AMD Ryzen 8000 Hawk Point laptop processors unveiled with marginally faster AI performance

AMD has finally unveiled a new line of chips for 2024-bound laptops. Recent Geekbench listings gave us a rough idea about what the Ryzen 8000 series Hawk Point chips would have in store. However, they couldn't fathom how harder AMD has made it to differentiate between its offerings. Laptops featuring the hardware will hit shelves in Q1, 2024.

The Ryzen 8000 series can be broadly classified into two categories, HS and U. The former has a higher TDP range (35-54 W) while the latter cuts it to 15-30W. This might seem like standard AMD naming conventions until you look at the actual chips. The HS lineup is spearheaded by the Ryzen 9 8945HS, an 8-core/16-thread processor with a max boost clock of 5.2 GHz. That's essentially a Ryzen 9 7940HS with a fresh coat of paint.

Similarly, the Ryzen 7 8845HS packs the same number of cores/threads but reduces the boost clock to 5.1 GHz, just like the Ryzen 7 7840HS. The trend continues with the Ryzen 5 8645HS (rebadged Ryzen 5 7640HS). For reasons best known for AMD, it decided to rename the Ryzen 7040 HS chips from the last generation to Ryzen 8045 HS, a dentation usually reserved for HX SKUs.

The situation gets a whole lot murkier with the Ryzen 7 8840HS and Ryzen 5 8640HS, which receive an impromptu name change and a reduced TDP range(20-30 W). Specs-wise, the Ryzen 7 8840U and Ryzen 5 8640U are identical to their HS-branded counterparts with a lower TDP.

That leaves us with the Ryzen 5 8540U (6-core/12-thread, 4.9 GHz boost, Radeon 740M iGPU) and Ryzen 5 8440U(4-core/8-thread, 4.7 GHz boost, Radeon 740M iGPU). They're the only two SKUs of the lot which do not ship with AMD's XDNA2 AI accelerator. Speaking of the XDNA2 AI accelerator, AMD claims it is 1.4x faster than its predecessor in tasks that involve generative AI.

In terms of raw performance, it is anywhere between 1.1x and 1.8x faster than the Intel Core i9-13900H. However, AMD's primary focus around the Ryzen 8000 series has been its AI chops because there are no actual performance gains to talk about. That, plus its confusing names, lends credibility to Intel's recent core truths rant.