APUs
While not the absolute first company in the market to talk about putting different types of silicon inside the same package, AMD’s launch of Ryzen 3000 back in July 2019 was a first in bringing high performance x86 computing through the medium of chiplets. The chiplet paradigm has worked out very well for the company, having high performance cores on optimized TSMC 7nm silicon, while farming the more analog operations to cheaper GlobalFoundries 14nm silicon, and building a high speed interconnect between them. Compared to a monolithic design, AMD ends up using the better process for each feature, smaller chips that afford better yields and binning, and the major cost adder becomes the packaging. But how low cost can these chiplet designs go? I...
AMD’s Barcelo: Zen 3 APU Refresh for 2022
One of the key elements to how processor portfolios will evolve moving forward involves mixing and matching current generation and previous generation parts using the benefits of (supposedly) cheaper...
16 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 1/6/2022AMD Announces Ryzen 6000 Mobile CPUs for Laptops: Zen3+ on 6nm with RDNA2 Graphics
The notebook market is a tough nut to crack with a single solution. People want that mix of high performance at the top, cost effectiveness at the bottom, and...
82 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 1/4/2022AMD CES 2022 Pre-Show Teaser: Ryzen 6000 Series Mobile Processors with RDNA2 & DDR5 Tech
Ahead of tomorrow’s big CES keynote, AMD is offering a spoiler of sorts for one of their product announcements. As it turns out, one of AMD’s forthcoming products, the...
23 by Ryan Smith on 1/3/2022The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, Ryzen 5 5600G, and Ryzen 3 5300G Review
Earlier this year, AMD launched its Zen 3 based desktop processor solutions with integrated graphics. Marketed as the Ryzen 5000G family, these processors are the latest offering to combine...
136 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 8/4/2021ASRock Announces AMD X300TM-ITX Motherboard: Thin ITX For Ryzen APUs
Once upon a time, the term 'bigger is better' was a marketing slogan that many companies adopted for its products, but sometimes 'bigger' isn't necessarily practical. For use cases...
15 by Gavin Bonshor on 6/3/2021AMD Ryzen 5000G: Zen 3 APUs for Desktop Coming August 5th
Back in April of this year, AMD announced its new series of Ryzen 5000G processors with integrated graphics. These processors were an upgrade over the previous generation of 4000G...
35 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 5/31/2021AMD Ryzen 5000G APUs: OEM Only For Now, Full Release Later This Year
With the high demand for semiconductors causing most companies to focus on their high margin, high profitability components, I wasn’t expecting to see many launches of low-to-mid range hardware...
67 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 4/13/2021Installing Windows on an Xbox One APU: The Chuwi Aerobox Review
Ever since consoles moved to the same underlying architecture as modern desktop computers, there has always been an underlying question as to whether those same processors could run regular...
101 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 12/24/2020Testing The World’s Best APUs: Desktop AMD Ryzen 4750G, 4650G and 4350G
There are two very important levels of graphics performance in modern systems to consider – one is if the graphics system is sufficient for seamless use, and the second...
104 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 12/16/2020Hot Chips 2020 Live Blog: AMD Ryzen 4000 APU (Noon PT)
Hot Chips has gone virtual this year! Lots of talks on lots of products, including Tiger Lake, Xe, POWER10, Xbox Series X, TPUv3, and a special Raja Koduri Keynote...
15 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 8/17/2020AMD Zen now at 6W TDP: Dual Core for Education
At the low-end of AMD’s portfolio, the company uses Athlon Gold and Silver naming for parts that offer fewer cores and lower power consumption. These parts are still based...
67 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 8/4/2020AMD Launches 12 Desktop Renoir Ryzen 4000G Series APUs: But You Can’t Buy Them
Today AMD is finally lifting the lid on its long-awaited desktop Zen2 based APU family. Using the same silicon as in the Ryzen Mobile 4000 family, AMD is pumping...
130 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 7/21/2020AMD Confirms That SmartShift Tech Only Shipping in One Laptop For 2020
Launched earlier this year, AMD’s Ryzen 4000 “Renoir” APUs brought several new features and technologies to the table for AMD. Along with numerous changes to improve the APU’s power...
55 by Ryan Smith on 6/5/2020AMD Announces Ryzen Pro 4000 for Mobile: 8 Cores, 15 W, 4.1 GHz
On the back of AMD’s successful Ryzen Mobile 4000 series launch for consumer laptops, the company today launching its range of commercial processors from the same family. These processors...
26 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 5/7/2020AMD’s Mobile Revival: Redefining the Notebook Business with the Ryzen 9 4900HS (A Review)
At every turn in the story of AMD’s notebook portfolio, we’ve been there to document the highs and lows. Five years ago, AMD was definitely suffering from a combination...
267 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 4/9/2020AMD Details Renoir: The Ryzen Mobile 4000 Series 7nm APU Uncovered
The notebook market has not been kind to AMD over the last decade – for a long, long time the company was only ever seen as the discount option...
95 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 3/16/2020AMD Announces Ryzen 9 4900H and 4900HS: The Halo 35 W and 45 W Mobile APUs
As part of the disclosures on AMD’s Ryzen Mobile 4000 portfolio, the company is also lifting the lid on perhaps one of the worst kept secrets in mobile computing...
37 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 3/16/2020AMD Launches Ultra-Low-Power Ryzen Embedded APUs: Starting at 6W
While it doesn't get the same attention as their high-profile mobile, desktop, or server CPU offerings, AMD's embedded division is an important fourth platform for the chipmaker. To that...
40 by Anton Shilov on 2/27/2020Acer Swift 3, either with Core i7-1065G7 or Ryzen 7 4700U: The Laptop Market Just Blew Wide Open
Everyone wants a notebook that fulfills their needs, is super light, lasts forever, and only costs a dime. We’re not in fantasy land just quite yet, but Acer is...
48 by Dr. Ian Cutress on 1/6/2020