I am looking to replace my ancient PC(AMD FX-6300 cpu, Radeon R7 200 gpu), but graphics cards are freakin’ pricey right now. Are there cheaper systems with decent integrated graphics that will do the job? I don’t do shoot-em-ups, mainly Skyrim, DDO Online, and other RPG adventure games.
Yes. You want Ryzan’s integrated graphics off its G-series processors with Vega 11 graphics. Their performance is much better than Intel’s integrated graphics. It’s still no replacement for a discreet GPU though they actually out-perform extreme budget GPU options like a GT 730. It’s considered a great low-end solution for people who want to hold off on a GPU in this market but be able to game in the meanwhile.
You can probably find games you’re interested in on youtube and search for [game with Vega 11] and see performance results. You may have to run settings on Low and perhaps at a resolution like 960 or 720 depending on the game.
Will it beat the card I’ve got now?
I’m not sure which R7 2xx card you have but it Ryzen 11 beats the R7 250X and lower and is about equal to the R7 265/260X cards. Here’s a sample comparison and you can change the GPU as appropriate.
Next generation AMD integrated graphics are expected to hit shelves in the first half of 2022. Is there any way you can wait that long? It would probably be very much worth it.
EDIT: Googling for a cite, I’m now seeing conflicting info. Second half of 2022 is much further away than first half. Let me see if I can track down the original source I saw before the edit window closes.
I don’t think brand new state of the art stuff is going to be within my very limited budget. I’m just looking to upgrade what I’ve got for as little as possible.
Sounds like a 5600G could be a nice fit. Not quite as fast as the 5700G but a better value for the money.
Prebuilt or build your own? And what’s the budget?
My limited looking has so far only uncovered one single APU-based prebuild, the HP Pavillion at Costco. Every other prebuild that features the 5600G also comes with a discrete graphics card, usually either a 1660 or a 3060. Kind of defeats the whole purpose, y’know?
lol, i run most new games on AMD Radeon 7000 series cards that they don’t make anymore … and my PC is so old that I had to get a special piece for it so I could put it on the motherboard …
as long as I keep it on med/high settings you cant tell …
Fair warning if you go the build-your-own route, which I recommend: The new AMD integrated graphics chips came out after the motherboards they plug into did. That means the motherboards can’t run the CPU out of the box, you have to update the BIOS first. You can either plug in an old AMD CPU to flash the BIOS, or you could get a motherboard that lets you flash the BIOS without needing a CPU. My vote is the latter.
Here’s a PCPartPicker list for a budget DIY build that would be pretty sweet:
| Price | Component | Details |
|---|---|---|
| $239.00 | CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600G |
| $0.00 | Cooler | (stock) |
| $99.99 | Motherboard | Gigabyte B550 Gaming X |
| $65.97 | RAM | 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 3200 |
| $89.99 | Hard Drive | 1 TB Crucial P5 M.2 PCIe Gen 3 |
| $69.99 | Power Supply | Corsair RMx (2018) 550W 80+ Gold |
| $59.99 | Case | Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh |
| $624.93 | total plus tax |
For a CPU with integrated graphics, the two choices are 5600G and 5700G. The price difference is around $100, making the 5600G the better value. You should be able to use the stock cooler with it.
For the motherboard, this is the cheapest one I could find that lets you flash the BIOS without a CPU. This motherboard is also PCIe Gen 4, which is nice, but…
…unfortunately the Gen 4 M.2 slot is only Gen 3 when you run a CPU with integrated graphics. On the plus side, Gen 3 drives are cheaper. The Cucial P5 isn’t a particularly great Gen 3 drive – roughly on par with Western Digital Black – but that’s still pretty good. Mainly it’s super cheap. 1 TB is nice and roomy. The 500 GB version is only $55, so that’s a potential way to scale back and save $35 to sneak under $600 total before tax.
The G.Skill memory is good cheap RAM. The 5600G can run a max of 3200, so 3200 memory it is. It comes as two sticks of 8 GB, leaving two slots free for a potential easy upgrade down the road.
The 550W power supply is around 300W more than you need but that’s about as low as you can buy. Corsair RMx is a decent budget PSU. Gold rated is nice.
Gamers Nexus rated the Phanteks Eclipse P300A the best budget case in their case review in the beginning of this year. You might want to pick up a 2-pack of 140m fans to toss in the front, or possibly a 3-pack of 120m PWM fans to go in both the front and to replace the one single 120m rear exhaust fan that comes with it. Either would cost around $40, but neither is strictly necessary.
You might also consider adding a 1 TB SSD drive (the regular 2.5" SATA kind) for a data drive. If you did, figure around $100 for that.
I recently asked a somewhat similar question in a thread you probably already saw, maybe even posted in, but just in case you didn’t I got some great advice there and ended up getting a nice deal on a computer capable of handling my work and gaming:
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-spec-out-a-new-work-at-home-pc/
The tl;dr of the thread was that this computer was recommended to me. It does have a graphics card, but on sale at $1200 it’s a great deal and I’ve been very happy with it so far. It’s not available for shipping online, so if you have a Micro Center within driving distance it might be worth your while (sale goes until Nov. 1):
To tag onto @solost, if you really want to save some money, this one comes in at $800 and includes a graphics card that currently sells standalone for about half the price of the entire PC. It’s basically the even cheaper version of the great deal that @solost mentioned.
While I agree that you don’t really need a discrete card for things like Skyrim, you would have needed one when Skyrim came out, and you’ll need one now if you start using mods with Skyrim.
I should have indicated what motherboard I have. It is a Gigabyte 970A-DS3P.
There’s a difference between “will it run?”, “will it run well?”, and “is it supported?”.
The company I do tech support for has maybe 30 current games of which IIRC 2 are supported on Intel graphics hardware under Windows. Of the remaining 28 about 26 will usually run on Intel video but may be slow, and cannot be guaranteed to run in future versions of those games.
If you have a video-related problem and are running on unsupported video hardware, QA and the developers may simply not look into the problem, or not very far. So I’d recommend checking the minimum requirements of the games you want to play on this rig and at least meeting those.
Google says that’s an AM3 socket, and unfortunately all modern AMD chips require an AM4 socket. Different number of pins, so no. Any upgrade would require at least a new motherboard.
In fact, I believe AM4 is about to be phased out for the next round of chips, which will presumably fit into AM5 sockets.
He’s asking about AMD integrated graphics, not Intel.
Not only that but if you’re keeping the old MB, as far as I’m concerned you’re not replacing the PC.
Yeah, the MB will need to go. I recently ran into a problem with my own computer where the chipset driver was crashing Windows pretty regularly and when I went to update the driver I saw the last update was a long time ago. I sighed and swapped the MB (and needed new RAM and CPU as well to be compatible) and it has been rock solid since (as well as faster). You don’t want to keep a MB too long, eventually it will bite you.
Generally speaking, the integrated graphics CPUs have always been intended for laptops and other applications where space and power were at a premium. Historically, separate GPU/CPU combinations give FAR more power, for not a whole lot more money, but they take up a lot more space and use a lot more energy.
I’m assuming your monitor is probably no better than 1920x1080/60hz if the rest of your current rig is as old as it is. If so, then the modern AMD Ryzen G series processors with integrated graphics will do fine for the uses you describe.
The CPU part will be dramatically faster than the old FX-6300 and will run a lot cooler as well. The GPU will also far exceed that old R7 200 - for the Ryzen 5700G, the equivalent standalone GPU is roughly a RX550, which is 3 generations newer than a R7 200 series CPU.
So there’s really nothing to lose, if you can afford the new motherboard, memory and processor, and likely power supply if you don’t already have a 500-600 watt one.
Personally, I wouldn’t bother with anything less than the 5700G; it’s pretty cheap as CPUs go, even ones with non-integrated graphics at around $300- even older 3600X CPUs without integrated graphics cost in the $290 range, and those are more than two years old.
The 5600G ($240) is a better buy than the 5700G ($330). I think they both have the same APU, with the 5700G having a better CPU. If I’m wrong on that I might change my opinion.
Userbenchmark shows virtually no difference between the two, but obviously that’s just one artificial data point.
Here’s a YouTube video:
Looks like the 5700G has Vega 8 compared to the 5600G Vega 7. I’m not sure if the extra $90 is worth it though based on that video. All three are struggling.
Something I was wondering about… don’t the APUs like the 5600G use regular system memory for video purposes, as opposed to standalone GPUs which have onboard memory of their own?
If that’s the case, then memory quantity and speed would potentially be more of a consideration than otherwise.
Fair enough, but the principle stands - check the requirements of the game you want to run. Many of ours have a set minimum of dedicated Vram for instance, say 1gb or 2gb, which few integrated video systems have.
That is certainly information I need to know-Thank you.