AMD 4000-series desktop APUs are almost upon us, and we’re already seeing just how far they can be pushed. APUs (accelerated processing units) are processors that combine both CPU and GPU in one die, and while they’re usually not the very best gaming CPUs, they’re great for those on a budget. And now we’re seeing how the top-end of this upcoming lineup overclocks – it turns out, not too badly.
ITCooker (via Twitter user Hifihedgehog) posted a picture of the overclock to Facebook, showing the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G hitting 4,765MHz with a 1.425V overclock. The 4700G’s stock boost clock is 4.4GHz, meaning this overclock achieved a 365MHz increase over the stock spec, but at the cost of a pretty hefty 1.425V. That’s the sort of voltage that might shorten a CPU’s lifespan, but hey, it’s all worth it for the frame rates, right?
There’ve already been whispers that the Ryzen 7 4700G’s performance might match AMD Ryzen 7 3800X, an absolute powerhouse of a CPU that demolishes any CPU-intensive, multi-core task you put in its path. It makes sense, considering the 4700G is also an eight-core, 16-thread CPU.
This series of AMD APUs has already been released for laptops, but don’t confuse the Renoir laptop processors for these upcoming desktop APUs. Even H-series laptop processors are more power-limited than desktop APUs like the 4700G, which will have a TDP of 65W.
之前就有朋友討論要不要買XT比3700X更高頻…但個人感覺XT未必會很好超以APU為例空冷以All Core 4.7Ghz(若是1Core4.9 7Core2.2ghz完全可以通過驗證)
Posted by ITCooker 廚房佬 on Monday, July 6, 2020
And speaking of power and thermals, we already have some inclination of how efficient these processors will be since the Ryzen 3 4300U has been shown playing Crysis without any cooling. Of course, this is a low-power CPU, but that sort of thermal efficiency is likely to be replicated, relatively speaking, up the line to high power laptop variants and even the upcoming desktop variants.
Analysis: high-end desktop APUs might have a place in the gaming market
The 4700G is on the high-end of AMD’s upcoming APUs, and this is a market space that’s previously seemed quite dubious, since APUs are usually best used for budget builds that want a CPU-GPU combo with the possibility of upgrading to a discrete GPU further down the line. If you’re going for something high-end, you’ll probably be going for a discrete graphics card anyway, meaning you might as well go for a Zen 2 CPU like the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Ryzen 7 3700X, or Ryzen 7 3800X. At least, that was how it seemed.
Now, however, it looks like high-end APUs will have a venerable place in the gaming market. With the 4700G competing with the 3800X in benchmarks, and now with the promise of decent overclocking performance, APUs might become a genuine option for more people than those who just want a budget Ryzen 3 3200G to kick off their first gaming build. We already know how well these 4000-series APUs perform in the laptop market, and every day we’re getting more information confirming that this will translate to performance in its desktop variants.