Skip to main content

AMD’s new Ryzen desktop processors pack built-in Radeon graphics

AMD’s new Ryzen desktop processors pack built-in Radeon graphics

/

Graphics on a budget

Share this story

Image: AMD

AMD has two new Ryzen processors out for desktops with an interesting addition: built-in Radeon Vega graphics, combining AMD’s CPU and GPU architectures into a single chip.

The company is launching two models in the new series: the Ryzen 5 2400G and the Ryzen 3 2200G. Each chip is a four core processor (the Ryzen 5 has eight threads, while the 3 has just four threads) with Radeon Vega graphics — specifically, the Vega 11 architecture for the Ryzen 5 chip, and Vega 8 for the Ryzen 3.

The two processors run for $169 and $99, which AMD notes offers some decent savings over buying a comparable Intel processor and Nvidia graphics card. Specifically, AMD claims that the more powerful Ryzen 5 2400G should be as powerful as an Intel Core i5-8400 processor paired with an Nvidia GT 1030 GPU, which combined can run for over $100 more than AMD’s single processor uint.

It’s a similar idea to the previous partnership with Intel that the two companies announced last year, which saw Intel’s eight-generation Core i5 and i7 processors for laptops combined with AMD’s discrete Radeon graphics. But while the Intel chips are bound for high-end laptops, where space and battery life are at a premium and the physical and power savings from the combined chip are more apparent, AMD’s desktop models are designed more as entry-level options for gamers looking to put together their own PC, but without the heavy cost investment of buying a standalone graphics card.

To that end, we’re only seeing integrated GPU models for the company’s mid-range and budget Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 lines, and not the higher-end Ryzen 7 and Threadripper models, with the logic being that anyone who’d be interested in the more powerful chips probably is interested in having a discrete graphics card anyway.