AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500U vs AMD Ryzen 3 7440U
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U
► remove from comparisonThe AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U is a fast mid-range laptop processor of the Phoenix series. It offers 6 cores (hexa core) based on the Zen 4 architecture that supports hyperthreading (12 threads). The cores clock from 3.2 (base) up to 4.9 GHz (single core boost). The processor includes 6 MB L2 cache and 16 MB L3 cache.
Compared to the consumer Ryzen 5 7540U, the PRO models offer additional security, manageability, and reliability features designed for professional users and workstation environments.
Thanks to the new Zen 4 architecture and higher clock speeds, the R5 PRO 7540U is clearly faster than the old Ryzen 5 6600U (Zen 3, 6 cores, 4.5 GHz). Compared to the similar PRO 7640U, the 7540U offers a lower base clock and a slower iGPU.
The chip integrates a modern and fasts RDNA 3 graphics card (iGPU) called Radeon 740M with 4 of the 12 CUs and 2.5 GHz clock speed. Furthermore, the Phoenix series include a video engine with AV1 de- and encoding, a new Xilinx FPGA based XDNA AI accelerator (Ryzen AI) that should be faster than the AI engine in the Apple M2 SOC and a dual-channel DDR5-5600 / LPDDR5x-7500 memory controller (with ECC support). The connectivity features includes 2 possible USB 4 (40 Gbps) ports and 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes for a GPU and SSDs.
The Phoenix series uses a single monolithic design (unlike the chiplet design of the 7045HX series) and is manufactured in the modern 4nm process at TSMC. The TDP can be configured between 35 and 45 Watt.
AMD Ryzen 5 5500U
► remove from comparisonThe AMD Ryzen 5 5500U is a hexa-core APU of the Lucienne product family designed for use in ultra-thin, upper mid-range laptops. The processor was unveiled in H1 2021; its six CPU cores are based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. The cores run at 2.1 GHz (base clock speed) to 4 GHz (highest Boost frequency possible) and feature the thread-doubling SMT technology for a total of 12 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process.
One could be forgiven for thinking Ryzen 5 5500U is a renamed Ryzen 5 4500U - which is not the case. Ryzen 5 5500U is most similar to Ryzen 5 4600U, the most noteworthy difference between the two being the faster iGPU model of the former.
In the meantime, Ryzen 5 5600U got a little more lucky; it is based on the newer Zen 3 architecture and it also has higher clock speeds than what a 5500U can boast of.
Architecture
While Ryzen 5 5500U and Ryzen 7 5700U are Zen 2-based processors, the neighbouring Ryzen 5 5600U and Ryzen 7 5800U use AMD's brand-new Zen 3 architecture. This makes the former two a generation older than their names suggest. Still, Zen 2 is nothing to sneeze at, with its high performance-per-Watt and performance-per-MHz figures.
Ryzen 5 5500U supports dual-channel DDR4-3200 and quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM and has 8 MB of Level 3 cache. Unlike desktop-grade Ryzen 5000-series processors, Ryzen 5 5500U is limited to PCI-Express 3.0 (not PCI-Express 4.0; no 7.9 GB/s NVMe SSDs here).
The processor gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP6 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.
Performance
Multi-thread performance is most comparable to the Ryzen 7 4700U and the Core i7-10850H, which is nothing to sneeze at. The Ryzen will have no trouble chewing through pretty much any workload, as of mid 2022.
Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of around 27 W, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14ALC05-82HU006NGE is among the fastest laptops built around the 5500U that we know of. It can be more than 30% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.
Graphics
The Radeon RX Vega 7 iGPU has 7 CUs at its disposal (64 x 7 = 448 unified shaders) running at up to 1,800 MHz. Its real-life performance is close to what we've seen from GeForce MX250 and Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80 EUs); Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021) runs well at 1080p resolution, low-to-medium settings, 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, VP9, MPEG-2 and other popular video codecs. There is no AV1 support; AV1-encoded videos will be software-decoded, which six Zen 2 cores will handle with ease.
Power consumption
The APU has a default TDP (also known as the long-term Power Limit) of 15 W. That can be changed to anything between 10 W and 25 W by laptop makers and in many cases they do go for a value higher than 15 W to achieve higher performance levels. On the other hand, by going for the lowest value, it will be possible to build a passively cooled system around the Ryzen 5.
The R5 5500U is manufactured using TSMC's 7 nm process for average, as of mid 2023, average efficiency.
AMD Ryzen 3 7440U
► remove from comparisonThe Ryzen 3 7440U is an oddball Phoenix family processor (APU) that has one Zen 4 core and three Zen 4c cores working together. This lower mid-range chip saw the light of day in H1 2023; it offers 8 threads, since all of the cores are SMT-enabled, and a base clock speed of 3.0 GHz. The highest Boost clock speed that a 7440U can run at is 4.7 GHz.
Unlike its faster and costlier brethren, this Ryzen 3 series chip features the Radeon 740M integrated graphics adapter instead of the more powerful 760M or 780M options. It also comes with no Ryzen AI support.
Architecture & Features
Phoenix family chips are powered by the Zen 4 architecture, much like Dragon Range family chips are. Zen 4 introduces some rather solid AVX512 support (which Zen 3 chips did not have) and, thanks to a plethora of other improvements including larger caches/registers/buffers across the board, is set to bring a double-digit IPC improvement.
The 7440U has 8 MB of L3 cache and support for various flavours of DDR5 RAM, up to DDR5-5600 and LPDDR5x-7500. It is compatible with USB 4 and thus with Thunderbolt; PCI-Express support is limited to the 4.0 spec which means speeds up to 7.8 GB/s are possible provided a fast NVMe SSD is used. There is no Ryzen AI functionality here which is, much like replacing full-fat Zen 4 cores with more compact Zen 4c cores, a way for AMD to get the costs down.
OS support is limited to 64-bit Windows 11 and Windows 10 editions and of course to Linux. The chip is not overclockable, and neither can you replace it with a faster one as it gets soldered down for good (FP7 or FP7r2 socket interface).
Performance
While we have not tested a single system built around the 7440U as of late 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be about as fast as hexa-core Ryzen 4000U options (these are powered by Zen 2) such as the Ryzen 5 4600U, as far as multi-thread performance is concerned.
Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.
Graphics
The Radeon 740M has 4 CUs (256 shaders) purring away at up to 2,500 MHz. This iGPU will let you connect up to four SUHD 4320p monitors and it is capable of both decoding and encoding most video codecs including AVC, HEVC and AV1. Its gaming performance is fairly unimpressive, as of late 2023; running simpler titles such as CS:GO in resolutions such as HD 720p is the best it can do for you.
Power consumption
This Ryzen 3 series chip has a long-term power limit (default TDP) of 28 W that laptop makers are free to tune. Values between 15 W and 30 W are possible; most companies will probably go for a higher value to get higher performance.
The 7440U is built with TSMC's 4 nm* process for high, as of late 2023, energy efficiency.
Model | AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U | AMD Ryzen 5 5500U | AMD Ryzen 3 7440U | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | AMD Phoenix (Zen 4, Ryzen 7040) | AMD Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000) | AMD Phoenix (Zen 4, Ryzen 7040) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Phoenix (Zen4) | Lucienne-U (Zen 2) | Phoenix-U (Zen 4 + Zen 4c) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Lucienne (Zen 2, Ryzen 5000) Lucienne-U (Zen 2) |
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Clock | 3200 - 4900 MHz | 2100 - 4000 MHz | 3000 - 4700 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L1 Cache | 384 KB | 384 KB | 256 KB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 6 MB | 3 MB | 4 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 16 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 6 / 12 6 x 4.9 GHz AMD Zen 4 | 6 / 12 | 4 / 8 1 x 3 x 4.7 GHz AMD Zen 4 4.7 GHz AMD Zen 4c | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 15 Watt | 25 Watt | 28 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 4 nm | 7 nm | 4 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Die Size | 178 mm2 | 178 mm2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
max. Temp. | 100 °C | 105 °C | 100 °C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | AMD Radeon 740M ( - 2500 MHz) | AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 ( - 1800 MHz) | AMD Radeon 740M ( - 2500 MHz) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | x86 | x86 | x86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.amd.com | www.amd.com | www.amd.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Socket | FP6 | FP7/FP7r2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | DDR4-3200/LPDDR4-4266 RAM, PCIe 3, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4A, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, BMI2, ABM, FMA, ADX, SMEP, SMAP, SMT, CPB, AES-NI, RDRAND, RDSEED, SHA, SME | DDR5-5600/LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, PCIe 4, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX512, FMA3, MMX (+), SHA, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, SSSE3 |