If there were any doubts that the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G is really in the works, VideoCardz just shook things up. The site claims to have posted a retail sample of the chip with an anonymous source saying it shouldn't be long until AMD's Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) desktop APUs hit the shelves.
Much like AMD's other processors, Renoir is expected show a move to TSMC's 7nm FinFET process node. The new APUs should retain the Vega microarchitecture on the graphics end, but also leverage AMD's most recent Zen 2 microarchitecture. Other anticipated improvements include higher core counts, faster clock speeds, improved iGPU frequencies and native support for DDR4-3200 RAM.
We haven't heard about PCIe 4.0 support yet. On the other hand, Renoir is slated to dwell on the AM4 CPU socket, However, a motherboard firmware update will likely be required.
The Ryzen 7 4700G in the photograph pridefully carries the 100-000000146 OPN (ordering part number), which coincides with one of the previously leaked Ryzen APUs.
We wouldn't be surprised to see the Ryzen 7 4700G arrive with eight cores and 16 threads in order to double the counts on the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, the flagship of the previous generation of APUs.
AMD Ryzen 4000-Series Renoir Specifications*
| OPN | Cores / Threads | Base / Boost Clock (GHz) | L2 Cache (MB) | L3 Cache (MB) | Compute Units | Graphics Frequency (MHz) | TDP (W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100-000000145 | 8 / 16 | 3.60 / 4.45 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2,100 | 65 |
| 100-000000146 | 8 / 16 | 3.60 / 4.45 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2,100 | 65 |
| 100-000000143 | 6 / 12 | 3.70 / 4.30 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 1,900 | 65 |
| 100-000000147 | 6 / 12 | 3.70 / 4.30 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 1,900 | 65 |
| 100-000000144 | 4 / 8 | 3.80 / 4.10 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1,700 | 65 |
| 100-000000148 | 4 / 8 | 3.80 / 4.10 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1,700 | 65 |
*Specifications are not confirmed.
Assuming that AMD didn't tweak the specifications too much, we could see the Ryzen 7 4700G with a 3.6 GHz base clock and 4.45 GHz boost clock. It's probable that the octa-core APU might end up with 4MB and 8MB of L2 and L3 cache, respectively.
The Ryzen 7 4700G is rumored to come with eight Vega Compute Units (CUs), which would amount to a total of 512 Stream Processors (SPs). That's three fewer CUs than the Ryzen 5 3500G. However, Ryzen 5 3400G's iGPU maxes out at 1,400 MHz, and the Ryzen 7 4700G's iGPU reportedly scales up to 2,100 MHz. It will be interesting to see if a 50% uplift in iGPU frequency can balance out losing three CUs.
AMD has been offering its APUs at a 65W TDP (thermal design power) for a while now, so we don't see that changing with Renoir. AMD tends to later roll out GE-series variants adhering to a 35W TDP for consumers that prioritize energy-efficiency over performance.
If we look at the competition, the Intel Core i7-10700 shares a similar core count and TDP as what the Ryzen 7 4700G is rumored to have. Intel's contender features a 2.9 GHz base clock and 4.8 GHz boost clock and comes with 16MB of L3 cache. The Core i7-10700 carries the Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU with 24 Execution Units (EUs) with a boost frequency of 1,200 MHz.
The Core i7-10700 has a $323 MSRP and currently competes with the $329 AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. We expect the Ryzen 7 4700G to cheaper at $200-$250.
