AMD completely fills Ryzen 8040 series for laptops with rebrands
AMD announces its Ryzen 8040 series of processors for laptops. The entire range consists of rebrands of the existing Ryzen 7040 series. With a new software platform, developers can make AI models use the integrated NPU more easily.
The new line-up of processors for laptops consists of four economical U models, with a TDP of 28W adjustable between 15 and 30W, and five HS models with higher TDPs, usually 45W and adjustable between 35 and 54W. Like the current Ryzen 7040 series, the 8040 CPUs use a Phoenix die, which consists of Zen 4 cores for the CPU computing power, an RDNA 3 GPU for the integrated graphics and a first-generation XDNA NPU. According to AMD’s new naming convention for laptops, the name Ryzen 8040 comes from the year of introduction (2024 = 8) and the core used (Zen 4).
It is striking that the clock speeds are not or hardly higher than the previous generation. For example, the maximum boost speed of the top model Ryzen 9 8945HS is 5.2GHz equal to that of the old Ryzen 9 7940HS. Improvements in the firmware and drivers should provide a ‘generational’ performance gain, according to AMD, but the processor manufacturer does not share figures for comparisons between the 7040 and 8040 series. AMD only says that the AI performance should be ‘up to 60 percent higher’.
| Fashion model | Cores/threads | Max. boost | Tdp | GPU | Npu |
| Ryzen 9 8945HS | 8/16 | 5.2GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8845HS | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8840HS | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 20-30W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8840U | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8645HS | 6/12 | 5.0GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8640HS | 6/12 | 4.9GHz | 20-30W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8640U | 6/12 | 4.9GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8540U | 6/12 | 4.9GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 740M | No |
| Ryzen 3 8440U | 4/8 | 4.7GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 740M | No |
While laptops with Ryzen 8040 processors will not be available in stores until the first quarter of 2024, AMD will immediately make all its new Ryzen AI Software Platform available. This also works on the existing Ryzen 7040 chips. This hub provides information on how developers can run existing AI models created with PyTorch, TensorFlow, and ONNX on the Ryzen AI npu. To boost its development, AMD is organizing a match for AI applications in the categories robots, PC and generative AI with a total prize pool of $160,000.
Finally, AMD confirmed that Strix Point will be available in 2024, which will be the successor to the Ryzen 8040 series (codenamed Hawk Point). It will contain a new generation of npu with the XDNA 2 architecture. According to rumors, Strix Point will also contain a combination of Zen 5 and smaller Zen 5c cores, and will also have an improved integrated GPU. Since AMD is now first releasing a complete Ryzen 8040 series based on Zen 4, it is obvious that we can only expect Strix Point towards the end of next year.