AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Linux Performance
Last week the new AMD Ryzen 8000G series processors with Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA3 graphics became available in retail channels. The initial launch-day Linux testing was focused on the Ryzen 7 8700G processor, which showed great uplift for the integrated graphics over the Ryzen 5000G series with Vega/GFX9 graphics and the Ryzen 7000 series with their cut-down RDNA2 integrated graphics. In today's article the AMD Ryzen 5 8600G is the focus of the Linux testing along with an expanded set of comparison processors re-tested.
The AMD Ryzen 5 8600G is the new $229 USD processor that boasts 6 cores / 12 threads (Zen 4) and Radeon 760M RDNA3 graphics with eight graphics cores. Like the Ryzen 7 8700G, this APU is a 65 Watt part, there is Ryzen AI, and there is a 16MB L3 cache. The Ryzen 5 8600G has a 4.3GHz base clock and 5.0GHz maximum boost clock. With the Ryzen 7 8700G you get 2 more cores / 4 more threads over the 8600G plus +100MHz on the boost clock while the 8600G has a +100MHz advantage on the base clock. The Radeon 760M graphics are clocked at 2.8GHz with the 8600G compared to 2.9GHz with the 8700G while the Radeon 780M with the 8700G has 12 CUs vs. 8 CUs.
This ~$230 processor does work out well on modern Linux distributions. Like with the Ryzen 7 8700G, the main caveat to be aware of is that you may need to be using the linux-firmware.git for the latest AMDGPU firmware for the integrated graphics. But if you are running any relatively recent Linux distribution like Ubuntu 23.10 or Fedora 39 you should be in good shape as far as the Linux kernel and Mesa versions are concerned. Of course, the newer Mesa and kernel you are on is typically better for yielding the best performance and features.
At first with the Ryzen 5 8600G I was hitting some pure green screens when booting to Ubuntu Linux when running in the DDR5-6400 EXPO mode... Was odd as the Ryzen 7 8700G ran fine with the same motherboard and RAM in EXPO mode. AMD also wasn't aware of any current issues with the Phoenix APUs and green screens. But I did happen to drop the Ryzen 5 8600G during its photography session.
Dropping the Ryzen 5 8600G caused some minor damages to the side and the 8600G had worked fine when not running in EXPO mode, but looks like the 8600G meeting the tile floor did just enough to cause issues when the system was in the EXPO mode configuration. Confirming my theory, I bought a Ryzen 5 8600G retail on launch-day and indeed it's been running fine in EXPO mode on the same system otherwise without any issues... Whoops! While constantly switching out desktop and server CPUs, the last time I had dropped a CPU was eight years ago back when bending an Intel Kabylake CPU. In that case though even with the more visible damage it still managed to work and that Core i5 7600K does remain racked up in the lab and still working fine.
The drop-tested 8600G on the left, the new (retail) 8600G on the right.
But long story short, the Ryzen 5 8600G is working out well on Linux similar to the Ryzen 7 8700G. The one area I am still to explore is the Ryzen AI NPU with AMD just recently publishing an open-source Linux driver for it. That will be the focus of follow-up articles.