In the past two years, AMD’s days in the consumer PC market have not been easy. Compared to its dominance in previous years, its market share and market voice have shrunk significantly. From CPUs to GPUs, AMD faces severe challenges in both consumer businesses.
Although the market share in the server market has increased, the consumer market is also a big cake that cannot be given up easily. However, in the GPU field, the gap between AMD and NVIDIA cannot be bridged in the short term (not just hardware performance, the software ecosystem gap is even larger). In contrast, the gap in the CPU field is much smaller, which is the most promising direction for AMD.
In order to seize more market share from Intel, AMD has been subdividing its CPU product line, using CPUs of different specifications and prices to meet the needs of different PC consumer groups. For example, recent popular handheld PCs are all using AMD processors, monopolizing the entire market.
And in a recent news report, it was revealed that AMD will release several new processors early next year, corresponding to three product lines. Coupled with the seven newly released Threadripper series processors, a sense of gunpowder is spreading in the CPU market.
Clear Division of Labor, AMD’s All-Out Attack #
In November 2023, AMD updated its consumer server processor series, the Threadripper product line, for a long time. With a terrifying configuration of up to 96 cores and 192 threads, it brought a “small” shock to the consumer market.
Although Intel also offers some consumer-grade server products, from a performance perspective, there is still a significant gap with AMD’s Threadripper series. However, the starting price of the Threadripper 7000 series is as high as 15,999 yuan, which is obviously not a product that ordinary users need to pay attention to.
As for the multiple processors that will be released early next year, from the model numbers, they are basically targeting the mid-to-low-end market, precisely filling Intel’s weak market. The exposed models are: Ryzen 3 8300G, Ryzen 5 8500G, Ryzen 5 8600G, Ryzen 7 8700G, Ryzen 5 5500GT, Ryzen 5 5600GT, Ryzen 7 5700X3D, and Ryzen 7 5700 NPU.
Among them, the Ryzen 8000G series is further subdivided into multiple models. Because the differences between the models are not large and are too repetitive, we will only look at the standard versions. For those who are interested in a deeper understanding, you can check the table below.
Even without the fragmented sub-models, there are as many as eight new processor models exposed this time. It is no exaggeration to describe it as a “sea of CPUs” strategy. However, except for the Ryzen 8000G series which is a new architecture, the rest are basically re-employment of old models, but with different structures and performance than the previous models.
Let’s first look at the Ryzen 8000G series. From the specifications, it is basically the integrated graphics version of the Ryzen 7000 series, which will be supplied to the desktop and mobile PC markets according to specifications and clock speed. The single-core clock speed increase is not small. Taking the Ryzen 7 series as an example, the maximum clock speed of the Ryzen 7 5700G is 4.6GHz, while the clock speed of the Ryzen 7 8700G has been increased to 5.1GHz, and the base clock speed has also increased by 0.4GHz.
In addition, the integrated graphics has been upgraded from the Vega architecture to the RDNA3 architecture, with 12 CU units, which is 1.5 times that of the Ryzen 7 5700G. Considering the performance improvement of the RDNA3 architecture and the sharply increased CU units, the previous rumors that the integrated graphics performance of the Ryzen 8000G series will surge have finally been confirmed.
Based on hardware specifications, it is speculated that the integrated graphics performance of the Ryzen 7 8700G should not be inferior to that of mainstream entry-level discrete graphics cards and will support ray tracing. If you only plan to play some independent games or online games, you may not even need a discrete graphics card to play smoothly. As for the remaining models, the exact integrated graphics specifications have not yet been exposed, so it is difficult to estimate, but according to the usual practice, they should adopt 8CU and 4CU RDNA3 cores, respectively.
In addition to the Ryzen 8000G series, the remaining models are also very worthy of attention. First, the Ryzen 5 5600GT/5700GT, this is the first time that a Ryzen series processor with the “GT” suffix has appeared. Currently, only the model number has been exposed, but according to the naming convention, it may be an overclocked upgrade of the Ryzen 5 5600G/5500G.
The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a bit of a surprise, and it may be a product developed to further fill the price gap, and the specific parameters are not yet clear. The last one is the Ryzen 7 5700 NPU, which is also a brand new suffix. NPU generally refers to a special core prepared for AI computing in the processor. If the model is true, it may be a trial product designed by AMD for PC AI functions.
AMD’s “sea of CPUs” strategy has started, and as for the effect, we have to wait until next year to find out.
How to Buy a “Core” for Your PC? #
AMD has exposed so many processors at once, plus Intel’s recently released 14th generation Core processors, some netizens are probably confused. If you want to assemble a PC, how do you choose the right model from a bunch of processors?
In fact, although there are many models, the division of labor of the processors is still very clear, and there is a general choice range for different uses and budgets. For most users, choosing Intel or AMD will not make your experience different. The only things to consider are performance and price, or simply “cost-effectiveness”.
If your needs are daily entertainment and surfing the Internet, and you don’t play AAA games, then Intel’s Core i5 series and AMD’s Ryzen 5000G series are good choices. Of course, the upcoming Ryzen 8000G will be even better, but the price will be much higher. If your gaming requirements are not high, the Ryzen 5000G series is enough to meet your needs.
Let’s look at gaming. For gamers, the higher the clock speed, the better the experience. If you have an unlimited budget, Intel’s i9-14900K is your best choice. In addition, AMD’s Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D are also good choices. Although the clock speed is lower than the i9-14900K, the large cache is very suitable for games, and the actual frame rate is very competitive with the i9-14900K. If the budget is not enough, the Ryzen 5 5800X3D is also a good choice.
In addition to games, if your main need is a productivity tool and you require the highest possible performance, then spending a lot of money on the Threadripper 7000 series may be a good choice. Among the current consumer processors, no other processor can compete with the Threadripper series in multi-core performance and peripheral function configuration.
In fact, the Threadripper series is a product of AMD’s server product line, with a variety of enterprise-level function configurations, allowing users to easily build server-level systems at a lower cost. Of course, most people probably don’t need such high performance. If you only look at multi-core performance, then processors such as the i9-14900K (you can also choose the 13900K) and Ryzen 7950X are very good.
Finally, here is a simplified version for you:
- For office work, just pick any, i3 and R3 (Ryzen 3) are fine.
- For gaming, look at i5 and i9, R5 and R7 are also good.
- Do you need productivity? 14th generation i7/i9 and R9 are your best friends.
- If the budget is enough, buy the latest one; if the budget is not enough, go back one generation.