When AMD introduced its Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs at CES, the company made bold claims of game-changing performance. Coming off of years of underwhelming laptop chips, AMD promised it had optimized Ryzen 4000 for mobile computing.
Now we’ve tested those claims in AMD’s Ryzen 9 4900HS chip, an 8-core, 7nm chip with Radeon Vega cores. We’re stunned at the CPU’s impressive tour de force that defeats just about every Intel 8th- and 9th-gen laptop CPU we’ve ever seen.
Just open up your YouTube feed and you’ll see pretty much every PC hardware channel staring at disbelief in just how good AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile processors really are. This isn’t just a “kind of good enough” processor – the top of the line model is faster than or equal than Intel’s top of the line processor at both single core and multicore workloads, while using slightly more than half the power.
It’s all well and good for AMD to roundly run circles around Intel in the server and desktop/workstation space, but the laptop space is where the real money and mindshare can be found. This new line of AMD mobile processors is simply stunning.
Mindshare yes, money… kind of, there is way way more money in the server market.
The only way you can make good margins in the laptop market is for them to be king… and it looks like they have done it.
And always consider that AMD do all of this with 10% of Intel’s revenues.
Seems a lot of the AMD models are getting otherwise reduced specs like HDMI 1.4 and no UHD screens =(
AMD ending up in the low-end, bargain bin specials is par for the course unfortunately. Especially when it comes to consumer goods.
It doesn’t matter how good AMD chips are if they are being tied to low-end accessories, which is what happens in the majority of form factors. There are a few items out there that have desirable specs, but those are exceptions to the rule and usually server stuff.
Supposedly System76 is going to look at producing AMD laptops when they start manufacturing their own laptops, so there might be a little hope.
There is ZERO reason for a > 1440p screen in a laptop, and 1080p is perfect for 99% of people. As far as HDMI 1.4 I guess that is on the GPU it got paired with. People need to stop demanding more pixels and get with higher refresh rates and HDR and FreeSync.
You’re wrong on the HDMI front. Yes, the GPU has to support it, but so does the motherboard, its connections, and UEFI. More reading with links: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7vhm9d/hdmi_20_mainboards_for_zen_apus/
The gist of it is: You can buy an HDMI2 capable APU, but if the motherboard doesn’t support it, you’re screwed anyway.
Did you EVEN READ THAT THREAD?? The gist of what was said there is it works anyway if the APU supports it even if the board isn’t certified. It’s not like a good quality non certified cable stops HDMI 2.0 from working either…
I disagree, hidpi display is very good for browsing and text editing, rendered fonts look very clear and crisp. I have HP 8770w with 17″ Full HD display, and Lenovo X1 with 14″ 4k, with the same placement on the laps X1 provide much better text readability even with smaller screen.
Indeed. Next to 2K, 4k, or 5K screens, 1920×1600 or less screens look absolutely primitive.
I’d gladly stick with 1080p just to avoid dealing with Windows scaling.
That’s excellent for you. I don’t particularly care what kind of screen anyone prefers. However, the fact is, some people *do* very much want or even need these screens. If they do, and they have to pick from an AMD laptop with a crap screen vs an Intel laptop with a good one, then AMD is going to lose out. For most people, the CPU is of secondary importance as long as it can handle their workflow well.
I’m all for choice, I have no problem with that argument. Just stating my personal preference, and my reason for it.
There’s something wonderful about reading text on Retina or 4k displays with 2x scaling.
Typing this on a 4K laptop, there is indeed noticeable difference.
I would say, for most people, 4K is not worth on their *TV* due to screen size / distance ratio (Even an 80″ TV is not large enough at 12′ distance in an average living room).
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship
Coding / typing / web makes a significant improvement. (And also the battery life / power usage increases, too, unfortunately).