AMD Launches 8700F & 8400F Budget Gaming CPUs

AMD has launched two new low-priced CPUs based on its recently reviewed 8700G: Dubbed the Ryzen 7 8700F and Ryzen 5 8400F, these two new models use the same cores but with the high-powered Radeon 780M (740M for the 8500G) completely disabled. Gaming-capable graphics being the primary reason these cores exist, the 8700F comes at a substantially discounted price of $269. That’s $60 cheaper than the 8700G.

AMD Ryzen 5 8400F At Newegg

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AMD Ryzen 7 8700F At Newegg

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Meanwhile, the $169 8400F is only $10 cheaper than the 8500G. There could be a good reason for this: Check out the PCIe configuration near the bottom of this table:

^{General Specifications}
^Name	^{AMD Ryzen™ 7 8700G}	^{AMD Ryzen™ 7 8700F}	^{AMD Ryzen™ 5 8500G}	^{AMD Ryzen™ 5 8400F}
^{CPU Socket}	^AM5	^AM5	^AM5	^AM5
^{# of CPU Cores}	⁸	⁸	⁶	⁶
^{Multithreading (SMT)}	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes
^{# of Threads}	¹⁶	¹⁶	¹²	¹²
^{Max. Boost Clock}	^{Up to 5.1 GHz}	^{Up to 5 GHz}	^{Up to 5 GHz}	^{Up to 4.7 GHz}
^{Base Clock}	^{4.2 GHz}	^{4.1 GHz}	^{3.5 GHz}	^{4.2 GHz}
^{L2 Cache}	^{8 MB}	^{8 MB}	^{6 MB}	^{6 MB}
^{L3 Cache}	^{16 MB}	^{16 MB}	^{16 MB}	^{16 MB}
^{Default TDP}	^65W	^65W	^65W	^65W
^{AMD Configurable TDP (cTDP)}	^45-65W	^45-65W	^45-65W	^45-65W
^{Processor Technology for CPU Cores}	^{TSMC 4nm FinFET}	^{TSMC 4nm FinFET}	^{TSMC 4nm FinFET}	^{TSMC 4nm FinFET}
^{CPU Compute Die (CCD) Size}	^178mm²	^178mm²	^137mm²	^178mm²
^{Package Die Count}	¹	¹	¹	¹
^{Unlocked for Overclocking}	^Yes	^Yes	^FinFET	^Yes
^{AMD EXPO™ Memory Overclocking Technology}	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes
^{Precision Boost Overdrive}	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes	^Yes
^Connectivity
^{Native USB 4 (40Gbps) Ports}	²	²	²	²
^{Native USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Ports}	²	²	²	²
^{Native USB 2.0 (480Mbps) Ports}	¹	¹	¹	¹
^{PCI Express® Version}	^{PCIe® 4.0}	^{PCIe® 4.0}	^{PCIe® 4.0}	^{PCIe® 4.0}
^{Native PCIe® Lanes (Total/Usable)}	^{20 , 16}	^{20 , 16}	^{14 , 10}	^{20 , 16}
^{NVMe Support}	^{Boot , RAID0 , RAID1}	^{Boot , RAID0 , RAID1}	^{Boot , RAID0 , RAID1}	^{Boot , RAID0 , RAID1}
^{System Memory Type}	^DDR5	^DDR5	^DDR5	^DDR5
^{Memory Channels}	²	²	²	²
^{Max. Memory}	^{256 GB}	^{256 GB}	^{256 GB}	^{256 GB}

We should ignore the four hidden lanes on each processor and speak only of those that are capable of serving graphics cards and high-bandwidth NVMe drives: Three of the above processors have 16 of those, while one, the 8500G has only 14.

We’re not certain why AMD decided to give the 8400F all sixteen lanes. Most motherboards are wired to to feed the top NVMe storage slot directly with CPU lanes, leaving the graphics card to run in x8 mode and leaving the remaining two or four lanes with nowhere to go. We don’t think anyone will notice whether there are two or four lanes going nowhere.

Then again, perhaps we can look forward to low-cost motherboards that get their storage exclusively from the external chipset component (AMD calls this component a “promontory”). Such a design would allow even these cheap processors to connect a graphics card with the full sixteen lanes. We’ll keep an eye out for such developments.

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AMD Ryzen 5 8400F At Newegg

AMD Ryzen 7 8700F At Newegg

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