FEBRUARY 2021 PCWorld 17rewriting the rules, and we really appreciate
that,” said Robert Hallock, director of
technical marketing for AMD. “But the 5000
series is even better. It’s really a remarkable
product.”
RYZEN 5000 MOBILE:
AMD’S ZEN 3 FOR MOBILE
AMD’s new processors include five
processors within its U-series for thin-and-light
notebooks, as well as eight more H-series
chips for gaming notebooks. Both AMD and
Intel have prioritized gaming at CES, as much
to encourage sales of higher-end chips as
well as to tap the groundswell of gaming
that’s grown during the pandemic.
Here are AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series mobile
processors. All of the new processors are
manufactured on AMD’s 7nm manufacturing line,
and all include simultaneous multithreading, too.
Recall that AMD’s Ryzen 4000 Mobile
series introduced the Ryzen 4900HS (go.
pcworld.com/r4bk), AMD’s power processor
for slim systems.
AMD’s Ryzen 5000
Mobile processor
lineup is deeper than
its predecessor, and
the three Ryzen 4000
HS chips have given
way to four Ryzen
5000 HS chips, too.
But while AMD
claims that the “HS”
lineup is then “ultimate in portable gaming
performance,” there’s now something even
better: the HX series. Can you actually go
better than ultimate?
Apparently you can. The new Ryzen 9
5900HX, and by extension the HX family as a
whole, are “the world’s best mobile
processors for gamers,” according to AMD.
While an HS-series chip like the Ryzen 9
5980HS is a 35W chip, the 5900HX and
5980HX are rated for 45 watts and above—
how high, we’re not sure. AMD says HX-series
processors are unlocked, too, so enthusiasts
can tinker with their clock speeds.POWER: AS IMPORTANT
AS PERFORMANCE,
OR MORE SO
It may seem odd to focus on power rather than
performance, but the gains AMD has made
with its new chip may be more significant than
just pushing its clock speeds and cache higher.
With the Ryzen 5000 Mobile family, AMD has