AMD announced a number of client CPU updates for CES 2024. The big theme for 2024 is going to be AI, and AMD pushed that narrative as well. The AMD Ryzen 8040 series got another bump, after being launched a month ago. We have new mainstream desktop Ryzen CPUs, and a few lower-cost options.
AMD Ryzen 8000G Processors Launched for the AI PC Era
Starting off is something we already covered, AMD Ryzen 8040 series brings together the AMD Zen 4 cores, RDNA 3 graphics, and the new XDNA NPU for local AI inference.
AMD is calling this AMD Ryzen AI and it is not just limited to the Ryzen 8040 series processors.
AMD also has new Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 processors with the NPU, but watch out. The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and AMD Ryzen 5 8600G have the Ryzen AI NPU. The new Ryzen 5 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G do not. We wish AMD would have at least delineated this feature at a top-level Ryzen designation. For example, all Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 SKUs have it, but Ryzen 3 does not. That would have made it easier to understand. There are going to be folks buying a Ryzen 8500G after seeing Ryzen 8600G numbers and the same core count, and they will be disappointed without the new NPU.
In addition to the new Ryzen 8000G SKus, AMD has a new Ryzen 7 5700X3D with 100MB of cache and lower-end Ryzen 7 5700, Ryzen 5 5600GT and Ryzen 5 5500GT parts. These are for folks upgrading AM4 platforms.
AMD also released an eye chart of its 2024 desktop platforms. While AMD does have Ryzen AI SKUs, those are limited to just two SKUs on a long list of parts. If you buy the highest-end parts, then you do not get Ryzen AI.
AMD told us the new parts will have the following suggested pricing:
- AMD Ryzen 7 8700G: $329 USD
- AMD Ryzen 5 8600G: $229 USD
- AMD Ryzen 5 8500G: $179 USD
Final Words
AMD is now a participant in the AI PC era, but there is a long way to go. Our sense is that we will see more parts with the NPU in the future. Microsoft is pushing the AI PC with its ecosystem. This is a great way for Microsoft to draw a line for obsoleting older PCs, just as it did with systems at the Windows 11 launch. While AMD has some parts today, our sense is that the average NPU performance in a year will be well beyond what it is today, and scaling much faster than x86 compute.
To us, what may be more interesting is using these in server motherboards. A built-in NPU, if supported, might take away the need for lower-end AI inference accelerators like a NVIDIA T4/ L4 in servers like the ASRock Rack AM5D4ID-2T BCM we reviewed recently.
Homelabbers now impatiently waiting for the Ryzen PRO variants of these, in particular something like a Ryzen 7 PRO 8750GE. ;)
I thought all the Ryzen 7000 and 8000 processors supported real (system or sideband) ECC memory in addition to the mandatory ECC in DDR5 that appears on die.
I know PRO means more than ECC RAM. What features of the AMD PRO line are missing from the 7000 and 8000 series?
Well, amd’s website says that all 4 8000g support ecc, yaaay, hopefully they wont change the specs as they did with mobile and perhaps even (some of the) previous apu gen. I guess i will wait a bit, but ilooks like i’m going to sell the am4 hp 705 with pro cpu and ship back 32gb of ecc to amazon and buy am5 with either 8600 or 8700 :D
What is interesting, tomshw speaks abou pcie 5 support, but amd’s spec page says pcie 4.0 only
Also, 8500g and 8300g are spec’d to have only 10 pcie lanes
PRO also supports these three things:
* DASH. Think Intel vPro IPMI. Only Ryzen PRO SKUs support DASH, otherwise you need a dedicated BMC (whereas DASH can just use an onboard NIC that supports DASH).
* PRO SKUs have multiple memory protection and isolation features straight from EPYC. No non-PRO Ryzen SKUs support those features.
* Last is offering the GE variants. These are super-binned chips, similar to Intel’s T and TE variants. Yes, you can run an X or G in “Eco mode” or a lower TDP, but you will not get the same performance per watt as a GE. A Ryzen 7 PRO 5750GE, in my testing, had 90-92% of the 5700Xs normal performance (not “Eco mode”) at a package power of just 39W, despite still having to power iGPU cores as well!
The PRO SKUs have a market. They’re not for everyone, but theres a reason recyclers/disassemblers and boutique shops like Quiet PC sell them — there’s actual demand for them, and some folks are willing to pay for them. It’s a shame they’re a pain to get.
How do we quantify the performance difference between parts with and without NPU?
I find it hard to evaluate the value to consumer with the information currently available.