AMD Ryzen 5 4500U vs AMD Ryzen 5 4680U

AMD Ryzen 5 4500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 4500U is a hexa-core processor of the Renoir product family designed for thinner, lighter laptops. The Ryzen features six Zen 2 cores running at 2.3 (base clock speed) to 4.0 GHz (Boost). Unfortunately, the cores are not SMT-enabled. This chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process and in part thanks to this fact AMD promises an up to 2x higher performance-per-watt ratio compared to Ryzen 3000 series mobile CPUs. The costlier Ryzen 5 4600U is SMT-enabled but is otherwise identical to Ryzen 5 4500U.

Architecture

Zen 2 is a resounding success, delivering massive improvements across the board compared to older Zen+ based processors. Ryzen 5 4500U is built on TSMC's 7 nm node, just like desktop Ryzen 3000 series parts, and is based on the same Zen 2 microarchitecture. In spite of the latter fact, Ryzen 5 4500U does not have PCI-Express 4.0 support (no 7.9 GB/s NVMe SSDs here).

The APU is compatible with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 memory and has 8 MB of Level 3 cache. The CPU gets soldered straight to the motherboard (FP6 socket) and is not user-replaceable. Please go to our Renoir processor family hub for more information.

Performance

Long-term Boost sustainability of a mobile CPU tends to depend heavliy on cooling system performance as well as TDP settings of a laptop. That said, the average Ryzen 5 4500U in our database outpaces Intel's Core i7-1065G7 (4 cores at up to 3.9 GHz), the fastest consumer Ice Lake-U model, by a comfortable margin while understandably being much slower than the octa-core Ryzen 7 4700U and 4800U. In fact, the Ryzen 5's real-world performance approaches that of entry-level H-class Intel Core CPUs such as the i5-9300H and i5-11300H. This is a very potent 15 W CPU delivering an undeniably impressive performance jump over the outgoing Ryzen 5 3500U.

Graphics

In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates the Radeon RX Vega 6 graphics adapter with 6 CUs (= 384 shaders) running at up to 1,500 MHz. This GPU definitely supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 Hz, and will have no trouble HW-decoding HEVC, AVC, VP9-encoded videos. AV1 is not supported though.

In terms of gaming performance, the iGPU will handle many titles of 2020 and 2021 as long as one sticks to low settings and resolutions. F1 (2021) runs at 32 fps at 720p, Low; Outriders runs at 27 fps at 720p, Low, to give you an example or two. As the iGPU has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

Power Consumption

The Ryzen 4000 series processors are fairly energy-efficient thanks to the cutting-edge 7 nm manufacturing process and the mature architecture. Ryzen 5 4500U has a default TDP of 15 W that can be changed to anywhere between 10 W and 25 W by an OEM. This makes the chip a good fit for thinner, lighter laptops (with an active cooling solution, preferably) as well as gaming consoles, mini-PCs and other gadgetry.

AMD Ryzen 5 4680U

The AMD Ryzen 5 4680U is a semi-custom APU of the Renoir family designed for Microsoft devices. The 4680U integrates six CPU cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture clocked at 2.2 GHz (base) to 4 GHz (Boost) with SMT support for a total 12 threads. The two advantages a 4680U has over the older Ryzen 5 4600U are its higher base clock speed and a faster iGPU.

Architecture

The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process and in part thanks to this fact, AMD advertises a 2x performance per watt improvement over the 12 nm Ryzen 3000 mobile processors. The built-in dual-channel memory controller supports LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 8 MB of L3 cache can be found on the chip.

Just like the other mobile Ryzen 4000 CPUs, a 4680U supports PCI-Express 3.0. Please go to our Renoir processor hub page for additional information on the product family.

Performance

The Ryzen 5 will lag behind the Ryzen 7 4980U in multi-threaded workloads because of the lower core count, 6 vs 8, while being way ahead of the Intel Core i7-1065G7 (4 cores, up to 3.9 GHz), the fastest 15 watt Intel Ice Lake CPU. The single core performance does not differ much between the 4680U and 1065G7, as the max Boost clock speeds are nearly identical. Therefore, Ryzen 5 4680U is a very capable 15 watt CPU and clearly faster than the older Ryzen 7 3700U.

Graphics

In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates a DX 12 compatible Radeon RX Vega 7 graphics adapter with 7 CUs (448 unified shaders) at up to 1,500 MHz. The Vega iGPU will have no trouble HW-decoding AVC, HEVC and VP9 videos, but the newer AV1 codec will only be decoded via software. In terms of gaming, we are looking at an MX150-level performance. Pretty much all games released in 2020 can be played on low to medium settings in 720p on this graphics adapter.

Power Consumption

While the TDP of the APU is specified at 15 watts, it consumed roughly 23 watts under prolonged load in our testing. The chip is a good fit for the thinner, lighter laptops provided an active cooling system is present.