AMD introduces first Zen 4 laptop CPUs with Ryzen AI engine and RDNA3 GPU

AMD announces its first laptop CPUs based on Zen 4. The manufacturer comes with Ryzen 7040 laptop chips, among other things. Those processors get an integrated RDNA3 GPU and a new Ryzen AI Engine. The company is also showing Ryzen 7045 laptop CPUs with up to 16 cores.

AMD also calls its Ryzen 7040 laptop processors Phoenix. The manufacturer supplies these chips with six or eight Zen 4 cores. These are produced this time on TSMC’s 4nm process, in fact an improved version of TSMC 5nm. The CPUs also get a new integrated GPU with a maximum of twelve compute units. It will be based on the RDNA3 architecture, just like AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series desktop video cards. The processors have 32MB of L3 cache and reach boost clocks of up to 5.2GHz, depending on the variant.

AMD also provides its Ryzen 7040 laptop processors with a new Ryzen AI Engine, for which the manufacturer uses techniques from subsidiary Xilinx. This fpga is based on an XDNA architecture and should help the cpu perform specific AI calculation tasks. The manufacturer does not yet speak concretely about the performance of the Ryzen AI Engine. The company does state that it can process up to four AI streams and is “20 percent faster” than the Neural Engine in Apple’s M2 soc, without further explaining that claim.

AMD is working on an API that will allow developers to actually use the XDNA engine and is also working with Microsoft to add AI features to Windows. AMD says it will come up with new XDNA architectures in the future. The first laptops with a Ryzen 7040 processor will be available in March.

Dragon Range CPUs with chiplets and up to 16 cores

AMD is also showing off its Dragon Range processors for laptops, which will be available in the Ryzen 7045 series. These CPUs are based on AMD’s current Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and therefore come with CPU chipsets and an I/O die. It is the first time that AMD has released laptop processors with a chiplet design. The Zen 4 CPUs are produced on TSMC’s 5nm process, just like their desktop counterparts.

The top model in AMD’s Dragon Range series is the Ryzen 9 7945HX. This processor has 16 cores and 32 threads, just like AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X for desktops. The manufacturer also introduces variants with 12, 8 and 6 cores. The CPUs have 32 or 64MB L3 cache, depending on the amount of CPU chiplets in the processor. In practice, the two Ryzen 9 models have 64MB of cache, while the Ryzen 7 and 5 chips have 32MB.

The manufacturer lowers the TDPs of these laptop processors compared to its desktop chips. The four CPUs all get a tdp of 55W. Under heavy load, however, that tdp can be higher, up to more than 75W. This means that the CPUs also achieve lower clock speeds, although they all achieve a boost frequency of 5GHz or more. Like the desktop variants, these Ryzen 7045 CPUs get an integrated Radeon 610M GPU with two RDNA2 CUs and a maximum of 64MB cache. However, the Ryzen AI Engine from AMD’s Phoenix chips is missing.

AMD claims the new Ryzen 7945HX CPU is up to 18 percent faster than the Ryzen 6900GX laptop CPU in single-threaded workloads. According to AMD, this increases to 78 percent for workloads that use several cores. Not surprisingly, the Ryzen 6900HX had eight cores, where the Ryzen 9 7945HX has sixteen. The first laptops with Ryzen 7045 processors will appear in February.

Rembrandt and Barcelo: Ryzen 7000 chips based on Zen 3

AMD is also introducing a series of Ryzen 7035 laptop chips. These are based on AMD’s Rembrandt SKUs, which the company was already using for its Ryzen 6000 laptop processors. These models therefore have a maximum of eight cores and are based on AMD’s older Zen 3 architecture.

AMD is switching its entire laptop line-up to its new naming convention for laptop chips, where the third digit in a product name refers to the Zen architecture used. AMD previously released Ryzen 7020 laptop chips based on Zen 2.

The processor maker comes in this series with 35W variants with HS suffix, in addition to more energy-efficient models in the U series. The processors have slightly higher boost clocks than their Ryzen 6000 predecessors, but otherwise show great similarities with their predecessors.

AMD is also introducing new Ryzen 7030 laptop processors, which are based on the Barcelo chips. The manufacturer introduced Barcelo last year, but that was already a refresh of AMD’s Cezanne chips. These processors are based on the Zen 3 architecture, get a Vega igpu and are produced at 7nm. AMD releases models with four, six and eight cores.