AMD refreshes CPU offering for Chromebooks with Ryzen 5000C series

AMD releases four new Ryzen processors for Chromebooks. They use the Zen 3 architecture and thus get a place in the Ryzen 5000 series. It’s a Ryzen 7, a Ryzen 5 and two Ryzen 3s.

It is the first time since September 2020 that AMD is releasing new chips for Chromebooks. At the time, it was the Ryzen 3000C series based on Zen+ cores. AMD skipped Zen 2 and with it the Ryzen 4000 naming convention for this market segment. Partly because of this, the improvements compared to the previous generation are very large. AMD claims that the top model Ryzen 7 5825C scores more than twice as high as the Ryzen 7 3700C in the multithreaded Geekbench 5 test.

The new Ryzens are based on the Cezanne chip, which we know from the regular Ryzen 5000 series for laptops, including Vega GPU. Like the U-series, the C-series has a TDP of 15W. The four models have two, four, six or eight cores and turbo clock speeds between 3.0 and 4.5GHz.

Acer and HP are the first laptop manufacturers to start working with the new chips. The HP Elite C645 G2, a 14″ business Chromebook with an optional 4G modem, will be released this quarter. Acer will follow in the third quarter with the Chromebook Spin 514, a 14″ convertible with a touchscreen.

AMD emphasizes that the Ryzen and Athlon 3000C series and even the serial-less AMD 3015Ce will remain available for laptops in the entry-level segment. For now, the Ryzen 5000C processors will only be used for the more luxurious notebooks. Until now, AMD CPUs were mainly used in budget Chromebooks; a model with the most luxurious 3700C on board, for example, never reached the Pricewatch.