AMD just announced its Ryzen 5000 mobile processors for high-performance gaming and ultrathin notebooks. The company claims that these APUs based on the Zen 3 core architecture are the fastest x86 notebook processors along with a battery life of 21 hours (video playback).


One key highlight of the Ryzen 5000U processors is the inclusion of unlocked HX processors, namely the Ryzen 9 5900HX and the 5980HX. These chips are the counterarguments to the Core i9-10980HK. Like the Intel part, both these chips are unlocked for overclocking and come with a higher thermal and power envelope.

Compared to the Skylake-based 10980HK, the 5900HX is up to 35% faster, offering 13% higher single-threaded (CB R20 1T) and up to 19% better in gaming physics.

Looking at the Ryzen 5000U processors, these chips beat their Tiger Lake-U rivals by as much as 44%, mainly on account of the higher core count (8). Office and other single-threaded applications show a much smaller delta of just around 7% which might as well be called a tie.


The number of devices based on the Ryzen 5000U processors will be 50% more than Renoir (Ryzen 4000U), with as many as 150 notebooks in 2021. The first devices based on Cezanne will be available from Feb 2021, but as we’ve already reported, these are going to be very limited in quantity.


Update: It looks like only three models will be based on the Zen 2 core, namely the Ryzen 4 5300U, Ryzen 5 5500U, and the Ryzen 7 5700U. All the other Ryzen 5000U processors will leverage the Zen 3 core.