AMD Ryzen CPUs might ditch integrated graphics

AMD looks to be readying itself to launch a new 6-core processor, but unlike its other desktop AM5 CPUs, AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 5 7500F may be the first desktop CPU to be released with no integrated graphics support. Cheekily, this naming scheme brings the team red chip in line with the Intel Core F series processors that also ship without integrated graphics. What a coincidence!

According to leaked information gleaned from PugetBench via harukaze5719, the Ryzen 5 7500F will be a hexa-core CPU with the same core count as the Ryzen 5 7600, but a 100MHz slower clock speed.

Here are the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F leaked specs so far:

VideoCardz states that the Ryzen 5 7500F “is expected to be priced approximately $10 lower than the Ryzen 5 7600, which had an initial release price of $229”. If true, that’d mean a launch price of around $219.

Although it’s easy to sneer at the performance of integrated graphics, they can make for a useful stopgap while you save up for a new GPU. Aside from the news that no one’s using an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti on Steam, June’s Steam Hardware Survey showed us that a significant portion of Steam users are still using integrated graphics, with the Intel Iris Xe Graphics the most used at a 1.65% adoption rate. That’s more than any Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 series card, to put it in perspective.

That said, we’d always recommend a dedicated gaming GPU if you’re serious about PC gaming, as long as you’ve got the budget. Our best graphics card guide can help you out if you’re not sure what to go for when building or upgrading your PC.