According to AMD, their latest chip, the Ryzen 7840U, can compete with Apple’s M2 processor found in the 2022 MacBook Air. The new chip reportedly outperforms the M2 by up to 75% in terms of “application performance” and surpasses the Intel Core i7-1360P in both productivity and graphics by an even larger margin, as shown in the charts below.
The Ryzen 7840U is also claimed to be 24% faster than the previous generation 6850H chip. Additionally, AMD states that the new chip provides superior battery life due to its “leadership efficiency.”
Although AMD’s power efficiency and integrated graphic performance are impressive, Apple’s M2 sets a high standard to defeat. According to Techspot’s review on the Apple M2, the chip has a good balance of multi and single-threaded performance but “doesn’t deliver the outright best performance in either category.” The Apple M2 is also hard to beat for video creation and excellent in terms of power efficiency.
In addition to the 7840U, there will be Ryzen 9, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 3 series parts with varying levels of graphics performance in the new 15-to 30-watt U-series lineup. Specifically, there will be three tiers of graphics: the 12-core Radeon 780M, eight-core Radeon 760M, and four-core Radeon 740M.
Checkout my other article: AMD Ryzen Z1 is the “Zen4” Lineup for the Handheld Game Consoles
However, speaking of the AMD 7000 series on laptops, the diversification is a little bit confusing and too complex for the average consumer. AMD has incorporated less powerful chips based on older Zen 2, Zen 3, and Zen 3+ APU architectures into the Ryzen 7000 series instead of using the newer and more robust Zen 4. The summary is as follows:
- Ryzen 7045 Series – Zen 4 architecture, up to 16 cores/32 threads, 5nm node, up to 80Mb cache, DDR5 memory
- Ryzen 7040 Series – Zen 4 architecture, up to 8 cores/16 threads, 4nm node, up to 20Mb cache – DDR5/LPDDR5 memory
- Ryzen 7035 Series – Zen 3+ architecture, up to 8 cores/16 threads, 6nm node, up to 20Mb cache, DDR5/LPDDR5 memory
- Ryzen 7030 Series – Zen 3 architecture, up to 8 cores/16 threads, 7nm node, up to 20Mb cache, DDR4/LPDDR4 memory
- Ryzen 7020 Series – Zen 2 architecture, up to 4 cores/8 threads, 6nm node, up to 6Mb cache, LPDDR5 memory.
Furthermore, the summary above does not cover the differences in processor size and power draw. U stands for ultra-portable or low-end (15-30 watts), HS stands for mid-range (35-54 watts), and HX stands for high-end (55 watts or more).
