Is the Ryzen 5 4600G worth it? As an entry level gaming processor which can happily rely on the solid Radeon Vega 7 APU, but what will it actually play? Do the specs hold up to today's mutliplayer & competitive games as promised by the vendors? Find out below.
AMD Ryzen 5 4600G - Is It Worth It?
The Ryzen 5 4600 G-series of AMD Ryzen chips are based on the existing Zen 2 architecture and 7nm process as their Ryzen 3000 relatives, but offer a significant improvement over the latter.
With a 21% improvement over the Ryzen 5 3400G and 94% increase in multicore performance, you are certainly getting an upgrade in a budget-friendly APU-driven gaming system. The integrated graphics you get in the Ryzen 5 4600G is Radeon Vega 7, which offers up 1080p Low gaming (or better depending on the game). Radeon Vega 7 performs exceedingly well at this price bracket, combined with the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads and base clock of 3.7 GHz, and 4.2 GHz boost when needed.
While slightly worse off than Vega 8 graphics, Radeon Vega 7 graphics performance also depends on factors such as TDP, clock speed, the CPU cooling solution, and installed RAM, so it cannot be taken at face value. In the right system, you can get decent gains in framerate and graphics quality.
So, is it worth it in an entry level gaming system?
Is Ryzen 5 4600G good for gaming?
At the top of the list of questions we get at CCL for the 4600G - rightfully so - is it good for gaming? Depending on your experience of previous generation budget CPUs that boasted "1080p gaming", you will be pleased to learn that AMD have moved on a lot from the benchmarks we saw with the Ryzen 3 3200G. A lot has been learned, too, it seems from the claims made by Intel with the so-called "unplayable" experience with the Core i5-9500 - this CPU often being compared to the Ryzen 3 3200G in like-for-like budget and entry level PC benchmarks. The development process of the Ryzen 5 4600G has taken gaming into consideration, and as a result, offers much happier benchmarks:
- Fortnite @ 1080p: 120 FPS
- Apex Legends @ 1080p Low: 160 FPS
- League of Legends @ 1080p Quality: 160 FPS
- GTA 5 @ 1080 Normal: 70 FPS
- Genshin Impact @ 1080p Muy Baja: ~60 FPS
These are not bad framerates for a "budget" CPU, and is an absolute scene stealer entry level processor when paired with at least 16GB DDR4 RAM and fast SSD storage to reduce load times. Significantly, for competitive gamers, if you're playing a highly optimised game such as Dota 2, you can see framerates above 160 FPS at 1080p High, when you have the option of reducing the GPU-heavy settings to "low". So, a few tweaks in your favourite Esports game, and you will be more than happy.
The Ryzen 5 4600G is good for gaming, but you will be lacking a lot of performance in AAA games, or anything that is both CPU and GPU intensive. If that's why you are buying this processor, then a dedicated graphics card is required. Modern games put such a strain on the GPU, an integrated graphics system just cannot cope with the workload. If you want to stay in a decent budget bracket, there are now plenty of options, with RTX (Ray Tracing) capable GPUs under £350.
As far as the entry level gaming PC for multiplayer online games such as the above titles, it more than meets your needs.
The recommended PCs below show you the kind of value you can expect with the 4600G - and there's plenty to be had. For a home and family PC, under £500 is the sweet spot, and thanks to the specification of this CPU, there's even some gaming thrown in for good measure.
Recommended AMD Ryzen 5 4600G gaming PCs
Prices correct at time of publishing
Horizon 5M Integra Plus Gaming PC - £484.99
Specification:
- Windows: Windows 11 Home
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G 3.7GHz
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200
- Storage: 500GB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD
- Wi-Fi: 433Mbps Built-in Wi-Fi
Horizon 5M Integra Gaming PC - £420.99
Specification:
- Windows: Windows 11 Home
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600G 3.7GHz
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200
- Storage: 500GB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD
- Wi-Fi: 433Mbps Built-in Wi-Fi
