AMD APU's with Discrete GPU's?

travm

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Looking at upgrading my R5 1600's, thinking about getting some R7 5700G's. They are like $20 cheaper than the 5800X's, and only 100mhz slower clocks.
I kinda like the idea of having APU's on these systems, because 5 years from now one of them might end up in my garage or workshop PC, sans GPU.

Is there any functional use for the APU when you also have a discrete GPU? streaming, or really anything at all that the silicon can do? Or am I just saving $20 and then letting the bonus silicon sit and wait?

Any other reason I should stay away from the APU's for this use case?
 
The APUs have less cache, so you'll get slightly worse performance everywhere.
 
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Looking at upgrading my R5 1600's, thinking about getting some R7 5700G's. They are like $20 cheaper than the 5800X's, and only 100mhz slower clocks.
I kinda like the idea of having APU's on these systems, because 5 years from now one of them might end up in my garage or workshop PC, sans GPU.

Is there any functional use for the APU when you also have a discrete GPU? streaming, or really anything at all that the silicon can do? Or am I just saving $20 and then letting the bonus silicon sit and wait?

Any other reason I should stay away from the APU's for this use case?
The 5700G may also impede the performance of future GPUs and internal m.2 storage devices. Previous APUs gimp add-in GPU capability by supporting only eight lanes instead of the normal 16 lanes, while the 5000-series APUs run its PCIe controller at only PCIe 3.0 bandwidth instead of the PCIe 4.0 bandwidth that non-APU Ryzen CPUs deliver.

However, the real performance deficit (as bwang noted) of the APUs is caused by the significantly smaller internal cache.
 
The 5700G equates to a 2700X except at 65 Watts and GT 1030 graphic power onboard.
 
Is there any functional use for the APU when you also have a discrete GPU? streaming, or really anything at all that the silicon can do? Or am I just saving $20 and then letting the bonus silicon sit and wait?

One really good one: backup graphics for when your discrete GPU becomes a discreet GPU. The redundancy is useful for troubleshooting in general.

But if you have a lot of hardware lying around that's less relevant.
 
There's some interesting stuff you can do apparently if you have a second GPU to workaround limitations in workstation cards. Stuff like the nvidia tesla v100, etc. that don't display video output normally but are otherwise basically consumer GPUs with additional vram. If you have a second GPU in the system apparently you can switch them into WDDM mode and use them for games and such.

I haven't heard of anyone trying this on newer cards (A100s) or AMD workstation cards but it might still work. Sometimes these can be found for much cheaper than their equivalent gaming GPU once they're a few years out of date.
 
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Unless you're at the cutting edge of video hardware, I don't think the PCI 3.0 vs PCI 4.0 will make any real difference.

That 5700 G will have plenty of CPU performance, and should serve you very well.
 
Unless you're at the cutting edge of video hardware, I don't think the PCI 3.0 vs PCI 4.0 will make any real difference.

That 5700 G will have plenty of CPU performance, and should serve you very well.
Seems like it should be better than a r5 1600...
 
Seems like it should be better than a r5 1600...

I'd put it on par with my Ryzen 5 2600X at stock speeds. While my trusty CPU is 4+ years old, it's still plenty powerful enough for everything I do.
 
The 5700G may also impede the performance of future GPUs and internal m.2 storage devices. Previous APUs gimp add-in GPU capability by supporting only eight lanes instead of the normal 16 lanes, while the 5000-series APUs run its PCIe controller at only PCIe 3.0 bandwidth instead of the PCIe 4.0 bandwidth that non-APU Ryzen CPUs deliver.


they doubled width to x16 for zen 3, so its not as much of a dis-benefit s you might think.
but I agree, if upgradability your intent over the long-term, go non- apu (or wait for zen 4, and get the benefit of backup GPU)!
 
they doubled width to x16 for zen 3, so its not as much of a dis-benefit s you might think.
but I agree, if upgradability your intent over the long-term, go non- apu (or wait for zen 4, and get the benefit of backup GPU)!
Upgrade ability is a thing, but I'm dropping these into an x370 and b350 MOBO, so waiting for Zen 4 is not an option.
 
Upgrade ability is a thing, but I'm dropping these into an x370 and b350 MOBO, so waiting for Zen 4 is not an option.


Well then, if you want to add multiple m.2 drives, the additional x4 lanes are a benefit
 
Looking at upgrading my R5 1600's, thinking about getting some R7 5700G's. They are like $20 cheaper than the 5800X's, and only 100mhz slower clocks.
I kinda like the idea of having APU's on these systems, because 5 years from now one of them might end up in my garage or workshop PC, sans GPU.

Is there any functional use for the APU when you also have a discrete GPU? streaming, or really anything at all that the silicon can do? Or am I just saving $20 and then letting the bonus silicon sit and wait?

Any other reason I should stay away from the APU's for this use case?
5700g has half the cache of a 5800x, which puts its performance between the 3700x and the 5800x. And 5700G does not support PCI-E 4.0.
 
Haha, I live in a budget territory that makes this unlikely. More sata drives however.....
If budget is a concern, I'd look at the 5600 and a discreet GPU.

chameleoneel is correct, the 5700G doesn't have PCI-E 4.0, which is why mine sits on a B550 board. It does like fast ram tho.​

 
If budget is a concern, I'd look at the 5600 and a discreet GPU.

chameleoneel is correct, the 5700G doesn't have PCI-E 4.0, which is why mine sits on a B550 board. It does like fast ram tho.​

I already have all the things. This is drop in replacement for an R5 1600, two of them. one has an X370 Mobo, the other an A350

I'm not upgrading mobo, ram, or GPU.

Just hoping to get a solid cpu upgrade without buying used to get maximum mileage out of these. GPU won't be until prices return to sanity, or never.
 
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If bleeding edge performance is not your primary concern, then the 5600G may offer a worthwhile upgrade at an even more affordable price.

 
Just make sure when you buy a video card that it is full x16 because of it being a B350 broad and lacking PCI Express 4 that say the RX 6600 XT would need to work at full bandwidth, I would pick the Ryzen 5 5600 myself because of things already explained if your tight on a budget .

Here is my 5600x in default mode https://valid.x86.fr/bench/3klp29/1 I had just flashed the board to latest bios / chipset and 22.7.1 driver for video card with fresh windows 10 install
 
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Just make sure when you buy a video card that it is full x16 because of it being a B350 broad and lacking PCI Express 4 that say the RX 6600 XT would need to work at full bandwidth, I would pick the Ryzen 5 5600 myself because of things already explained if your tight on a budget .

Here is my 5600x in default mode https://valid.x86.fr/bench/3klp29/1 I had just flashed the board to latest bios / chipset and 22.7.1 driver for video card with fresh windows 10 install
Reality: just avoid the RX 6500/6400

Every other card out there you might actually buy for gaming uses at least x8 slot bandwidth (3050, Rx 5500) , and thus have the same performance in a 3.0 slot!
 
Reality: just avoid the RX 6500/6400

Every other card out there you might actually buy for gaming uses at least x8 slot bandwidth (3050, Rx 5500) , and thus have the same performance in a 3.0 slot!
The RX 6600 runs somewhat fine on PCI Express 3, just some of the reviewers noted a boost in some games with the card in PCI Express 4

Steve shows this in his review of how much faster the RX 6400 and 6500XT is in PCI Express 4 , almost like AMD made these low budget cards just to troll Intel

 
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If bleeding edge performance is not your primary concern, then the 5600G may offer a worthwhile upgrade at an even more affordable price.


Yeah I looked at that. I'm afraid of the need moar cores disease. Plus it doesn't exactly feel like an upgrade going from a 6c12t cpu to another. I know Zen 3 is faster, but for 33% more cores it seems worth it. On the fence with the 5800x even

In all reality I might end up sitting in the fence until they sell out.
 
Thinking about the same kind of upgrade myself, but from a 1700x to 5700g and on a b350 board that is still running strong. I had another b350 board fail, but this other board from the same vintage is still going.

I'd do some research on if others have had issues with the 5700g on your specific board. On mine B350 gaming pro-carbon there seem to be a few glitches, but not consistent.

The Igpu in the 5700g seems to be really decent this generation, though overall I wish the APU had better idle power management - more like the 6000 series. AMD has been slow in my opinion on advancing low power techniques to their APUs. If I have a puter sitting around as a firewall / file server / storage / plus other stuff on demand I don't want it burning a bunch of watts doing basically nothing from time to time.
 
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Thinking about the same kind of upgrade myself, but from a 1700x to 5700g and on a b350 board that is still running strong. I had another b350 board fail, but this other board from the same vintage is still going.

I'd do some research on if others have had issues with the 5700g on your specific board. On mine B350 gaming pro-carbon there seem to be a few glitches, but not consistent.

The Igpu in the 5700g seems to be really decent this generation, though overall I wish the APU had better idle power management - more like the 6000 series. AMD has been slow in my opinion on advancing low power techniques to their APUs. If I have a puter sitting around as a firewall / file server / storage / plus other stuff on demand I don't want it burning a bunch of watts doing basically nothing from time to time.
I hadn't really considered that, thanks
 
Sound like a used 3700x is what you need for the price used, I have mine from 2019 on an x470 board and paired with a RTX 3070, its a smooth setup!
 
Not a fan of buying used. I prefer the buy and use until broken. In this case the pulled 1600s get to wait in a box for a job in the future
 
Yeah I looked at that. I'm afraid of the need moar cores disease. Plus it doesn't exactly feel like an upgrade going from a 6c12t cpu to another. I know Zen 3 is faster, but for 33% more cores it seems worth it. On the fence with the 5800x even

In all reality I might end up sitting in the fence until they sell out.
Makes sense. I have one PC with the 5600G and another with the 5700G. I don't really notice a difference in day-to-day things. They're both using B450 motherboards with M.2 NVMe SSDs and pretty much the same RAM.

At the office I have the 5600X and I definitely noticed a difference in Adobe performance as well as some legacy applications that we use that are strictly single-threaded over the 2700X that I had before. I thought about the 5800X3D as a last hurrah for this platform, but couldn't pull the trigger. My wallet is glad that I don't live 10 minutes from a Microcenter anymore...
 
Thinking about the same kind of upgrade myself, but from a 1700x to 5700g and on a b350 board that is still running strong. I had another b350 board fail, but this other board from the same vintage is still going.

I'd do some research on if others have had issues with the 5700g on your specific board. On mine B350 gaming pro-carbon there seem to be a few glitches, but not consistent.

The Igpu in the 5700g seems to be really decent this generation, though overall I wish the APU had better idle power management - more like the 6000 series. AMD has been slow in my opinion on advancing low power techniques to their APUs. If I have a puter sitting around as a firewall / file server / storage / plus other stuff on demand I don't want it burning a bunch of watts doing basically nothing from time to time.
I would feel safe with a 65watt cpu like the 5700x being the limit and given back 8 cores/16 trends with 35Mb of cache L2 and L3 is how AMD words it, if you have any gpu to work with.
 
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