For almost a year now, the situation on the discrete video card market has made even those who traditionally turn up their noses at integrated solutions look closely. Not to mention the constant target audience – largely due to the fact that video cards were systematically rising in price and without any disasters, such as a mining boom. Once upon a time, for $100 you could buy a quite “decent” video card, since the top models cost two or three hundred – but this time has ended a very long time ago. On the other hand, some seven years ago it was still possible to “squeeze” into the same hundred with a junior gaming solution – and “multimedia” models were sold even cheaper. And then it turned out that you can start swaying at modern games only by buying a card for 200-250 dollars at the time of the release of this very game. After that, many thought about it. And in the end, for example, they left on consoles – or they began to limit themselves to various network toys, and many years ago. And they, of course, do not need powerful graphics. Now the same “200-250” is worth the GeForce 1050 Ti – rather outdated and already resurrected after death. Yes, as we have already established, it is radically faster than any integrated GPU – but it does n’t fit into a budget computer.

Buyers of the latter in 2018 received a chic gift from AMD – in the form of Ryzen APUs. Not completely free, of course, but the Ryzen 3 2200G, with an MSRP of around $100, worked as expected for a $100 processor and a $100 graphics card. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that quad-core Core i3 with a comparable price as a processor were faster, but they came out just a couple of months earlier, and cheap boards for the “updated” platform had to wait a few more months – so the market was flooded with solutions for the first LGA1151 version. Where four cores (similar to the new Core i3) were sold under the Core i5 brand – more than $150. Plus a weak GPU that hasn’t changed much since 2015, plus an instant obsolescence of the platform – in general, against this background, AMD’s proposals looked excellent. Many considered the higher price of the Ryzen 5 2400G to be not entirely justified – but this processor, in any case, worked even faster. And the main quality point – both of them in games were superior to the Core i5 and i7 based on Broadwell-C (not inferior to them in terms of overall performance ) with Iris Plus GPUs: already outdated, but never completely replaced on new platforms. Real breakthrough. Made many look forward to new products.

Expectations, unfortunately, did not materialize. Later, the company strengthened its position in the budget segment, but the new Athlons turned out to be practically identical to the “old” APUs in terms of performance. They consumed less energy and cost less – but they did not pull on progress in the field of productivity. And the new Ryzen APUs of the 3000 line were just a small refresh of the old models. Performance has grown – but not too much, since nothing fundamentally changed in them.

Therefore, some began to wait for the introduction of the 7nm process technology and all that it can give the Renoir APUs. Some waited, some didn’t. The fact is that desktop APUs are essentially a modification of laptop processors for a socket and a freer heat pack, and in laptops it was necessary, first of all, to increase the number of processor cores. Initially, the company limited itself to four because Intel also sold no more – but by that time there were already six-core notebook Cores and eight-core ones were expected. Therefore, the transistor budget was distributed accordingly: in Renoir, they doubled the number of CPU cores and brought the number of PCIe lanes to the standard 20 (but remained on the third version of the standard: Gen4 is the prerogative of exclusively “pure” AMD processors), but the number of graphics cores … generally decreased. Even the top Ryzen 7s in this parameter were only equal to the old Ryzen 3s, but lagged behind Ryzen 5: 512 cores versus 704. In fact, the performance increased slightly despite this and while maintaining the same architecture – since the new technical process made it possible to increase clock speeds by one and a half times frequencies that the quantitative lag compensated. But only compensated – that is, no progress.

Can we expect it from the latest Cezanne? Let’s not stretch the intrigue to conclusions – no, of course not. The reasons are simple and similar to last year’s: features of competition in the notebook market. There, during this time, Tiger Lake happened – already 10-nanometer and on a new architecture. Earlier models of the TGL-U line (which appeared a year ago) are also equipped with relatively powerful Iris Xe GPUs – but only four cores, and a limited TDP of 28W. But this year’s TGL-H is already eight processor cores of the new microarchitecture, but not far removed from earlier GPU developments. As a result, it is clear that AMD does not need to increase graphics performance – but the CPU part needs to be reworked. Moreover, there is already a new Zen3 microarchitecture for this. Where, at the same time, the long-standing problem of internuclear interaction has been fixed. Since the first Zen, the quad-core CCX with its L3 has been the bare minimum. But by the time their development was completed, four cores were not enough – one CCX was found only in the APUs of the first two lines, and all other crystals already contained two CCXs combined into a CCD. In fact, a vestige left over from early plans – according to which Zen was not supposed to appear in 2017 at all. But later, the company simply didn’t have the time to remove it from the company – but by the time Zen3 was developed, they had. So the new APUs now have a single eight-core “brick” with a single L3 cache – the capacity of which, compared to Renoir, was doubled: now 16 MB, not 8 MB. It cannot be said that this completely solves all the problems – since in chiplets based on Zen2 and Zen3 (from which all the “pure” processors of the company are built: both desktop, and HEDT, and server), the same eight cores account for 32 MB of cache memory of the third level. But the performance of new APUs should also increase for this reason – previously there was not enough cache memory.

What else was lacking no less objectively was the supplied processors. Renoir is not a cheap crystal, because it is large, monolithic and uses a “progressive” technical process. Therefore, most of them went to laptop processors, and less marginal desktop processors were distributed mainly among cards – manufacturers of finished systems. Yes, there were Ryzen Pros in retail, but they arrived there in a limited and irregular way (this is how we got our top three processors in due time – and we had to run around the shops a bit, and it was precisely that for three – in one, all the models could not be found at once) . And now the output of suitable crystals is such that AMD is ready to sell Cezanne to everyone, including through retail stores. And it may turn out that these will be the most affordable of the inexpensive Zen3 – doubly inexpensive, since they do not require a discrete graphics card. At the moment, this is very relevant – especially since Intel in the desktop segment so far only offers Rocket Lake. Gluttonous due to the old technical process – and a GPU at the Athlon level is just that.

But here’s a qualitative leap in terms of graphics performance compared to their own models again delayed. Technique does not allow. Theoretically, it would be possible to add blocks to the GPU at the cost of cutting the number of cores – but it will no longer work. The company itself taught buyers to look towards six- and eight-core processors, so a quad-core processor must be too cheap to work on it would pay off. Just increase the GPU – the cost of processors will increase. Again, this is not a solution for the budget segment for sure. The development of the 5nm process technology will ease this problem. The new RDNA2 microarchitecture will improve GPU performance, all other things being equal. And the transition to DDR5 will also increase the memory bandwidth – which is very important for integrated graphics. But according to the latest data, this will happen only in the second half of next year (in the first half, only the “basic” laptop version can be expected). From that moment (as it is supposed), the division into “CPU” and “APU”, which is already more than ten years old, will disappear in the AMD assortment, since all models for AM5 will receive some kind of GPU (who said “Intel LGA115x”? 🙂 ) .

However, for now, these are all leaks, rumors, conjectures, etc. One thing is for sure – there are no plans to change the GPU within AM4, since Cezanne is most likely the last series of processors for this socket. And this means that, by and large, it has not been changed for almost four years (Ryzen laptop APUs were formally announced at the end of 2017). On the other hand, there is practically no alternative – only a discrete graphics card, which can be faster, but much more expensive. Although the market is cruel – in fact, all APUs (including even obsolete ones) are sold much more expensive than the recommended prices: precisely because of the lack of alternatives. It remains to be hoped that the mass availability of Cezanne will at least improve this situation.

Test participants

We can just take and test the new product, since we already have the Ryzen 5 5600G. And the previous official retail flagship is also Ryzen 5, albeit completely new and not similar, because, as already mentioned, there are more processor cores, and they are all thicker. Here with last year’s Ryzen 5 there are much more in common than differences. But we have recently compared the 3400G with the 4650G – now let’s add the 5600G results to a small sample. Since not everyone is inclined to take a word that they have nothing to change from. Even with the technical specifications before our eyes – according to which the GPU has not changed at all (in any direction), and at this level, the CPU part cannot actually affect the final frame rate. But it’s better to see once than hear a hundred times – so we equipped all 16 GB DDR4-3200 processors with low latency (for the Ryzen 5 3400G this is beyond the official specifications, but it facilitates direct comparison) and ran the traditional dozen games on them. Focusing on Full HD resolution and settings that allow you to somehow play.

Testing

World of Tanks enCore RT

Performance increased slightly at the first stage of the upgrade – and this can be attributed even to a change in the processor part: capable of affecting the frame rate in this game (with such settings), even on the IGP. And, whatever one may say, the gaming performance of the first one and a half generations of Ryzen left much to be desired. Then everything was “fixed”, the GPU was not changed at all, so you can look for differences under a microscope – but it’s better to do something more useful.

Ray tracing in this engine is purely software – so you need a more powerful GPU, and the requirements for the processor are high. And in this case, the discrepancies reach one or two frames, and the Ryzen 5 5600G is the absolute leader. However, the minimum frame rate directly hints that these “pretty things” are still not for users of integrated games anyway – and a couple of FPS will not fix anything here.

Far Cry 5

In general, and in this case, it makes sense to think about lowering the resolution. Although in general the frame rate on the Ryzen 5 and 7 APUs is comfortable for a single-player game, so we can stop there. And we are talking about almost any Ryzen 5 – since in our trio again literally 1-2 FPS are at stake, which does not play the piano .

F1 2018

For simplicity, we will limit ourselves to this mode alone – where the frame rate is more than comfortable, and the picture is quite decent. Ryzen 5 3400G remains the leader in terms of average frame rate in such conditions (often it still doesn’t work out to compensate for the difference in the number of EU), the 5600G is already becoming the leader in terms of the minimum frame rate, but in general the difference between the test subjects is not worth much attention.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

In practice, there are not enough of them, taking into account the main goal of testing – acceptable. All the progress in two years in the Ryzen 5 family fit into the usual 2-3 FPS. That is, it seems to be there – but it seems not. But for obvious reasons and the reasons described above, the main efforts were both directed towards upgrading the processor part of the APU, and improving the graphics would still not solve any practical problems. All the same, in terms of performance in games, Ryzen APUs basically have to compete exclusively with each other. Or with younger discrete video cards – which have not been updated for a couple of years either.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Almost everything said above is true – except that the difference between the three APUs is quite penny. But all the same, no other goals were set during development – since we have already reached a level higher than our main competitors, we can stay on it for a while. Other problems can be solved – more pressing.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon

Renoir managed to overtake Picasso, and Cezanne with the same GPU is nominally a little faster. Again, this is the best you could ever hope for. But from the point of view of the global progress of mankind , it is imperceptible.

Metro: Exodus

Despite the sharp decrease in the number of GPUs, the performance in the previous step increased relatively noticeably. In any case, in numbers , this is a significant ≈10%: most likely, both the acceleration of processor cores and the increase in the frequency of the GPU (which sometimes turns out to be more effective than the number of blocks) affected. Now there is no such effect – since the GPU has remained exactly the same (without changing in any direction), and the processor part was already enough before.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Similar schedule. This is not to say that nothing is happening at all. But nothing of note is happening.

world war z

In this case, the 3400G remains the fastest, although the 5600G has won back a little. But in general, you can play comfortably at low settings – even though the game is very dynamic. And from the point of view of subjective perception, there is no difference at all.

Now, if you try to “stretch” the picture… Although it is possible – but, generally speaking, in this game it is desirable to have 35 minimum frames per second, and not average ones. And the subjects behave in the same way in any case.

Strange Brigade

We will limit ourselves to this mode alone – since the trend has been clear for a long time anyway, so all this is more for insurance. Enough of all, performance is slightly different – but only on instruments . If you deal with such small deviations, then at the previous step there were fluctuations in both directions – in order to consistently overtake the Ryzen 5 3400G, you still needed the Ryzen 7 4700G (or its Pro-analogue). But the comparison of Cezanne with Renoir is more unambiguous: the novelty is no worse than its predecessor. However, from a practical point of view, it is generally better to consider the whole trio as one whole. This is the processor performance in it differs radically.

Total

In principle, what was planned is what we got. This is not to say that the results are exactly the same to the decimal point , but it is clear that such a slight difference in performance can be more than offset by a slight change in testing conditions. That is, it may turn out that a conditional system on the Ryzen 5 3400G will be consistently faster than another on the Ryzen 5 5600G – if they differ not only in processors, but, for example, in the amount and speed of memory or even software settings. And just with different versions of the video driver, it can also affect. On the other hand, under refined conditions, the differences in the results are small, but they are stable. But their size still leads to an unequivocal conclusion – the level reached three and a half years ago remains unchanged. Naturally, we are talking about a range of values – and not some unambiguous numerical expression, since performance has grown more noticeably in the Ryzen 3 line, and Ryzen 5 is no longer the fastest APU since last year – Ryzen 7 appeared. Although there are some peculiarities there: if The GPU in Ryzen 5 4600G/4650G and 5600G operates at the same frequency, while in Ryzen 7 5700G it is 100 MHz lower than in 4700G/4750G. So, most likely, the transition to Cezanne will not give such a minimal increase as was observed today in the older family – at best, new solutions will not be slower . But, in general, the maximum did not grow too much on the previous APU update – there is nothing for it to increase now.

What can be looked at in two ways. On the one hand, the excitement from the qualitative leap at the release of the first Ryzen APUs has been replaced by disappointment for many – after all, nothing like this has been observed since then for three and a half years. There is a slight increase in performance – there are no qualitative changes. On the other hand… Are they really needed at all? For those who do not play games, but just want to do without a discrete graphics card, integrated Intel GPUs are also suitable – even in lower versions. Which also required modernization for a long time – but more in terms of peripheral capabilities, and not 3D performance. Actually, earlier these users mainly looked in the direction of Intel – the processor part of the APU was very limited and slow. This is the problem AMD solved last year – and this year they strengthened the solution due to competition from Intel Tiger Lake and Rocket Lake. Moreover, competition is primarily between processors – the graphics capabilities of older Intel models are still far from growing to the level under discussion. So why rush to raise him? Fundamentally, it is unlikely that it will be possible to increase graphics performance, even “spoiling” the processor component, but unprincipled – for those who are really interested in it, it still won’t be enough. Therefore, everything remains as it is. Even if it’s a little embarrassing.