Best iGPU/APU?

[pinguinninja]

So I am building a my brothers first PC on a budget of $500-$800. With the current state of the GPU market I know my options are limited. I am going to give the second had market a look, but if nothing comes of it is AMD's APU going to be my best bet? or has Intel's iGPU gotten any better? 

[curiousmind34]

3 minutes ago, pinguinninja said:

So I am building a my brothers first PC on a budget of $500-$800. With the current state of the GPU market I know my options are limited. I am going to give the second had market a look, but if nothing comes of it is AMD's APU going to be my best bet? or has Intel's iGPU gotten any better? 

The 3400g has the best igpu on the market right now. Intel is far behind, but 11th gen cpus are rumored to have xe graphics, which would bring them right up next to amd in igpu performance

[Alan G]

I have been running my television computer off of an Intel Pentium CPU with integrated graphics and it works just fine.  I get high def on a 32 inch Sony which suits my needs just fine.  I don't game at all so I cannot tell you whether it is good bad or indifferent for that purpose.

[artisuke]

6 minutes ago, pinguinninja said:

So I am building a my brothers first PC on a budget of $500-$800. With the current state of the GPU market I know my options are limited. I am going to give the second had market a look, but if nothing comes of it is AMD's APU going to be my best bet? or has Intel's iGPU gotten any better? 

What will your brother be doing on his PC? If he's doing any gaming, I'd go with the 3400G. 

[artisuke]

Just now, Benji said:

What I would also suggest might be looking for a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G which is not Zen (2400G) or Zen+ (3400G), but actually Zen2 hexa-core with the Vega 7 clocked at 1.9 GHz. That thing should feel significantly faster, both in terms of iGPU and especially CPU cores. It is a little pricier, but still way below what Intel can offer.

Yea, availability will also be a big factor. I don't think the 3400G is affected as much as other CPUs, but you never know.

[VirusDumb]

14 minutes ago, pinguinninja said:

So I am building a my brothers first PC on a budget of $500-$800. With the current state of the GPU market I know my options are limited. I am going to give the second had market a look, but if nothing comes of it is AMD's APU going to be my best bet? or has Intel's iGPU gotten any better? 

 

Try getting your hands on a ryzen 5 4650g

[pinguinninja]

7 minutes ago, curiousmind34 said:

The 3400g has the best igpu on the market right now. Intel is far behind, but 11th gen cpus are rumored to have xe graphics, which would bring them right up next to amd in igpu performance

That's what I've heard, I just worry Intel 11th gen will suffer the same fate as the 5000 series and waiting would just diminish what stock there is of the 3400G which I think is my best bet at the moment. So I might just end up getting a 3400G

 

3 minutes ago, Benji said:

What I would also suggest might be looking for a Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G which is not Zen (2400G) or Zen+ (3400G), but actually Zen2 hexa-core with the Vega 7 clocked at 1.9 GHz. That thing should feel significantly faster, both in terms of iGPU and especially CPU cores. It is a little pricier, but still way below what Intel can offer.

I didn't even know that existed. I'll def look and see if I can find one, might work a lot better.

 

7 minutes ago, davidjcoble said:

What will your brother be doing on his PC? If he's doing any gaming, I'd go with the 3400G. 

More than likely he will be mostly gaming. I'll probably get the 3400G or 4650G just until the GPU shortage ends. Which I know may be a while...

[artisuke]

1 minute ago, pinguinninja said:

That's what I've heard, I just worry Intel 11th gen will suffer the same fate as the 5000 series and waiting would just diminish what stock there is of the 3400G which I think is my best bet at the moment. So I might just end up getting a 3400G

 

I didn't even know that existed. I'll def look and see if I can find one, might work a lot better.

 

More than likely he will be mostly gaming. I'll probably get the 3400G or 4650G just until the GPU shortage ends. Which I know may be a while...

In that case, I definitely recommend the 3400G, and I'd do some more research on the 4650G. In terms of gaming, Intel is pretty far behind until they release their Xe graphics for desktop.

[curiousmind34]

3400g:$275

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-3400G-8-Thread-Processor/dp/B07SXNDKNM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ryzen+5+3400g&qid=1614798542&sr=8-1

4650g: $300

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-Processor-3-7Ghz-Threads/dp/B08MWMGRH7/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=4650g&qid=1614798526&sr=8-2
 

getting the 4650g is obvious imo

[pinguinninja]

45 minutes ago, curiousmind34 said:

3400g:$275

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-3400G-8-Thread-Processor/dp/B07SXNDKNM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ryzen+5+3400g&qid=1614798542&sr=8-1

4650g: $300

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-Processor-3-7Ghz-Threads/dp/B08MWMGRH7/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=4650g&qid=1614798526&sr=8-2
 

getting the 4650g is obvious imo

 

44 minutes ago, Benji said:

They will, but according to rumours only with, at best, half the core count of the Xe 96EU. So they're a bit faster than the UHD Graphics with 32-48EU Xe, but definitely nowhere near the Tiger Lake Mobile. And I wouldn't wait for that given Intel's prices. The only real advatage might be slightly better drivers and support for AV1 (which is becoming more relevant on YouTube for example).

Definitely. The 25 bucks are well-invested in the 4650G.

Looking into gaming benchmarks looks like its maybe a 1-5 fps diff, better one changing game to game, but having the 6/12 of the 4650G would def be better down the road when GPU's become available vs the 3400G's 4/8

[pinguinninja]

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

Not only this, but Zen 2 was actually the generation that completely caught up to Intel's performance and trumped them both in terms of performance and efficiency for the first time. That's why not only the higher core count, but also the significantly faster architecture (and higher clocks) will make a huge impact with a newer GPU as it'll limit less. And then there's the same iGPU architecture as the Zen and Zen+ models but with a significantly smaller process node, so it'll be able to clock significantly higher and more consistent while consuming much less power than the Zen (14nm) and Zen+ ("12nm") APUs.

If the 4650G is zen2 theoretically it should support PCI-E gen 4 right?

[curiousmind34]

 

9 minutes ago, Benji said:

The APUs actually don't support PCIe Gen 4 according to AMD.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-pro-4650g

not like it really matters for anything near that budget

[curiousmind34]

1 minute ago, Benji said:

It might matter in the future because that limit is just for the system pre-GPU. If I understand correctly, the system is supposed to run off the iGPU until GPUs are, first of all, available and then at a normal price.

there is a 2% difference in performance between gen3 and gen4 and a 3080/3090. Anything over that level of performance would bottleneck the cpu anyway

[Bubavon]

Was in the excact same situation here recently. Wanted to build a computer, but the graphics card market are non-existent so I went with an APU. 

 

Theese days even the 3400g is often sold overpriced or are just plain out of stock everywhere. If you can find it for a reasonable price it's the obvious choice. I however managed to find a 4650g for just a bit more in some completely unknown store. It's a good apu for sure. 

 

Funny times we live in

Edited March 4, 2021 by Bubavon