AMD Ryzen 7 8700GE tested

The 35W version of the Phoenix desktop AMD processor.

Ryzen 8700GE (engineering sample) & Ryzen 7 8700G, Source: GucksTV

German tech reviewer GucksTV recently got their hands on an engineering sample of the Ryzen 7 8700GE. The 8700GE, priced at 299 USD (277 EUR), comes off as a better deal compared to the Ryzen 7 8700G available for 350 EUR in Germany.

While AMD has already introduced the 8000G series with a default TDP of 65W, there’s talk about the company working on 35W TDP variants, known as the 8000GE series. Although there’s no official release date yet, expectations are high that these variants will hit the market soon through system integrators.

AMD has been sending samples to its partners for some time, with mentions of desktop Phoenix APUs emerging since Q3 of the previous year. The 8000G series finally made its debut in late January, featuring four variants: the 8-core 8700G, 6-core 8600G and 8500G, and the 4-core 8300G. Notably, the 8300G is not available through the DIY channel.

Ryzen 8700GE (ES) & Ryzen 7 8700G, Source: GucksTV

While the 35W desktop CPUs may not draw significant attention from the gaming community, the 8700G may not be the top choice when compared to discrete graphics—unless budget constraints are a concern or the system isn’t exclusively for gaming. However, the powerful integrated RDNA3 graphics with AV1 encoding support have attracted attention from those building home servers or home theater systems. The 35W variant is expected to be even more competitive for such purposes.

GucksTV conducted a direct comparison between the 8700G and the 8700GE, both equipped with 8 Zen4 cores and 12 RDNA3 compute units. The reviewer has now confirmed the specifications for the GE variant.

However, it’s essential to note some issues with the engineering sample. It seems to lack support for memory OC profiles, unlike the 8700G, which easily handles the 6400 MT/s XMP memory OC profile. The 8700GE adheres to JEDEC specs of 5200 MT/s, but after updating the motherboard BIOS, the reviewer successfully enabled 6400 MT/s. Keep in mind that using the 8700GE may require the latest BETA firmware. Regarding CPU clocks, both samples reached up to 5.1 GHz, with a minimal recorded clock of 1.7 GHz.

In the Cinebench R15 test, the 8700GE showed power utilization of up to 40W, while the 8700G peaked at 88W, both maintaining temperatures under 52.6°C. The 8700G ran much hotter, reaching up to 70.5°C with the same air cooler.

Ryzen 8700GE (ES) & Ryzen 7 8700G, Source: GucksTV

On average, the single-core of 8700GE performance drops by 5%, while multi-core is 17% below 8700G. For graphics, that’s a 23% average drop in performance while requiring 52% less power.

Ryzen 8700GE (ES) & Ryzen 7 8700G, Source: GucksTV

The Ryzen 7 8700GE seems like a perfect choice for low-power systems. GucksTV built a while Mini-ITX platform around this processor, and it seems to be performing great given the power constraints. The APU appears to trade places with Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which is also built on the same platform, but on a different package for gaming handhelds.

Users should have plenty of options based on Ryzen 7040 series already, but the choice between mobile Phoenix and desktop 8700GE will come down to the upgradability. Here, users can change any component to their liking and upgrade the APU later.

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