AMD’s Ryzen 8000-series chips get an AI upgrade

Not long after AMD announced new AI-focused silicon, the company is back with more. AMD finally revealed its Ryzen 8000-series desktop processors at CES 2024, and like the Ryzen 8040 mobile APU series announced in December, these chips are also built to, according to AMD, better handle AI.

The highest-specced chip of the bunch is the $329 Ryzen 7 8700G, which sports eight Zen 4 cores, 16 threads, and an up to 5.1GHz boost clock. It also comes with AMD’s flagship Radeon 780M integrated graphics with RDNA 3 architecture as well as an XDNA neural processing unit (NPU), which enables AI-powered features in Zoom, Blender, apps from Adobe, and more.

When it comes to gaming on integrated graphics, AMD claims the chip offers an average frame rate that’s four times higher than Intel’s Core i7-14700K in Hitman 3 and 3.3 times higher in Dota 2 in 1080p and low detail settings. The company also says the Ryzen 7 8700G outperforms the Intel Core i5-13400F and Nvidia GeForce 1650 in games like Starfield and Alan Wake 2 with the same settings.

In addition to the Ryzen 7 8700G, AMD took the wraps off of the $229 Ryzen 5 8600G. This APU comes with six Zen 4 cores, 12 threads, and an up to 5.0GHz boost clock. It also features an NPU dedicated to powering AI features and a slightly weaker 760M integrated GPU. AMD is offering less-powerful Ryzen 5 8500G ($179) and Ryzen 3 8300G chips as well, the latter of which is only available for pre-built systems.

The 8000-series chips aren’t the only processors AMD announced at CES. The company also announced a few processors based on its older Zen 3 architecture, including the Ryzen 7 5700X3D with a suggested retail price of $249. This CPU doesn’t have integrated graphics and supports the older AM4 socket. It also features eight cores, 16 threads, and an up to 4.1GHz max boost clock. It’s complemented by the $175 Ryzen 7 5700. That CPU has a higher max boost clock of 4.6GHz and a lower TDP. It’s 65W, while the Ryzen 7 5700X3D has a 105W TDP.

There are also the new AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT ($140) and Ryzen 5 5500GT ($125) processors, both of which offer integrated AMD Radeon graphics and rely on Zen 3 instead of Zen 4. You can check out the full list of specs and how they compare to AMD’s other chips in the image embedded above. Both AMD’s 8000- and 5000-series chip lineups will become available on January 31st, 2024.

Correction January 8th, 10:40PM ET: AMD’s chart detailing its processors initially misstated the PCIe spec for the 8000 series; they support PCIe Gen 4, not Gen 5, says AMD spokesperson Matthew Hurwitz. This story has been updated with a corrected slide.