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AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Discrete GPU Gaming Performance — The TLDR
AMD positions the Ryzen 5000G chips as the "non-X" equivalents for the Ryzen 5000 family, so some enthusiasts will buy the 5600G as the non-X equivalent to the 5600X that requires a discrete GPU. Additionally, if the GPU shortage continues, it might be a good idea to use the 5600G's iGPU as a stopgap until you upgrade to a discrete GPU later. Even though it certainly seems counterintuitive with an APU, both of these use-cases dictate that we should analyze how the chip performs with a discrete graphics card.
Below you can see the geometric mean of our gaming tests at 1080p and 1440p, with each resolution split into its own chart to give us a decent overall view of the current landscape. As usual, we're testing with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 to reduce GPU-imposed bottlenecks as much as possible, and differences between test subjects will shrink with lesser cards or higher resolutions. These are cumulative metrics, so individual wins vary on a per-title basis. You'll find the game-by-game test results further below. Some of these same benchmarks appeared in our integrated GPU testing above, but we used higher quality settings for the tests below.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | 1920x1080 | 2560x1440 |
| Ryzen 7 5800X / 5600X | 100% | 100% |
| Core i7-11700K | 95.2% | 98% |
| Core i5-11600K | 92.8% | 96.7% |
| Core i5-11400 | 89.2% | 93.5% |
| Ryzen 7 5700G | 84.3% | 88.9% |
| Ryzen 5 5600G | 79.5% | 84.3% |
| Ryzen 7 4750G | 64.5% | 71.2% |
| Ryzen 5 3400G | 50.6% | 56.9% |
Here we can see how the chips stack up using the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X (they're nearly identical in gaming) as the baseline.
One of the primary reasons to buy a reduced-TDP 'non-X' AMD chip is that overclocking typically brings the non-X chip within range of the more expensive X model. That's exactly why the now-legendary Ryzen 5 3600 is so popular.
It's easy to see that the Ryzen 7 5600G doesn't gain enough dGPU gaming performance via overclocking to match the stock Ryzen 7 5600X. As such, you should keep your expectations in check if you're purchasing this chip as a cheaper non-X alternative for gaming.
Again, the Ryzen 5 5600G gives you the lion's share of the Ryzen 7 5700G's performance, landing within 5% at both resolutions (we'll discuss a caveat below). In addition, the Ryzen 5 5600G is faster than the Ryzen 5 3600 in these CPU-heavy tests, so it will provide a bit more runway with a dGPU than the less-expensive Zen 2-powered 3600.
We did catch one seemingly anomalous result in our testing: The Ryzen 7 5700G is 32% faster in Borderlands 3 at 1080p than the Ryzen 5 5600G on our test bench, and we retested it several times to confirm. That stands in contrast to the performance delta between the two chips in other titles, spanning from a tie to a 4% difference.
When paired with a higher-end dGPU, the 5600G lags the stock Intel processors significantly. Overclocking reduces that delta, but the Ryzen 5600G doesn't match the overclocked Intel comparables on a like-for-like basis.
We'll skip the blow-by-blow analysis in the individual game results below because, aside from Borderlands 3, the results are fairly redundant and this certainly isn't the primary target market for these chips.
3D Mark, VRMark, Stockfish Chess Engine on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Borderlands 3 on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Far Cry 5 on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Hitman 2 on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Project CARS 3 on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Red Dead Redemption 2 on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Shadow of the Tomb Raider on AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
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