Ryzen (Zen)

Compared to the previous AMD-based mini PC barebones, the new DesktopMini Max from ASRock is considerably larger and allows users to install liquid coolers and larger dGPUs. The included AM4 motherboard supports AMD Ryzen 5000 all the way down to Ryzen 2000 processors that can be coupled with up to 128 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM.

Lenovo expands its AMD portfolio with two additional ThinkPad laptops: ThinkPad L13 Gen 2 and L13 Yoga Gen 2 are from the affordable ThinkPad L series. The Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga G2 is also the first ThinkPad Yoga convertible with AMD Ryzen 5000.

The Atari VCS hybrid console-PC is finally available to purchase some 3 years after originally being launched. The device features classic retro Atari looks and can play classic Atari games and also function as a desktop PC.

The Legion 7 16ACHg6 brings all the latest computer games smoothly onto the matte 16-inch screen (2560x1600 pixels, 165 Hz, IPS) in the 16:10 format. Furthermore, its equipment is good: The Ryzen 9 5900HX APU, the GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPU, 32 GB of RAM, and 2x 1 TB NVMe SSDs.

AYA has just proven all the naysayers wrong by shipping its first batch of NEO units earlier this month to initial backers. A second round of shipments is expected early July with an official online storefront to come at a later date.

The manufacturer is likely clearing room for the eventual ThinkBook 15 G3 model with AMD Ryzen 5000U series options later this year. If you want a prosumer laptop for a budget price, then this deal will check a lot of boxes.

Games could see up to 28% fps improvements with faster RAM kits, but the average is around 10% at 1080p max settings or 15% for 1080p low settings. The absence of a MUX switch raises the performance gap to 33% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so we might want to wait for the more expensive versions that allow us to disable the iGPU.

The Intel Core i7-1195G7 has been spotted on Geekbench recording incredible results for a laptop chip. The Tiger Lake-U part nipped at 5 GHz during testing and pulled out a single-core performance score that would leave it in the realm of Rocket Lake and Ryzen 5000 desktop processors in the chart if it was an average result.

According to reports, the Radeon RX 6000 series will be around for a while yet. In fact, RDNA 3 GPUs will supposedly not arrive until when Zen 4 CPUs do. While no GPUs are slated to fill the void, AMD reputedly plans to release Zen 3 XT CPUs in early 2022.

AMD's Zen 4-based future processors are currently thought to have the code-name Raphael. It is also rumored to move on to a new LGA-based socket called AM5. Now, a new leak purports to show what one of them will look like from the other side, strange indented integrated heat spreader and all.

The slower RAM gimps the gaming performance by up to 20% on the Asus model, while the missing MUX switch is further limiting the potential that should match models equipped with RTX 3080 mobile dGPUs. Similar RAM problems can also be encountered on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. However, the Lenovo Legion 7 AMD features faster RAM, so this is not really just another conspiracy against AMD.

AMD's upcoming Rembrandt Yellow Carp APUs for laptops will feature Navi 2x RDNA 2 iGPUs without Infinity Cache similar to what we've known for Van Gogh. Rembrandt will bring LPDDR5/DDR5, PCIe Gen 4, USB4 support on a 6 nm Zen 3+ architecture. It's RDNA 2 iGPU will use an upgraded DCN 3.1 engine with added low-power clock states and 2 MB L2 cache per shader array with six CUs.

Though this price range is typical for a GeForce RTX 3060 laptop, the CPU and display offered here are definitely faster and better than pretty much any other 15.6-inch gaming laptop retailing for around $1000 USD.

AMD surprised everyone during its Computex 2021 keynote today by demonstrating the first 3D stacked vertical cache called 3D V-cache. AMD showed a 192 MB 3D V-cache (64 MB per CCD) implemented successfully on the Ryzen 9 5900X. The 3D V-cache brings several improvements over conventional 2D and microbump 3D packaging and was demonstrated to yield up to 15% performance gains in today's games with the current 7 nm Zen 3 architecture.

Asus has modified its high-end ROG Strix G17 gaming laptop with an AMD graphics card. The Asus ROG Strix G17 Advantage Edition features a Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, a Radeon RX 6800M GPU, 32GB of DDR4-3,200 RAM and a high-refresh-rate screen.

Acer has updated the hardware on its Nitro 50 desktop. One can now pick between 11th-generation Intel Rocket Lake and the AMD Ryzen 5000 series of processors. GPU options max out at the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Its entry-level model costs EUR 999 (US$1,216).

Acer has introduced a new member to the Swift series, the Swift X. The Swift X offers AMD Ryzen 5000 APUs options along with the NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU in a thin, lightweight design that weighs 1.39 kg and is just 0.7 inches thick. Acer also claims a 17-hour battery life for content creation on the go.

The new A7 X1 is the first AMD-based mid-range gaming laptop from Gigabyte's new Gaming series. It features the Ryzen 9 5900HX processor with integrated Vega 7 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX 3070 Max-Q 140 W discrete solution. The display is limited to FHD resolution, but gets 144 Hz refresh rate, and there is support for up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and 6 TB of storage.

Four new Ryzen 5000 laptops have just been released courtesy of Xiaomi’s subsidiary Redmi. The RedmiBook Pro 14 Ryzen Edition laptop offers buyers the choice between two Zen 2 Lucienne parts while purchasers of the RedmiBook Pro 15 Ryzen Edition laptop can look forward to getting to grips with one of two Zen 3 Cezanne APUs.

We now have a rough idea about what AMD's Zen 4 Raphael-based processors could look like. The AMD Ryzen 7000 series of CPUs are tipped to support DDR5 RAM, feature 28 PCIe 4.0 lanes and a TDP of 120W (170W for some models). Rumours suggest that AMD is slated to launch these processors sometime in late 2022

The successor of the Ryzen 5 4500U-powered MINISFORUM HM50 is now available as the HM80. Inside it, there is a more potent Ryzen 7 4800U processor, alongside 16/256 GB or 32/512 GB of memory/storage. The prices of these two configurations, after the US$100 early-bird discount, are US$759 and US$829.

The new Intel Core i5-11400H laptop processor has turned up on CPU-Z Validator, and while the Tiger Lake chip certainly performed well, it seems like more can be expected from it in future. At the moment, the i5-11400H didn’t really disturb the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H in either the single-thread test or the multithread run.

Looking at previous consumer platform sockets, AMD has mostly been sticking with PGA designs. However, according to the latest leaks, AMD is making the jump to LGA with the upcoming Zen 4 CPUs, transfering all pins from the processor to the motherboard socket. AM5 will also feature dual-channel DDR5 support, but will unfortunately remain stuck on PCIe 4.0.

HP has announced a new sub-brand of gaming laptops to complement the Omen lineup. Victus by HP 16 will be available in both Intel and AMD options and offers display options up to QHD 165 Hz. Victus by HP 16 is designed to cater to those who want capable hardware without having to splurge too much on a high-end gaming laptop.

Xiaomi has announced its plans to launch a new Mi Notebook Pro 15 Ryzen Edition laptop in the near future. The Chinese OEM has confirmed a processor from AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series will be at the heart of the device. The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro 15 Ryzen Edition will go on presale in China on May 24 and be launched shortly afterwards.

Benchmarks for the Intel Core i7-11800H have been shared, and it seems the Tiger Lake H45 laptop processor is quite a contender. The i7-11800H’s nemesis is likely going to be the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, which has similar key specs to the Intel rival but a lower max boost clock rate. In a CPU-Z comparison, the chip from Team Blue has the slightest of edges.

Rumors of the potential existence of AMD Ryzen 9 5950XT and Ryzen 5 5600XT desktop processors have started gaining pace thanks to an alleged clock rate leak. The B2 stepping information alludes to a 6-core part and a 16-core chip, meaning Zen 3 Vermeer XT CPUs could be incoming, just in time to take on Intel’s Alder Lake hybrid processors.

AMD has been bringing an extreme amount of processing power to low-end laptops these days. Although the rest of the laptop is merely average, the Ryzen 5 5500U will give higher performance-per-dollar than most in this price range.

The Chinese mini PC maker is breaking away from its usual square-shaped builds with modest specs and is presenting its first all-AMD gaming-oriented system featuring an open air case packing a Ryzen 5 5600X processor coupled with 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and 1 TB M.2 SSD storage, plus a Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU.

The HP 255 G7 offers a Ryzen 3 APU, 8 GB of RAM, a DVD drive, and a 512 GB NVMe SSD. Windows 10 Pro serves as the operating system. The built-in display disappoints in every respect.

UserBenchmark’s current bench charts make for interesting reading, even considering the site’s checkered and much-criticized past. Rocket Lake parts dominate the top of the table, while AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X languishes in 13th position. The multi-core Zen 3 monster Ryzen 9 5950X suffers the ignominy of being outbenched by both the Intel Core i9-9900KS and the i9-11950H.

Kingston recently revealed a new lineup of HyperX DDR4 modules that clock up to 5333 MHz, which would make them among the fastest commercially available DDR4 stick on the market. The new HyperX parts will, unsurprisingly, be expensive, with a 16GB set to cost over US$1200.

AMD is a whisker away from claiming 30% of the PC processor usage share in Steam’s hardware and software survey. The latest information from the popular game platform has AMD with 29.54% share and Intel on 70.46%. However, Alder Lake could be on course to take some of the shine off Ryzen’s critical acclaim.

It's 2021, and, thus, a great time for Gigabyte to launch world-first pre-builds under its Aorus brand. The new Model X and Model S gaming PCs each have 10GB of GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, with "factory-tuned" Ryzen 5000 or Rocket Lake Core i9 platforms. The OEM claims to have crafted them "meticulously" out of first-party components, and are thus equipped to compete in the performance-focused rig space.

Some new information has emerged about AMD's upcoming Rembrandt line of processors. It is tipped to ship with Zen3+ cores, an RDNA2 GPU with up to 12 compute units (CUs), support for LPDDR5 RAM, and more.

AMD's bet on higher core counts is paying off when it comes to pure multi-thread performance. Nonetheless, Intel still has the upper hand when it comes to AI integration, single-thread performance, and native Thunderbolt support.

JD.com has the Asus VivoBook Pro 14 with Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H APU options and 2.8K OLED displays for pre-order at under $800. Great prices, no doubt, especially when factoring in the OLED specs with 90 Hz refresh rate, 600 nits peak brightness and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. However, the port selection is limited, offering no USB-C.

AMD’s top-end Zen 3 Cezanne desktop APU, the Ryzen 7 5700G, has been discovered being put through its paces in a couple of synthetic benchmarks. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G delivered the expected improvements over the Ryzen 7 4700G in terms of CPU performance and even the uninspiring integrated Radeon Vega 8 5000 iGPU offered a very positive outcome.

University of Virginia cybersecurity researchers published a paper in which they claimed that a variant of the Spectre vulnerability could potentially impact "billions" of devices, and require patches that severely hinder performance. Intel, however, refuted the claim in a statement.

With the MateBook D 16, Huawei offers a stylish laptop in a metal case with a 16.1-inch display for under 1,000 Euros (~$1,212). Is the device only compelling in terms of looks or does it also manage to convince with its components? And how does it compare to the very similar Honor MagicBook Pro?

The ~$900 Swift X model listed on the Acer Thailand site features a Ryzen 5 5500U APU coupled with 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and a 512 GB NVMe SSD, plus it features a 14-inch FHD IPS display connected to an Nvidia GTX 1650 dGPU. There should also be a Ryzen 7 5700U model with 16 GB of RAM for just under $1,000.

Microsoft advertises the new Surface Laptop 4 very aggressively, also openly attacking Apple. However, after our test of the new Surface Laptop 4 15 we are rather disappointed overall, since we don't find much innovation here.

The M1 Apple Silicon has now claimed the top spot in PassMark’s CPU Mark single-thread performance charts for both desktop and laptop CPUs, thanks to the hybrid processor turning up in devices such as the MacBook Pro 13 laptop and Mac Mini desktop. The Apple M1 managed to outscore powerful rivals such as the Intel Core i9-11900K, i9-11900F, AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS, and Ryzen 9 5900HS.

AMD could be introducing its own big.LITTLE-esque hybrid CPU architecture in 2024. Codenamed Strix Point, these will be Zen 5 Ryzen 8000 APUs fabbed on TSMC's 3 nm process. Not much information is available about Strix Point at the moment considering we are still three years away from launch. However, the grapevine is that AMD has fixed Strix Point's iGPU performance target and has incorporated "bigger changes" to the memory subsystem.