Ryzen 9 7900: Integrated GPU overclocked to 3.1 GHz – is it worth it?

Since the Ryzen 7000 generation, AMD has also installed integrated graphics processors in its CPUs, which work on the basis of the RDNA 2 architecture, as is already known from the Radeon RX 6000 series. The iGPUs are equipped with two compute units, each with 64 stream processors, which offer an economical base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of up to 2.2 GHz. Accordingly, high performance is not to be expected – however, this did not prevent the Youtuber Skatterbencher from testing the maximum possible performance via overclocking and achieved an impressive result with the Ryzen 9 7900 and an iGPU clock of 3.1 GHz.

For the overclocking procedure, the Gigabyte B650E Aorus Tachyon was used as the mainboard in addition to the CPU mentioned. First of all, however, gaming benchmarks in Full HD resolution were on the program, which were carried out with the standard clock in order to create a comparison value. The results were on the expected low level: The IGP of the Ryzen 9 7900 manages an average of 58 frames per second in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, while Tomb Raider only records 12 FPS.

A first trick enabled the first leap in performance of 12 percent. By activating AMD EXPO (EXtended Profiles for Overclocking), Skatterbencher was able to prove a bottleneck in the memory bandwidth – 12 percent more performance does not mean huge improvements, but according to the Youtuber it shows the potential that can actually be found in the integrated graphics unit of the Ryzen 9 7900 plugged.

For the “correct” overclocking, Skatterbencher used AMD’s own Curve Optimizer, with which, among other things, the clocking of the Ryzen 9 7900’s iGPU can be gradually adjusted. Here, the Youtuber was able to increase the boost clock by a whopping 900 MHz – i.e. a little more than 40 percent – to 3.1 GHz. This enabled an increase in performance of around 42 percent to be achieved: CS:GO plays at an average of 80 FPS with the overclocked IGP. Tomb Raider remains unplayable in 1080p resolution with 17 frames per second, but should at least be able to crack the magical 30 FPS limit at low detail levels and 720p resolution, as the Youtuber suspects.

The effects of overclocking the integrated graphics unit were also checked for heat development and power consumption. According to the recorded data, the iGPU of the Ryzen 9 7900 jumps from 38.4 to 52.8 degrees Celsius, and an increase in power consumption from 38.5 to 60.6 watts can be observed. Ironically, according to Skatterbencher, the overclocking process of the integrated graphics unit is “worlds more pleasant” than with discrete graphics cards – so if you own a Ryzen 7000 and are looking for simple overclocking options, you should try your luck with the integrated graphics.