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AMD details 12 nm Ryzen 7 3700U Zen+ APU to compete against the 14 nm Intel Core i7-8565U

AMD details 12 nm Ryzen 7 3700U Zen+ APU to compete against the 14 nm Intel Core i7-8565U (Image source: AMD)
AMD details 12 nm Ryzen 7 3700U Zen+ APU to compete against the 14 nm Intel Core i7-8565U (Image source: AMD)
The new mobile Zen+ Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U (4.0/2.3 GHz) will be just marginally faster than the outgoing Zen Ryzen 7 2700U (3.8/2.2 GHz). When compared to the Intel Core i7-8650U, however, AMD is promising up to 258 percent faster graphics performance in certain applications. More significant gains in CPU performance are not expected until the "proper" third generation Zen 2 series refresh.

(April 9, 2019 update: The page here refers to the new second generation mobile Ryzen Pro 3x00U family which offers additional security features over the standard consumer Ryzen 3x00U series. The consumer Ryzen 3x00U series has been available since January of this year.)

AMD briefly touched upon it during CES 2019, but now it's ready for prime time: the Ryzen Zen+ series of U-class SoCs is launching this Spring to directly tackle the prevalent Intel Whiskey Lake-U series.

As shown by our table below, the top-end Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U and Ryzen 5 Pro 3500U will supplant the last generation Ryzen 7 Pro 2700U and Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U, respectively. AMD is promising both faster base clock rates and slower Boost clock rates when compared to the Intel Core i5-8265U and i7-8565U in order to provide more predictable levels of performance across its Zen+ lineup.

Core/ThreadBoost/Base FrequencyIntegrated GPUCache L2+L3Node, Code name
Ryzen Pro 7 3700U4C/8T4.0/2.3 GHzVega 106 MB12 nm, Zen+
Ryzen Pro 5 3500U4C/8T3.7/2.1 GHzVega 86 MB12 nm, Zen+
Ryzen Pro 3 3300U4C/4T3.5/2.1 GHzVega 66 MB12 nm, Zen+
Athlon Pro 300U2C/4T3.3/2.4 GHzVega 35 MB12 nm, Zen+
Core i7-8565U4C/8T4.6/1.8 GHzUHD 6209 MB14 nm, Whiskey Lake-U
Core i5-8265U4C/8T3.9/1.6 GHzUHD 6207 MB14 nm, Whiskey Lake-U
Core i3-8145U2C/4T3.9/2.1 GHzUHD 6204.5 MB14 nm, Whiskey Lake-U
Pentium 4415U2C/4T2.3 GHzHD 6102.5 MB14 nm, Kaby Lake
Ryzen 7 2700U4C/8T3.8/2.2 GHzVega 106 MB14 nm, Zen
Ryzen 5 2500U4C/8T3.6/2.0 GHzVega 86 MB14 nm, Zen
Ryzen 3 2300U4C/4T3.4/2.0 GHzVega 66 MB14 nm, Zen

TDP will continue to be 15 W to 25 W across the Zen+ series. The upper limit is generally higher than the Whiskey Lake-U series since AMD's integrated Vega GPU is much more powerful than the aging Intel UHD Graphics 620 series. Gen-to-gen GPU performance from last year's Ryzen Zen series, however, will still be about the same.

Nevertheless, the mobile Zen+ series should be more power efficient than the mobile Zen series since the fabrication process has moved from 14 nm to 12 nm. AMD is claiming over 12 hours of battery life or up to 10 percent of video playback on laptops equipped with Zen+ APUs. Of course, real-world runtimes will also depend heavily on OEM implementation of the processors.

The CPU performance jump from Zen to Zen+ will be smaller than the jump from Excavator to Zen
The CPU performance jump from Zen to Zen+ will be smaller than the jump from Excavator to Zen
Integrated graphics performance continues to be the highlight for the mobile Ryzen Zen and Zen+ series
Integrated graphics performance continues to be the highlight for the mobile Ryzen Zen and Zen+ series

In general, however, the Zen+ series is but a stopgap before the impending Zen 2 series which is expected to bring much larger performance benefits. The second generation Ryzen Pro 7 3700U, for example, is merely 100 to 200 MHz faster than the first generation Ryzen 7 2700U. We're expecting minor performance benefits much like the jump from Intel Kaby Lake-R to Whiskey Lake-U.

the gen-to-gen boost in graphics performance is marginal, but the integrated Vega GPU is already much faster than the UHD Graphics series anyway
the gen-to-gen boost in graphics performance is marginal, but the integrated Vega GPU is already much faster than the UHD Graphics series anyway
Same GPU benefits and features as the first generation mobile Zen series
Same GPU benefits and features as the first generation mobile Zen series

Lenovo and HP are expected to be the first OEMs to ship "premium" Zen+ laptops later this year. Nearly all OEMs do not include Ryzen options for their flagship families and so we have yet to see Dell XPS laptops, HP Spectre laptops, or Lenovo Yoga 900 laptops equipped with AMD processors. We're hopeful that this will change soon because the new Ryzen U-series has proven to be comparable to the Intel U-series as far as performance is concerned.

AMD is boasting full memory encryption, GuardMI Security, and DASH manageability as some of its top security features to lure in more business users
AMD is boasting full memory encryption, GuardMI Security, and DASH manageability as some of its top security features to lure in more business users

Source(s)

AMD

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 04 > AMD details 12 nm Ryzen 7 3700U Zen+ APU to compete against the 14 nm Intel Core i7-8565U
Allen Ngo, 2019-04- 8 (Update: 2019-04- 9)