AMD CEO Lisa Su unveiled a new series of Ryzen 5000 mobile processors at CES 2021 yesterday. The new lineup includes 35W low TDP CPUs, low power U-series processors and super-performance H-series processors with overclocking up to 45W. All of this, according to AMD representatives, makes them ideal chips for compact and lightweight gaming laptops. Devices based on new mobile processors are expected on the market in February 2021.
The announcement was a logical continuation of the debut of the Ryzen 5000 series of desktop processors, which marked the emergence of a new Zen 3 microarchitecture.
U series
Not all Ryzen 5000 series mobile CPUs take advantage of the Zen 3 architecture. Of the Zen 3-based U-series processors, only the Ryzen 7 5800U and Ryzen 5 5600U models work. The rest are using Zen 2, which powers the previous generation of Ryzen 4000 mobile processors announced a year ago. That is, all the advantages of the processor, which allowed AMD to overtake Intel in a number of parameters (energy efficiency, for example), they, alas, do not have.
The headliner of the U series is the Ryzen 7 5800U: 8 cores, 16 threads, clock speed - 1.9 GHz, which in Boost mode can be increased to 4.4 GHz. AMD claims the chip delivers "the highest performance in an ultrathin laptop."
According to the company's PCMark 10 benchmark, the new processor outperforms the Intel® Core ™ i7-1165G7 by 1.23x, including in office applications like Excel and Edge. The company also claims that the 5800U provides very long battery life. In video playback mode, the battery life is 21 hours. In normal mode, the battery life is up to 17.5 hours. Well, the numbers are intriguing.
Series H
For the H series, in which AMD is producing more powerful processors, the company has added a new level - HX. Such CPUs lend themselves well to overclocking - up to 45 watts.
The big H series player is the Ryzen 9 5980HS, also with 8 cores and 16 threads, but clocked at 3.0GHz, bumping up to 4.8GHz in Boost mode. AMD says these are "the fastest mobile processors you can get." Is this really so, time will tell. But for now, it's safe to say that the 5980HS beats the Ryzen 9 4900HS in performance (and this is, for a second, a real monster that powers the Asus Zephyrus G14).
Benchmarking by AMD shows the Ryzen 9 5980HS outperforms the Intel® Core ™ i9-10980HK on Cinebench R20 in both single-threaded and multi-threaded modes. It also outperforms the new Intel® Core ™ i7-1185G7 in these parameters.
Ryzen in laptops
A number of laptop manufacturers are already using the new and updated Ryzen 5000 series processors. Asus has taken the best of AMD products: the highest performing 5900HX CPUs now power the ROG Zephyrus Duo SE and ROG Strix Scar. And the Ryzen 5980HS is now in the Asus ROG Flow X13 laptop. AMD also uses the novelty in its Nitro 5 - here you can also find models with a high-performance 5900HX.
AMD's chief executive also said the new processors will appear in 150 new notebook models from various vendors this year. "First Swallows" will be on sale in February.
The characteristics of the entire series of processors are in the table.
| Model | Cores /
Threads |
TDP (Watts) | Boost / Base Frequency
(GHz) |
Cache (MB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX | 8C / 16T | 45W + | Up to 4.8 / 3.3 GHz | twenty |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS | 8C / 16T | 35W | Up to 4.8 / 3.0 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | 8C / 16T | 45W+ | Up to 4.6 / 3.3 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS | 8C / 16T | 35W | Up to 4.6 / 3.0 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | 8C / 16T | 45W | Up to 4.4 / 3.2 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800HS | 8C / 16T | 35W | Up to 4.4 / 2.8 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600H | 6C / 12T | 45W | Up to 4.2 / 3.3 GHz | 19 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600HS | 6C / 12T | 35W | Up to 4.2 / 3.0 GHz | 19 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5800U | 8C / 16T | 15W | Up to 4.4 / 1.9 GHz | 20 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 5700U | 8C / 16T | 15W | Up to 4.3 / 1.8 GHz | 8 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5600U | 6C / 12T | 15W | Up to 4.2 / 2.3 GHz | 19 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 5500U | 6C / 12T | 15W | Up to 4.0 / 2.1 GHz | 8 |
| AMD Ryzen 3 5300U | 4C / 8T | 15W | Up to 3.8 / 2.6 GHz | 6 |
AMD vs Intel
Ryzen 5000 mobile processors compete directly with the 11th Gen Tiger Lake H35 processors that Intel introduced a few days ago. All three chips, including two Core ™ i7 and one Core ™ i5, have a maximum power of 35W and a total of four cores and eight threads - half of Ryzen. However, Intel said there will be an eight-core processor "later" clocked at up to 5 GHz.
Be that as it may, both companies have already started an "information war", measuring characteristics in comparison tables and conducting their own tests. But the evaluation of the actual performance of the processors and the determination of the winner will have to be left until the processors enter the market, when they are tested by independent experts.
What else
An AMD representative also unveiled the upcoming third-generation AMD EPYC server chip, codenamed Milan. In the benchmark, the 32-core dual-processor chip outperformed the Intel® dual-processor chip with Xeon® Gold 6258R chips by a 68% performance advantage.
