AMD Announces 15W Ryzen 4000-U Series and Athlon 3000-Series Mobile Processors

Intel makes plenty of processors with 6W to 10W TDP suitable for entry-level products or mid-range laptop that require long battery life, but there’s less of a choice from AMD, especially at the low-end, and the most recent AMD processors with a low power budget start at 12W+ with AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000  and Ryzen Embedded R1000-series both of which mostly targets industrial and embedded applications.

But with CES 2020 about to kick off, the company has now unveiled several 15 Watts processors wit the Ryzen 4000-U series targetting ultra-thin laptop, and Athlon 3000-series for entry-level notebooks.

AMD Ryzen 4000-U Series

AMD Ryzen 4000-series are actually comprised of two sub-families with the 45W Ryzen 4000-H series for higher performance gaming laptops, and the 15W Ryzen 4000-U series for ultra-thin laptops, and I’ll focus on the latter in this post.

MODEL	CORES/ THREADS	cTDP (Watts)	BOOST/ BASE FREQ. (GHz)	RADEON GRAPHICS	GPU CORES	L2 / L3 CACHE (MB)
AMD Ryzen 7 4800H	8C/16T	45W	Up to 4.2 / 2.9 GHz	Radeon Graphics	7	12
AMD Ryzen 5 4600H	6C/12T	45W	Up to 4.0 / 3.0 GHz	Radeon Graphics	6	11
AMD Ryzen 7 4800U	8C/16T	15W	Up to 4.2 / 1.8 GHz	Radeon Graphics	8	12
AMD Ryzen 7 4700U	8C/8T	15W	Up to 4.1 / 2.0 GHz	Radeon Graphics	7	12
AMD Ryzen 5 4600U	6C/12T	15W	Up to 4.0 / 2.1 GHz	Radeon Graphics	6	11
AMD Ryzen 5 4500U	6C/6T	15W	Up to 4.0 / 2.3 GHz	Radeon Graphics	6	11
AMD Ryzen 3 4300U	4C/4T	15W	Up to 3.7 / 2.7 GHz	Radeon Graphics	5	6

So in the 4000-U series, we have a Ryzen 3 processor with 4 cores, Ryzen 5 processors with 6 cores and up to 12 threads, and Ryzen 7 processors with 8 cores and up to 16 threads.

We can find out more by looking at AMD Ryzen 7-4800U key features and  specifications:

• 8 cores, 16 threads “Zen2” processor @ 1.8 GHz / 4.0 GHz (Boost frequency)
• Cache – 4MB L2 Cache, 8MB L3 cache
• 8-core Radeon GPU up to 1750 MHz
• Supported System Memory – DDR4-3200MHz; LPDDR4-4266MHz
• Video I/F – DisplayPort, HDMI
• PCI Express -PCIe 3.0
• TDP – Default: 15W; cTDP: 10W-25W
• CMOS – TSMC 7nm FinFET
• Package – FP6
• Max Temps – 105°C

AMD Ryzen 7 4800U processor is also supposed to deliver up to 4% greater single-thread performance and up to 90% faster multi-thread performance compared to a system with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 quad-core/8-thread Ice Lake processor using Cinebench R20 benchmark, and up to 18% faster graphics performance against the same Intel hardware using 3DMark11.

You may find more details on the product page.

AMD Athlon 3000-Series

AMD Ryzen 4000-U series processors won’t be found in low-cost laptops, so if you are after a budget option the new Athlon 3000-series mobile processors will be a better option.

MODEL	CORES/ THREADS	cTDP (Watts)	BOOST / BASE FREQ. (GHz)	RADEON GRAPHICS	GPU CORES	L2 / L3 CACHE (MB)
AMD Athlon Gold 3150U	2C/4T	15W	Up to 3.3 / 2.4 GHz	Radeon Graphics	3	5
AMD Athlon Silver 3050U	2C/2T	15W	Up to 3.2 / 2.3 GHz	Radeon Graphics	2	5

AMD seems to have borrowed the Gold/Silver denomination used for Intel Pentium Gold/Silver for their Athlon Gold 3150U and Athlon Silver 3050U processor both of which come with two cores and Radeon graphics but the former supports four threads.

Let’s check out AMD Athlon Gold 3150U key features and specifications:

• 2 cores, 4 threads “Zen” processor @ 2.6 GHz / 3.3 GHz (Boost)
• Cache – 384KB L1 Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, 4MB L3 Cache
• 3-core Radeon Graphics @ up to 1000 MHz
• Supported System Memory – DDR4-2400
• Video Interfaces – DisplayPort and HDMI
• TDP – Default: 15W; cTDP: 12-25W
• CMOS – 14nm
• Package – FP5
• Max Temps – 95°C

Athlon 3000-series processors support Windows Hello and Cortana, are suitable for day-to-day productivity applications, and Full HD streaming.

When compared to an Intel Pentium Gold 5405U “Whiskey Lake” dual core/4-thread powered laptop, the Athlon Gold 3150U offers up to 86% faster graphics (3DMark11) and up to 51% better productivity performance (Cinebench R15). Those would likely make sure good options in mini laptops or portable gaming console from GPD or others.

The first laptops based on Athlon 3150U/3050U are expected to be available soon. You may find further details in the product page.

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