AMD Ryzen 5 4500U vs AMD Ryzen 7 4800H vs AMD Ryzen 5 4600U

AMD Ryzen 5 4500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 4500U is an upper mid-range, hexa-core processor of the Renoir product family. The APU was unveiled in H1 2020; it is designed for use in thinner, lighter laptops. Its six Zen 2 CPU cores run at 2.3 GHz (base clock speed) to 4.0 GHz (highest Boost frequency possible). Ryzen 5 4500U features the Vega 6 iGPU.

The sole advantage of Ryzen 5 4600U over Ryzen 5 4500U is the thread-doubling SMT technology support. The former has SMT while the latter does not.

Architecture

Zen 2 is a resounding success, delivering massive improvements over outgoing Zen Plus-based processors. Ryzen 5 4500U is manufactured on the cutting-edge 7 nm TSMC process; it is compatible with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 memory. This processor has 8 MB of Level 3 cache.

While the APU uses Zen 2 cores just like the desktop-grade Ryzen 3000-series processors do, Ryzen 7 3800XT included, it does does not have PCI-Express 4.0 support. It does feature several PCI-Express 3.0 lanes for connecting discrete graphics cards, SSDs and other devices. Four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 3.9 GB/s provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Ryzen 5 4500U gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP6 socket interface) and is anything but user-replaceable.

Performance

The average Ryzen 5 4500U in our database outpaces Intel's Core i7-1065G7 (4 cores; up to 3.9 GHz), the fastest consumer-level Ice Lake-U family processor, by a comfortable margin while understandably being noticeably slower than the octa-core Ryzen 7 4700U and Ryzen 7 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.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the Power Limits and how competent the cooling solution of a laptop are.

Graphics

Just like its name suggests, the Radeon RX Vega 6 graphics adapter has 6 Compute Units (6 x 64 = 384 unified shaders). In the case of Ryzen 5 4500U, this graphics adapter runs at up to 1,500 MHz. The iGPU definitely supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 Hz; it will have no trouble HW-decoding HEVC, AVC, VP9, MPEG-2 and other widespread video codecs. AV1 is not supported though; such a video will have to be software-decoded for much lower energy efficiency.

Vega 6 will let you play many titles of 2020 and 2021 as long as you stick to low settings and low resolutions. F1 2021 (720p, Low) runs at 32 fps; Outriders (720p, Low) runs at 27 fps, 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

Laptop-grade Ryzen 4000-series processors are rather energy-efficient thanks to the cutting-edge 7 nm process and the mature architecture. Ryzen 5 4500U has a default TDP (also known as the long-term Power Limit) 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 7 4800H

The AMD Ryzen 7 4800H is a Renoir APU designed for larger, more powerful laptops with room for better termals. The Ryzen features eight Zen 2 cores running at 2.9 GHz (base clock speed) to 4.2 GHz (Boost). The CPU also has 8 MB of L3 cache and a Vega series integrated GPU. Thread-doubling SMT tech is enabled in this processor, allowing for up to 16 concurrent processing threads.

Architecture

Ryzen 7 4800H 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 figure compared to Ryzen 3000 series mobile APUs. This isn't the only noteworthy change however as Zen 2 architecture is leagues ahead of the outgoing Zen+ when it comes to single-core performance. Renoir family processors feature up to 8 CPU cores compared to 4 cores of the previous generation mobile AMD CPUs.

A 4800H will work with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM. The important difference between desktop Ryzen 4000 and mobile Ryzen 4000 processors is that the latter do not have PCI-Express 4.0 support, meaning those blazing-fast NVMe SSDs will be limited to a throughput of 3.9 GB/s.

The Ryzen 7 gets soldered straight to the motherboard (FP6 socket) and is thus not user-replaceable. Please go to our Renoir processor family hub for more information on these CPUs.

Performance

Long-term performance sustainability of any mobile CPU tends to depend heavily on cooling system performance as well as TDP settings of a laptop. That said, the average 4800H in our database beats the Intel Core i7-10875H with ease, approaching the realm of Intel Core i9-10980HK. The Ryzen's single-core performance does not look quite as impressive though as it can trail behind Core i3-1005G1 (a dual-core Ice Lake part) in certain tests. This is not really important as most modern apps will gladly load as many cores as they can get access to.

Graphics

Ryzen 7 4800H features the Radeon RX Vega 7, a 7 CU integrated graphics adapter running at up to 1,600 MHz. The iGPU's underlying architecture is fairly old as of 2021, yet its 448 shaders will let you play many games of 2020 and 2021 as long as you stick to reasonable resolutions and presets. F1 2021 runs well at medium quality, 1080p resolution, to give you an example. A Vega 7 can be as fast as a GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q, or as slow as an 80 EU Iris Xe; this depends on the benchmark as well as on cooling system performance and TDP settings of a laptop as mentioned above. As the iGPU has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

The Vega definitely supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 Hz. This iGPU is capable of hardware decoding AVC, HEVC and VP9-encoded videos. There is no AV1 support here.

Power Consumption

Ryzen 7 4800H has a default TDP of 45 W which can be changed to anywhere between 35 W and 54 W by an OEM. The chip is a good fit for gaming laptops as well as portable workstations, with high-performance cooling solution being pretty much a necessity. AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS is a 35 W edition of Ryzen 7 4800H designed for leaner, less power-hungry systems.

AMD Ryzen 5 4600U

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Renoir architecture. The 4600U integrates six cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. They are clocked at 2.1 (guaranteed base clock) to 4 GHz (Turbo) with SMT / Hyperthreading support (12 threads). The chip is manufactured in the modern 7 nm process at TSMC and partly thanks to it AMD advertises a 2x improved performance per Watt for the Renoir chips.

With two less cores, the Ryzen 5 4600U is clearly slower than the Ryzen 7 4700U and 4800U in multi threaded workloads. However, it should still beat the fastest 15 Watt Ice Lake Intel Core i7-1065G7 (4 cores, 3.9 GHz). Thanks to the 4 GHz Boost clock, the single core performance should be similar. Therefore, the Ryzen 5 4600U is a very fast 15 Watt CPU and clearly faster than the old Ryzen 7 3700U.

In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated graphics card with 6 CUs and up to 1500 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 8 MB level 3 cache can be found on the chip. See our hub page on the Renoir Processors for more information.

The TDP of the APU is specified at 15 Watt (default) and can be configured from 10 to 25 Watt by the laptop vendor. That means the chip is intended for thin and light laptops (but with fans).