RAM and the 14600K is lumbered with a 5200MT/s kit. Even comparing like for like, the 8700G's 49fps average is respectable, right in line with the lower-tier Ryzen 7000 options and 10 percent faster than the 8600G.