AMD today announced the introduction of the AMD Ryzen mobile processor, previously codenamed the “Raven Ridge” mobile APU, aimed for use in 2-in-1s, convertibles and ultrathin notebook computers. Both APUs (AMD’s term for processors that combine CPUs and GPUs), AMD Ryzen 7 2700U and AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, have a 15-watt TDP and based on the Zen x86 core design. They also sport AMD SenseMI Technology processor-level intelligence along with Radeon Vega.
AMD claims the Ryzen 7 2700U is the fastest processor for ultrathin notebooks, with up to 44% more multi-threaded CPU performance as well as up to 161% more graphics performance4 than the Intel.
Ryzen Mobile Die with Radeon Vega GPU
The Two New Chips at a Glance
- The Ryzen 7 2700U features four cores with symmetrical multi-threading and 10 compute units based on the Vega graphics architecture. The chip has a base clock speed of 2.2GHz and boost speed of 3.8GHz. The GPU will clock “up to” 1,300MHz.
- The Ryzen 5 2500U also has four cores with SMT. The main difference between it ans the Ryzen 7 2700U is the graphics core and clock speed of the CPU and GPU. The Ryzen 5 has 8 compute units instead of 10, and its cores will clock up to 1,100MHz. The compute cores will hit 2GHz with a boost clock of 3.6GHz.
The new chips pack in 200 percent more CPU speed and 128 percent more graphics performance than the last generation, all while using 58 percent less power. That’s the result of moving to more efficient architecture on all accounts. Ryzen Mobile really shows off when it comes to multithreaded performance, in particular. It reached a surprisingly high Cinebench R15 score of 719, while Intel’s Core i7-8550U clocked in at 498, and AMD’s last-gen chip scored a mere 325.
Precision Boost 2 builds on the original Precision Boost introduced with Ryzen. Its “opportunistic algorithm” tries to run the clock speeds at higher levels based on the CPU’s temperature, current use, and workload, working in 25MHz increments.
Ryzen Mobile chips are also 24 percent thinner than before, which means it’ll fit into thinner systems.
Battery Life
AMD claims you’ll see up to twice the performance of last year’s chips, according to its reference benchmarks. Ryzen Mobile gets over nine hours of YouTube video viewing on a test system, compared to 4.5 hours for the previous generation. MobileMark 14, which recreates typical laptop usage, saw around 13.5 hours of battery life, whereas the last generation saw 10.7 hours.
The First Systems with the New APUs
Ryzen Mobile first in HP’s Envy X360 convertible, Lenovo’s Ideapad 720S and Acer’s Swift 3, all of which are being refreshed later this year.
