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The new AMD Rembrandt APUs may be just as good as the GTX 1650

A new leaked benchmark shows the performance of an upcoming AMD Rembrandt 6000-series APU, placing it in the same ballpark as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 and the GTX 1650.

If the live performance remains true to the benchmark, the new AMD APU could prove to be an affordable alternative during the trying times of the ongoing chip shortage.

Render of an AMD Ryzen chip.
AMD

The information comes from @9550Pro on Twitter, who recently leaked a benchmark from 3DMark Time Spy. The test was run on an AMD Rembrandt 6000G APU (accelerated processing unit). APUs are chips that contain both the processor and the graphics card, making them a solution that implements integrated graphics into systems that do not have a discrete GPU.

The rumored AMD APU scored 2,700 in the 3DMark Time Spy test. If this kind of performance proves to be true upon release, it’s possible that AMD may have a real hit in the works. Integrated graphics cards never promised much in terms of gaming capabilities, but it seems that the performance of the graphics chip in the new AMD APU may be comparable to budget-level graphics cards.

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Comparing the new chip to the slightly dated, but still very popular Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 nets good results. The GTX 1650 scores anywhere between 2,800 and 3,000 in the Time Spy test, meaning it’s only slightly better than the AMD 6000G APU. This would put AMD’s new release on par with both the GTX 1650 and the GTX 970, as these two cards feature similar performance.

AMD Ryzen 5000G.
AMD

Although we are now in the era of the GeForce RTX 3000-series cards and there is a new generation looming on the horizon, the GTX 1650 remains one of the best budget graphics cards. Considering that getting a new GPU at MSRP is next to impossible, many prebuilt PCs still feature the GTX 1650.

The card is capable of running 1080p games at 60 frames per second, even at high settings. This is more than can be said of any existing APUs. AMD’s current-gen APU, the Ryzen 5700G, has an integrated RX Vega 8 graphics card that has a 2.0GHz clock speed. The iGPU in the 5700G is sufficient for some light gaming, but it’s incapable of running modern games at high settings. The new APU, however, should be able to tackle most games the same way a proper (albeit budget) graphics card does.

Introducing the new APU is a smart move on AMD’s part. The ongoing chip shortage has left the market bare, and even older cards, such as the GTX 970 or the GTX 1650, sell at high prices. In such a situation, taking advantage of a reasonably priced APU just might be the way to go for PC gamers in the near future.

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Monica J. White
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
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