First AMD Drivers for Ryzen 7000's Super Slow iGPU

Ryzen 7000
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD has released its Adrenalin 22.9.2 drivers, the first to support AMD's RDNA2 graphics engine built into its Ryzen 7000-series processors. AMD's Zen 4 iGPU is far from being a gaming monster, but it should be enough for basic use cases like video playback and web browsing.

With the introduction of the Ryzen 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X and other Zen 4 CPUs, AMD will offer Radeon integrated graphics in every member of the Ryzen 7000 family — assuming they don't later offer an equivalent of Intel's F-series SKUs. These new GPUs feature the RDNA 2 architecture and are housed directly in the 6nm I/O die. This is a big departure from previous generations of Ryzen processors, where the integrated graphics chip was reserved exclusively for Ryzen APUs.

Before you get your hopes up, you should know that the integrated RDNA 2 solution is nothing like the earlier GPUs found in the Ryzen 3000G, 4000G, and 5000G predecessors. The last two featured up to eight Vega-era CUs (compute units), while the earlier 2000G and 3000G had up to 11 CUs. Presumably due to size constraints on the 6nm I/O die, the RDNA 2 GPU featured in the Ryzen 5/7/9 chips only has two CUs to work with, with 256 GPU shaders running at up to 2.2 GHz in all cases.

These are ludicrously low core counts for graphics processing units, even by integrated graphics standards. As seen in the above integrated graphics testing charts, the Ryzen 7000 GPU is mostly unusable in modern video games, delivering about half the performance of even Intel's 11th Gen Rocket Lake 32 EU GPU.

To get playable performance, you have to play games made half a decade ago, when GTAV was a brand new title on the block. Even then, you need to drop to 720p and minimum quality settings to barely break 30 fps.

But these GPUs were never intended to play games. AMD includes the new integrated GPU more for casual users that only need basic display functionality. Even gamers might find the iGPU useful for troubleshooting, or alternatively for powering a secondary display. We do expect AMD will also have a higher performance I/O chiplet, most likely for use in Ryzen 7000-series laptops.

The main highlight of Adrenalin 22.9.2 is the added support for Ryzen 7000-series integrated graphics. The only other item in the patch notes is game ready support for Grounded, a first-person survival adventure game that is currently in early access on Steam.

Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • blacknemesist
    Didn't AMD clarify that these iGPUs were just display adapters for the most part?
    Reply
  • peachpuff
    blacknemesist said:
    Didn't AMD clarify that these iGPUs were just display adapters for the most part?
    I would atleast hope it would match intels offering but it's nowhere close.
    Reply
  • SonoraTechnical
    They will need to distinguish their APUs from these Ryzen's with basic display adapters.... I intend to buy a discrete video card this time around (which I haven't as I've had back to back Intel CPUs for more than 12 years), so I'm not concerned about the performance.. but that said, I was shocked they are this low. I thought they'd at least be as good as 11th generation Intel i5 processors with 60fps at 720p and very basic settings on most games. But, they are LOW.. I wonder if it's just driver issues??
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    blacknemesist said:
    Didn't AMD clarify that these iGPUs were just display adapters for the most part?
    yes.
    they will have future APU ones with normal graphics ppl expect.
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    I expected as much. RDNA is roughly about 50% more efficient than Vega clock for clock. So you are looking at a low clocked Vega 3 equivalent.
    Reply
  • surfer1966
    Admin said:
    AMD has released its first Adrenalin GPU driver supporting the Ryzen 7000's new integrated graphics chips.

    First AMD Drivers for Ryzen 7000's Super Slow iGPU : Read more
    Is the IGPU powerful enough to watch 4k quality video on a 4k tv or will I need a discrete GPU?
    Reply
  • tracker1
    surfer1966 said:
    Is the IGPU powerful enough to watch 4k quality video on a 4k tv or will I need a discrete GPU?

    It should absolutely work for that case. There are decode accelerators for h.265 and av1 which should cover modern encoded video at 4k without issue. General desktop use should also be fine.

    Modern 3D gaming is where this isn't really for for use and you'll want a dedicated GPU.


    Aside: If they could do a GPU chiplet that has 8-16 rDNA 3 compute units combined with the CPU chiplet that could be a compelling APU for budget gaming early next year.
    Reply
  • JWNoctis
    peachpuff said:
    I would atleast hope it would match intels offering but it's nowhere close.
    Might be useful to appreciate that it still had the performance of a high end GPU from late 00's, like 9800GT or HD 4850, or something average from a decade ago, like a GT 640, and all this at the bottom of the barrel of integated graphics, places once occupied by the likes of Intel GMA series. It's definitely still more than enough for office use, or for media, or for classic games.

    If anything, it's a testament to how preposterously powerful modern GPU had become.

    Someone was (and still is) selling things like GT 730 and HD 5450 with more VRAM somehow stapled on not all that long ago, around the peak of the last mining craze. This one should still be enough to beat those, hands down, in all ways except drop-in compatibility.
    Reply
  • Kamen Rider Blade
    Remember, this is RDNA 2, imagine what will be coming now that AMD is free from Global Foundaries Shackles and can work with TSMC to update / iterate faster.

    Imagine what will happen with Zen 5 and 2 CU's of RDNA 3 inside the cIOD at the same Power Target?

    Remember RDNA 3 is supposed to have > 60% performance per watt gain.

    Then Zen 6 and 2 CU's of RDNA 4 inside the cIOD at the same Power Target?

    You're going to see the iGPU quickly climb up from the bottom of the iGPU stack.
    Reply
  • drivinfast247
    nghang2001 said:
    hi
    Bye
    Reply