APU's For Gaming

[Jonj1611]

So, long story short rebuilding a budget PC.

Anyone know what is current best APU for gaming.

I know without a doubt its not the best option for gaming and I know a discrete card will always be better but looking for something that will play with reasonably well.

Games mainly will be :

World Of Warcraft
Company of Heroes 2
Far Cry 6 - Maybe

Even a second hand graphics card won't do, needs to be APU only.

Thanks

[cptwhite_uk]

5700G is your best option I believe at present (ignore the number "vega" cores compared to the 3400G, the 5700G is either on par or marginally ahead from what I remember. Might want to check some comparison benchmarks, but it should offer you performance somewhere around the GTX1050, which is passible with 720p low/medium settings for most games, and will do 1080p comfortably on slightly older games.

Here's a good comparison of 32 games using the 5700G

[Jonj1611]

I had a look at some online reviews.

Once you got past the people with their affiliate links it was getting harder to distinguish what was better.

Even the video reviews seemed to differ to one another. In the end just got so fed up with it thought I would ask here

Will take a look at the video linked

[Jonj1611]

The other thing is I have been using Geforce Now and its ok. When it works! But stuttering, slowing down, pixelation just isn't fun after a while especially as I am paying for that!

[[GSV]Trig]

Also dont forget that the 3400G is 4c/8t where the 5700G is 8c/18t so not only is it generations newer its got more cores as well as the normal generational increases..
Both 65w iirc so nothing special in the way of cooling, deffo sounds like the APU to get..

[Jonj1611]

I was originally looking at the 3400G which has Vega 11 and the 5700G has Vega 8 but the 5700G does appear to be faster and I agree about the cores.

Only thing is the 3400G is half the price!

[[GSV]Trig]

Half the price is always an attractive thing, especially if the saving allows you to beef up the rest of the spec.
You haven't mentioned why just an APU or what monitor you are running though, or budget sooo only so much help..

[Jonj1611]

Its a shoestring budget. After the Intel Iris Pro 6200 in my Mac running World of Warcraft with no slow down I was so surprised I almost fell off my chair.

Have been putting off rebuilding a PC due to graphics card costs and many a year of APU's failing to delivery many years ago. Things have come on a fair bit by then, I rarely play games now so I don't need a discrete card if I can get by with an APU.

Monitor is a standard 1920x1080. Nothing fancy.

If the 5700G is a big improvement over a 3400G I will go for that.

The rest of the PC will be used for mainly word, outlook etc

[cptwhite_uk]

Remember the new 6000 series APUs are bringing RNDA2 to the table, and should be a considerable step up from the 5700G, look at the early benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 6900HS for laptops.

[DanceswithUnix]

The CUs in the Vega 8 are much faster than the ones in the Vega 11, so the naming is quite misleading.

In fact, the 5600G is still faster than the 3400G if you want to save a few quid

Edit:

Remember the new 6000 series APUs are bringing RNDA2 to the table, and should be a considerable step up from the 5700G, look at the early benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen 6900HS for laptops.

Have you seen a timescale on that though? They sound awesome, and DDR5 should be a big win for IGP

[[GSV]Trig]

6000 series is AM5 though is it not, so anything that new isn't going to be a 'budget' build, not with the cost of DDR5...

[Jonj1611]

Aren't they skipping the 6000 series for desktops and going straight to 7000?

Either way I don't have that type of time frame, need to get it knocked up in next couple of weeks

[Rob_B]

Obligatory "get the fastest RAM you can afford if you go with an APU"

[Jonj1611]

Isn't there a "best speed" for AMD APU's? I am sure I read there is an optimal ram speed? Maybe I am thinking of something else

[Rob_B]

Everything I've seen from 2nd gen onwards is basically just 'as fast as you can afford'. Anandtech did a comparison on a 2400G and YouTube is full of comparison videos, some small gains, some 'reasonable' depending on your budget. 3200 is now pretty cheap, some 3600 kits aren't that much more

[Jonj1611]

Yes going to look at 3200Mhz and higher

So someone local is selling a 500W EVGA power supply for next to nothing. Its nothing fancy and its not modular. Strong enough to run a Ryzen 7 5700g? System will comprise of 16GB ram, 1 x nvme, 1 x 2TB hard drive. Standard AMD cooler. 4 case fans.