A Comprehensive Guide to AMD’s Ryzen 7000 Mobile Processors

AMD has recently announced its 2023 mobile processor lineup and it’s a complicated mix of high-end and budget-oriented chips. The company has introduced its most powerful laptop processors to date, with some models featuring up to 16 Zen-4 CPU cores, 32 threads, and RDNA 3 integrated graphics, while others will have older CPU or graphics technologies. It can be challenging to tell at a glance which chips are designed for high-performance gaming laptops and which are designed for budget thin and light laptops, but this article will help you understand the different chips in AMD’s lineup and what they have to offer.

The AMD Ryzen 7000 mobile lineup consists of the following series:

• AMD Ryzen 7045 “Dragon Range”
• AMD Ryzen 7040 “Phoenix”
• AMD Ryzen 7035 “Rembrandt-R”
• AMD Ryzen 7030 “Barcelo-R”
• AMD Ryzen 7020 “Mendocino”

Let’s look at each one of them below;

AMD Ryzen 7045 “Dragon Range” Mobile CPUs

The Ryzen 7045 “Dragon Range” series of chips are meant for high-performance gaming laptops and mobile workstations. These are essentially mobile versions of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 desktop chips and feature a chiplet design, the Zen 4 CPU cores, and up to a massive 80MB of total cache. However, these chips will skimp on integrated graphics since they’ll most likely be paired with discrete GPUs.

AMD Ryzen 7040 “Phoenix” Mobile CPUs

The Ryzen 7040 “Phoenix” chips are designed for premium thin and light laptops that don’t have discrete graphics. Like Dragon Range chips, these processors have the Zen 4 CPU architecture, but they have fewer cores and lower power consumption. What they do have is AMD’s best integrated graphics to date, with up to 12 RDNA 3 GPU cores. This should be good enough for some gaming on a non-gaming laptop. Additionally, these are the first chips from AMD to incorporate an AI engine called Ryzen AI.

AMD’s Ryzen 7035 “Rembrandt-R” chips are updated versions of last year’s Ryzen 6000 series processors, with the same Zen 3+ CPU cores and RDNA 2 integrated graphics. These are pretty good chips, but they don’t feature AMD’s newest technology. The company has increased some clock speeds, but these chips are not as high-performance as the Phoenix and Dragon Range chips.

AMD Ryzen 7035 “Rembrandt-R” Mobile CPUs

AMD Ryzen 7030 “Barcelo-R” Mobile CPUs

The Ryzen 7030 “Barcelo-R” lineup features even older technology, with Zen 3 CPU cores and Radeon Vega graphics. There are also Ryzen Pro 7030 chips aimed at business customers, which feature additional security and management functions.

AMD Ryzen 7020 “Mendocino” Mobile CPUs

Finally, the previously-launched Ryzen 7020 “Mendocino” family is a set of chips for budget devices with Zen 2 CPU cores and two RDNA 2 GPU cores.

Wondering how to tell the new chips apart at a glance? AMD has used a 4 digits + letter naming scheme to differentiate its chips;

• The first digit indicates the portfolio year (7 = 2023, 8 = 2024, etc.)
• The second digit represents the segment (Athlon Silver, Athlon Gold, Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9).
• The third digit represents the architecture (Zen 1, 2, 3/3+, 4).
• The fourth digit indicates the feature isolation (0 = lower, 5 = upper).
• The letter at the end represents the form factor/TDP (U – 15=28W / HS = 35W / HX = 55W+).

Unfortunately, there’s no information in a chip name that gives you any clues about its GPU architecture, so you may have to consult AMD’s website or consult the table in this article to figure out what kind of integrated graphics a chip has.

There are a few other things worth keeping in mind about this year’s mobile processor lineup;

• AMD Ryzen 7045HX chips need an optional USB4 controller in order to use USB4 ports, which is why that spec is shown as “optional.”
• Additionally, AMD’s Ryzen AI integrated artificial intelligence engine offers hardware-accelerated AI effects for video, gaming, and security, among other things. It’s available on Ryzen 9 7940HS