This year at CES 2022, AMD unveiled its new Ryzen 6000 CPUs, which feature AMD’s improved Zen 3 Plus architecture, a new 6nm production node, and the company’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture for its integrated GPUs. Up to 1.3 times quicker processing, up to two times the gaming capabilities of the previous generation, and up to 24 hours of battery life are all promised by AMD.
The new laptop processors follow in the footsteps of the Ryzen 5000 family, which was revealed at CES 2021 last year. The Ryzen 6000 processors will be available in two series: an H-series line (with 35W and 45W models of each chip) for more powerful gaming and creative devices, and a 15W to 28W U-series line for thin-and-light laptops, similar to those models.
It has eight cores, 16 threads, a base clock speed of 3.3GHz, and a boosted maximum speed of 5.0GHz, as well as 12 GPU cores with a maximum boost speed of 2.4GHz, making it the lineup’s flagship. AMD adds that the 5.0GHz maximum boosted clock speed there marks the “fastest Ryzen product” ever — on both mobile and desktop (which is technically accurate from a raw frequency perspective, given that the Ryzen 9 5950X for desktop from 2020 maxed out at a 4.9GHz clock speed) (which is technically true from a raw frequency perspective, given that the Ryzen 9 5950X for desktop from 2020 maxed out at a 4.9GHz clock speed).
The introduction of AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture for the Ryzen 6000 series’ integrated graphics — which is used on next-generation gaming products like AMD’s RX 6000-series GPUs, the Xbox Series X / S, and the PlayStation 5 — is also a huge boost for the company’s laptops, which had previously used the older Vega architecture.
According to AMD, the Ryzen 6000 series offers up to twice the graphics performance compared to Ryzen 5000 chips, with hardware ray tracing integrated into and a 50 percent bigger GPU compute engine. This is before AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution supersampling, which is also built into the new CPUs and allows for “fully playable AAA gaming on an ultrathin” notebook, is factored in.
With up to 73 fps on Deathloop and up to 114fps on Call of Duty: Vanguard using the super-sampling approach, AMD’s benchmarks notably highlight its U-series CPUs (which are more likely to be found on a laptop without a discrete GPU).
While the new Ryzen 6000 chips still use the Zen 3 architecture, AMD has made significant enhancements, particularly in power management, which allows for a maximum of 24 hours of battery life, thanks to inherent gains from the lower 6nm production node (up from 21 hours on 2021 models).
Lastly, there’s the deluge of new hardware standards that the Ryzen 6000 series will support: USB4 with data transfer rates at up to 40Gbps, PCIe Gen 4, DDR5 at up to 4,800 MT/s and LPDDR5 at up to 6,400 MT/s, HDMI 2.1 with support for high frame rates and VRR, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth LE 5.2. However, it will be left to device manufacturers to provide the hardware required to take advantage of that support.
The first laptops powered by AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 CPUs are already expected to be introduced at CES 2022 from firms like Acer, Asus, Alienware, Lenovo, Razer, and HP. For 2022, AMD anticipates over 200 “luxury” Ryzen 6000 laptops to be available, with the first units shipping in February.
