AMD introduces Ryzen 5000 mobile processors [Update: Full list now available]

At this year's CES, AMD is once again unveiling the latest lineup of Ryzen processors meant for laptops and notebooks. This year, we're getting the Ryzen 5000 series, which finally matches the numbering scheme of the equivalent desktop processors. Just like those models, the new Ryzen 5000 mobile series is based on AMD's Zen 3 architecture, which uses an improved 7nm node, and the processors have up to eight cores.

As usual, there two kinds of mobile processors, the U series for ultra-thin notebooks and the H series for gaming laptops. The U series is headlined by the Ryzen 7 5800U, an 8-core, 16-thread CPU with a max boost clock of 4.4GHz. AMD compared it to Intel's Core i7-1185G7 from the Tiger Lake family, showing better performance across the board.

The Ryzen 7 5800U also promises better power efficiency, with up to 21 hours of video playback and 17.5 hours of general usage, though the battery capacity that enables this battery life wasn't mentioned.

Over on the gaming side, AMD also announced two processors, the Ryzen 9 5900HX and 5980HX. These are both 8-core, 16-thread CPUs, and the main difference is that the latter can boost up to 4.8GHz, versus 4.6GHz on the Ryzen 9 5900HX. Both have 20MB of combined L2 and L3 cache and have a TDP of 45W or higher.

AMD also compared this to Intel's offering, but in this case, we're looking at 10th-generation processors, though Intel introduced the 11th-generation H35 series yesterday. Still, AMD's edge appears to be significant when comparing to the Core i9-10980HK. AMD also showed Horizon: Zero Dawn running on a PC with this processor, with quality set to high and 1080p resolution, offering frame rates of over 100 frames per second.

AMD also announced during the event that it's bringing the RDNA2 architecture to mobile GPUs in the first half of the year. This architecture is found in its recent Radeon RX 6000 series of desktop GPUs, as well as on the new consoles from Microsoft and Sony. However, AMD didn't announce any specific products just yet.

Update: AMD has now shared the full list of processors available in the mobile lineup. Notably, most of the 15W Ryzen 5000 CPUs are still using Zen 2 cores. Here's the full list:

AMD also unveiled new desktop variants, the Ryzen 9 5900 and Ryzen 7 5700, as well as new Threadripper PRO CPUs with up to 64 cores.