AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500U is a hexa-core APU of the Lucienne product family designed for leaner laptops. Its six CPU cores are based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. The cores run at 2.1 (clock speed) to 4 GHz (Boost) and support SMT for a total of 12 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process.

The costlier Ryzen 5 5600U is based on newer Zen 3 architecture and also has higher clock speeds. Compared to the older Ryzen 5 4500U (Renoir), Ryzen 5 5500U has SMT support but the specs are otherwise very similar betweeen the two.

Architecture

Despite being a part of the Ryzen 5000 lineup, Ryzen 5 5500U is a Zen 2 part, which essentially means AMD is selling its Ryzen 5 4600U under a new name. Still, Zen 2 is nothing to sneeze at, with its high performance-per-watt and impressive IPC figures.

The CPU supports dual-channel DDR4-3200 and quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM and has 8 MB of Level 3 cache. Unlike the desktop Ryzen 5000 series models, Ryzen 5 5500U is limited to PCI-Express 3.0 (no 7.9 GB/s NVMe SSDs here).

The processor get soldered straight to the motherboard (FP6 socket) and is not user-replaceable. Please visit our AMD Renoir hub page for additional information.

Performance

Long-term performance sustainability of a mobile CPU tends to depend hevily on power limits as well as cooling system performance of a laptop. That being said, the average 5500U in our database proves to be a very capable ULV CPU with performance levels approaching 45 W Intel Core i7 parts such as the Core i7-9750H and Core i7-10750H. The Ryzen will have no trouble chewing through pretty much any workload, as of late 2021.

Graphics

The Radeon RX Vega 7 iGPU has 7 CUs (= 448 shaders) running at up to 1,800 MHz. Its real-life performance is close to what we've seen from GeForce MX250 and Iris Graphics G7 80 EUs; Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021) runs well at low-medium settings in 1080p, 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 and VP9 video streams. There is no AV1 support.

Power Consumption

The APU has a default TDP of 15 W. This can be set to anywhere between 10 W and 25 W by an OEM, and in most cases they do choose a value 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)	15 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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