AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500U is a hexa-core APU of the Lucienne product family designed for use in ultra-thin, upper mid-range laptops. The processor was unveiled in H1 2021; its six CPU cores are based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. The cores run at 2.1 GHz (base clock speed) to 4 GHz (highest Boost frequency possible) and feature the thread-doubling SMT technology for a total of 12 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process.

One could be forgiven for thinking Ryzen 5 5500U is a renamed Ryzen 5 4500U - which is not the case. Ryzen 5 5500U is most similar to Ryzen 5 4600U, the most noteworthy difference between the two being the faster iGPU model of the former.

In the meantime, Ryzen 5 5600U got a little more lucky; it is based on the newer Zen 3 architecture and it also has higher clock speeds than what a 5500U can boast of.

Architecture

Ryzen 5 5500U and Ryzen 7 5700U are Zen 2-based while the neighbouring Ryzen 5 5600U and Ryzen 7 5800U use the latest Zen 3 architecture. This makes the former two a generation older than their names suggest. Still, Zen 2 is nothing to sneeze at, with its high performance-per-Watt and performance-per-MHz figures.

Ryzen 5 5500U supports dual-channel DDR4-3200 and quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM and has 8 MB of Level 3 cache. Unlike desktop-grade Ryzen 5000-series processors, Ryzen 5 5500U is limited to PCI-Express 3.0 (not PCI-Express 4.0; no 7.9 GB/s NVMe SSDs here).

The processor gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP6 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

Performance

The average 5500U in our database proves to be a very capable ULV CPU with performance levels approaching 45 W Intel Core i7 parts, like a Core i7-9750H or a Core i7-10750H. The Ryzen will have no trouble chewing through pretty much any workload, as of late 2021. Your mileage may vary depending on how high the Power Limits are and how competent the cooling solution of a laptop is.

Graphics

The Radeon RX Vega 7 iGPU has 7 CUs at its disposal (64 x 7 = 448 unified shaders) running at up to 1,800 MHz. Its real-life performance is close to what we've seen from GeForce MX250 and Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80 EUs); Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021) runs well at 1080p resolution, low-to-medium settings, to give you an example. As the iGPU has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

The graphics adapter definitely supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 Hz. It will have no trouble HW-decoding HEVC, AVC, VP9, MPEG-2 and other popular video codecs. There is no AV1 support; AV1-encoded videos will be software-decoded, which six Zen 2 cores will handle with ease.

Power Consumption

The APU has a default TDP (also known as the long-term Power Limit) of 15 W. This can be set to anywhere between 10 W and 25 W by an OEM, and in most cases they do go for something higher than 15 W. Still, the 7 nm chip is a good fit for thinner, lighter laptops (with an active cooling solution, preferably) as well as tablets and gaming handhelds of various shapes and sizes.

Series	AMD Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000)
Codename	Lucienne U (Zen 2)
Series: Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000) Lucienne U (Zen 2)	AMD Ryzen 7 5700U 1.8 - 4.3 GHz 8 / 16 8 MB » AMD Ryzen 5 5500U 2.1 - 4 GHz 6 / 12 8 MB AMD Ryzen 3 5300U 2.6 - 3.8 GHz 4 / 8 4 MB
Clock Rate	2100 - 4000 MHz
Level 1 Cache	384 KB
Level 2 Cache	3 MB
Level 3 Cache	8 MB
Number of Cores / Threads	6 / 12
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)	25 Watt
Manufacturing Technology	7 nm
Max. Temperature	105 °C
Socket	FP6
Features	XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT
GPU	AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 ( - 1800 MHz)
64 Bit	64 Bit support
Architecture	x86
Announcement Date	01/07/2021
Product Link (external)	AMD Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000) R5 5500U

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