AMD has announced its new Ryzen 7040U mobile processors, which are designed to deliver high performance and efficiency for thin and light laptops. The new chips feature Zen 4 cores, RDNA 3 graphics, and a dedicated AI engine powered by XDNA architecture.
The Ryzen 7040U series consists of four models: the Ryzen 7 7840U, the Ryzen 5 7640U, the Ryzen 5 7540U, and the Ryzen 3 7440U. The Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 models come with Ryzen AI, which AMD claims can enable “magical new experiences” and improve over time. The Ryzen AI engine can also support Windows Studio Effects, a set of tools for enhancing photos and videos using machine learning.
Ryzen 7840U: Flagship Model With Eight Cores and 16 Threads
The Ryzen 7 7840U is the flagship model, with eight cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 3.3 GHz and a boost clock of up to 5.1 GHz. It also comes with Radeon 780M graphics, which have 12 compute units and a boost clock of up to 2.7 GHz. The Radeon 780M graphics use RDNA 3 architecture, which offers improved performance and efficiency over the previous generation. The RDNA 3 graphics also feature a new dual media engine that supports AV1 encoding and decoding, as well as ray tracing acceleration.
The Ryzen 5 7640U has six cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 3.5 GHz and a boost clock of up to 4.9 GHz. It also has Radeon 780M graphics with the same features as the Ryzen 7 model. The Ryzen 5 7540U has the same core configuration and clock speeds as the Ryzen 5 model, but it lacks the Ryzen AI engine and comes with Radeon 760M graphics instead. The Radeon 760M graphics have eight compute units and a boost clock of up to 2.4 GHz. The Ryzen 3 7440U is the entry-level model, with four cores and eight threads, a base clock of 3.0 GHz and a boost clock of up to 4.7 GHz. It also has Radeon 740M graphics, which have four compute units and a boost clock of up to 2.1 GHz.
All the Ryzen 7040U processors have a TDP range of 15-30W, which makes them suitable for ultrathin laptops that prioritize battery life and portability. AMD claims that its new processors can outperform both Intel's Core i7-1360P and Apple's M2 chips in various benchmarks, such as web browsing, content creation, productivity, media encoding, and multiprocessing.
Competition for Apple?
How does the Ryzen 7 7840U compare to Apple's CPUs and devices, which have been dominating the laptop market with their M1 and M1 Pro chips? Apple's M1 chip, which powers the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mac mini, and iMac, has 8 cores (4 performance and 4 efficiency) and 8 threads, with a base clock of 3.2 GHz and a boost clock of up to 3.9 GHz. It also has 16 MB of cache and a TDP of 10 W. The M1 Pro chip, which powers the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch, has up to 10 cores (8 performance and 2 efficiency) and up to 16 threads, with a base clock of up to 3.2 GHz and a boost clock of up to 4.5 GHz. It also has up to 32 MB of cache and a TDP of up to 35 W.
One of the main advantages of Apple's CPUs is their integration with Apple's own macOS operating system which is optimized for their hardware and software ecosystem. Apple's CPUs also have a unified memory architecture (UMA), which means that the CPU, GPU, and other components share the same memory pool, reducing latency and increasing bandwidth. Moreover, Apple's CPUs have a neural engine, which is dedicated to accelerating machine learning tasks.
AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U CPU also has some strengths that could make it competitive with Apple's CPUs and devices. AMD's CPU also supports PCIe Gen4, which enables faster data transfer between the CPU and other components such as SSDs and GPUs. Furthermore, AMD's CPU has a higher boost clock than Apple's CPUs, which could give it an edge in single-threaded performance.
The Ryzen 7040U processors are expected to be available in laptops from various OEMs in the coming weeks. AMD says that its new chips will offer “the ultimate mobile computing experience” for users who want to enjoy gaming, streaming, creating, and learning on their laptops.
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