I bought a Ryzen 5 8500G for $75 shipped and am putting together a PC with a total budget of $250. It will mainly be used for basic tasks and light gaming such as Roblox and Minecraft, probably by my kid. I have not decided whether to use the processor's integrated graphics or add a dedicated graphics card later. Was this a good purchase compared with something like the Ryzen 5 7600, which costs considerably more? I'm in the US and don't need any peripherals.
1 Answer
Yes, $75 is a solid price for the 8500G, especially for a low-cost system using integrated graphics. It is roughly 25% slower than a Ryzen 5 7600, but that difference matters less for basic work and games like Roblox or Minecraft. A dedicated graphics card could easily push the build over budget, so starting with the integrated graphics makes sense.
That’s the plan for now. It’s for my kid, so I’ll see how much gaming he actually does before spending more on a graphics card. A decent GPU would at least double the cost of the build, especially if I also upgraded to a stronger CPU.