AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU crams 16 full cores into 2023’s best gaming laptops
AMD has set out its laptop processor stall for 2023 by announcing the Ryzen 7000 CPUs, headlined by a 16 core chip with 32 threads.
The Dragon Range Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7945HX CPU (to give it its full name) will steal the show with speeds ranging between 2.5GHz and 5.4GHz. It’ll benefit from 80MB total cache, DDR5 memory, integrated 2x RDNA2 graphics, and is built on 5nm architecture.
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It runs at 55-75 watts, meaning battery life probably won’t be a priority, but power certainly will be. AMD says the new flagship is 78% faster than the incumbent Ryzen 6900HX in benchmarking tests and it’s already confirmed to appear within the new Alienware m16 and m18 laptops announced this week.
That flagship mobile processor is designed for “extreme gaming” and will go head-to-head with Intel’s top laptop chip, the 13th-gen 24-core i9-13980HX which maxes out at 5.6GHz. While that might not seem like much of a competition, Intel’s 24-cores consist of eight performance cores and 16-efficiency cores. AMD’s 16 cores are full performance cores, which is an awful lot for a laptop.
Either way, it looks set up for an almighty battle between the two processing giants at the highest end of the laptop market for gamers and creators.
However, beyond the show-stopping gaming CPU there’s a large range of chips for pretty much every rung on the laptop ladder. As well as the Zen 4, AMD is unveiling the Zen 3 Plus, Zen 3, and Zen 2 CPUs.
That’ll cover categories AMD describes as elite ultrathin, premium thin and light, mainstream thin and light, and everyday computing. You can see the how the 2023 7000 Series line up compares, and how gaming performance is boosted over its predecessor in the infographics below.