Today, as part of the “Advance AI” event, AMD is unveiling the initial SKUs for the Ryzen 8040 series.
Although CES 2024 is scheduled for next month in Las Vegas, AMD has announced additional Zen 4 mobile processors, the Ryzen Mobile 8040 series. Codenamed Hawk Point, the Ryzen Mobile 8040HS series is poised to succeed this year’s ‘Phoenix’ mobile chips, with the key difference being the incorporation of the Ryzen AI NPU, developed by Xilinx.
Two new families of Ryzen Mobile chips have been introduced, comprising the mid-range 8040HS APUs and the lower-powered 8040U series with a reduced TDP designed for thin and light notebooks.
Comprising of nine SKUs ranging from 8 cores/16 threads down to an entry-level 4 cores/8 threads, AMD’s Ryzen Mobile 8040 series represents a direct refresh of the previous Phoenix 7040 series rather than a complete overhaul.
The new Ryzen Mobile 8000 series SKUs are classified into three classes, with two primary product types: HS (35-54W TDP) and U (15-30W) series. The HS series serves as mid-range chips, delivering processing power across various workloads. In contrast, the U series is designed for ultra-thin and lower-powered notebooks, catering to a maximum of 30W TDP.
The Ryzen 5 8640U and Ryzen 5 8540U both feature 6C/12T, but there are noticeable differences between the two. The Ryzen 5 8640U is the faster chip with a 3.5 GHz base clock and includes 8 RDNA 3 CUs at 2.6 GHz.
In contrast, the Ryzen 5 8540U has a slightly lower base frequency of 3.2 GHz, equipped with only 4 RDNA 3 CUs clocked at 2.8 GHz. Both chips boast boost frequencies of up to 4.9 GHz and share the same 16 MB of L3 cache.
The key distinction between the two lies in the fact that the Ryzen 5 8640U incorporates Ryzen AI, a feature stemming from AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx, offering integrated AI capabilities. The Ryzen 5 8540U lacks this feature, although both chips have the same TDP.
Finally, the AMD Ryzen 3 8440U serves as the entry-level chip and, consequently, is the lowest-spec chip among today’s announcements. It features just 4-cores and 8 threads, with a modest 8 MB of L3 cache, half the amount of the other chips introduced today.
The Ryzen 3 8440U operates at a base frequency of 3.0 GHz, with turbo clock speeds reaching up to 4.7 GHz, and integrates 4 RDNA 3 CUs clocked at 2.5 GHz. It is also one of two chips announced today that lacks the XDNA Ryzen AI block within the silicon, as it is based on the NPU-less Phoenix 2 silicon, similar to its predecessor.
The Ryzen 8040HS series represents a direct refresh of the existing ‘Phoenix’ APUs, utilizing the same TSMC-built 4 nm Zen 4 cores—the current flagship mobile CPU architecture from AMD.
The lineup includes the top SKU, Ryzen 9 8945HS with 8 Zen 4 cores, Ryzen 7 8845HS with 8 Zen 4 cores, Ryzen 5 8645HS with six Zen 4 cores, and two lower-powered 28W additions, Ryzen 7 8840HS (8C/16T) and Ryzen 5 8640HS (6C/12T). This refresh aims to advance on-chip AI capabilities in mobile devices from the beginning of 2024.
The series leverages AMD’s Zen 4 core, manufactured on TSMC’s 4 nm process, and incorporates the XDNA Ryzen AI NPU, into seven of the nine announced SKUs. AMD acquired Xilinx last year, and this move is part of AMD’s strategy to enhance AI capabilities.
Go figure, AMD made the announcement during their “Advance AI” event.
Announced during CES 2023, the Ryzen Mobile 7040 series marked AMD’s first foray into Zen 4-based mobile SKUs. While there was a wait before these SKUs hit retail through notebook partners, they demonstrated commendable portable performance and efficiency.
The Ryzen 8040HS and 8040U series aim to further advance AI features with more on-chip Ryzen AI-enabled NPUs than the previous generation, which is just a funny byword for “it’ll perform the exact fucking same for workloads that consumers actually care about”.
Which is of course productivity, battery life and maybe some moderate gaming.
AMD’s product number naming scheme for 2023 to 2025, announced at the beginning of the year, aligns with the naming structure of the previous Ryzen Mobile 7000 series announcement in January, AMD’s naming scheme is rather disingenuous and convoluted to say the least, hence why Intel used this as a key marketing point in their latest cringe campaign dubbed “Core Truths”.
Just so that you’re made aware, the 8XXX denomination simply just means that AMD considers these to be 2024 model year products.
For instance, the model Ryzen 9 8945HS can be dissected as follows: The ‘8’ signifies a 2024 model, ‘9’ indicates a Ryzen 9 part, ‘4’ represents Zen 4-based hardware, and ‘5’ denotes a higher-performance chip, positioning it in AMD’s higher segmentation.
Examining the specifications, starting with the Ryzen 9 8945HS, it features a base frequency of 4 GHz, with turbo frequencies reaching up to 5.2 GHz. Notably, there seems to be no difference in specifications compared to its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7940HS, at least based on the information provided by AMD.
Core/turbo frequencies, core count, and the 16 MB of L3 cache remain identical. The Radeon 780M GPU used in the 2023 Phoenix lineup is retained, sharing the same 12 RDNA 3 CUs and 2.8 GHz graphics frequencies.
The same can be said about the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, featuring 8C/16T of 4 nm Zen 4 cores with a base frequency of 3.8 GHz, reaching up to 5.1 GHz at turbo frequencies.
This mirrors the specifications of the previous Ryzen 7 7840HS, with identical core/turbo frequencies and 16 MB of integrated L3 cache.
Examining the last of the three Ryzen Mobile 8045HS series SKUs, the Ryzen 5 8645HS, it has 6C/12T, 16 MB of integrated L3 cache, a 4.3 GHz base frequency, turbo clock speeds up to 5.0 GHz, and slightly lower-spec integrated graphics with 8 RDNA 3 CUs clocked at 2.6 GHz.
These specifications match those of the previous Ryzen 5 7640HS, indicating that these three chips are an identical refresh of the Phoenix variants, differing only in changes to the Ryzen AI NPU.
Because AMD really wishes it was the preferred choice for the lucrative AI bubble as opposed to NVIDIA, because seven of AMD’s Ryzen Mobile 8040HS series SKUs incorporate AMD’s XDNA-based NPU designed for AI inferencing, known as ‘Ryzen AI.’
It’s important to note that technically, all of AMD’s Ryzen 7040 series (Phoenix) CPUs had the NPU physically present, but AMD didn’t enable it in most of them. The NPU itself isn’t new hardware; it utilizes Xilinx IP, which AMD now owns due to their acquisition of Xilinx last year. AMD aims to embed AI capabilities directly into the silicon as various stakeholders embrace the valuable benefits and abilities AI can offer in the future.
Comparing between the two, the architectural design is identical. There is no actual enhancement of performance to be found whatsoever outside of the inclusion of the XDNA AI module, which only bolsters a maximum of 16 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second), a 40% increase over the 7040 series with the non-functional NPU. Despite the massive increase in AI capabilities, 16 TOPS is a major far cry from the alleged requirements of Microsoft’s Copilot “Smooth AI” which will require 40-50 TOPS.
AMD has not disclosed a specific launch date for the Ryzen 8040 mobile series processors. However, the company is currently shipping units to OEMs, and the anticipated launch is set for sometime in Q1 2024.
A broader announcement, potentially with additional details, is expected either just before or during CES 2024, scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from January 9th to the 12th in 2024.
But I genuinely wouldn’t be too excited, considering how the core fundamentals have remained identical, these “new” 8040 series processors will offer the exact same performance as the previous 7040 series.
