Ryzen 5 5500U Implies Ryzen 4000 Refresh Isn't Far Off

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processor

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processor (Image credit: AMD)

AMD's rumored Ryzen 4000 (codename Renoir) refresh looks more legit by the minute as new Ryzen 5000 (codename Lucienne) parts are popping up. Apart from the Ryzen 7 5700U, the Ryzen 5 5500U is the second member of the Lucienne family to make an appearance.

The Ryzen 5 5500U meets all the requirements of a rewarmed Renoir chip. The mobile APU reportedly comes equipped with six cores, 12 threads, and 8MB of L3 cache. We expect to see Zen 2 cores and Vega graphics as usual. Geekbench 5 detected the Ryzen 5 5500U with a 2.1 GHz base clock and a 4.04 GHz boost clock. If you look closely at AMD's Ryzen 4000 U-series product stack, the specifications are identical to those of the Ryzen 5 4600U. It might not be a simple coincidence, but the Ryzen 5 5500U is actually a mere rebrand of the Ryzen 5 4600U.

The multiple Ryzen 5 5500U submissions (via Tum_Apisak) have one thing in common - the mysterious TIMI Laptop. It's an unknown device, and the cooling capacity is also a mystery. However, we can't overlook the likelihood of the laptop's cooling solution holding back the Ryzen 5 5500U, which could explain the similar clock speeds with the Ryzen 5 4600U.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Lucienne Specifications

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ProcessorCores / ThreadsBase Clock (GHz)Boost Clock (GHz)L3 Cache (MB)Compute UnitsGraphics Frequency
Ryzen 7 5700U8 / 161.84.3881,900
Ryzen 7 4800U8 / 161.84.2881,750
Ryzen 5 5500U6 / 122.14.08??
Ryzen 5 4600U6 / 122.14.0861500

The Ryzen 5 5500U performed erratically in Geekbench 5. As of right now, there are eight total submissions with different scores. The best entry has the Ryzen 5 5500U putting up single-and multi-scores of 1,133 points and 5,881 points, respectively. On the other hand, there is an excess of Ryzen 5 4600U submissions to pick from. Unfortunately, it'll take ages to go through them all, but one of the better Ryzen 5 4600U submissions shows the hexa-core chip with a single-and multi-score of 1,087 points and 5,844 points, respectively.

Ryzen 5 5500U (Image credit: Primate Labs Inc.)

The Ryzen 5 5500U was 4.2% faster than the Ryzen 5 4600U in single-core performance. The multi-core performance margin was even lower. The Ryzen 5 5500U only outperformed the Ryzen 5 4600U by 0.6%, lending credence to our rebranding theory.

Unfortunately, the Ryzen 5 5500U's iGPU wasn't put through the paces. The APU will likely come with six Vega Compute Units (CUs), the same configuration which resides inside the Ryzen 5 4600U. Without a proper benchmark, we won't know if AMD finetuned the graphics frequency or not. For reference, the Ryzen 7 5700U emerged with an 8.6% higher graphics frequency than the Ryzen 7 4800U. At this particular moment, it's uncertain if the Ryzen 5 5500U will receive the same treatment.     

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • Endymio
    Forget the mobile "U" series 4000 refresh .... where are the desktop 4000 parts?
    Reply
  • TechLurker
    Endymio said:
    Forget the mobile "U" series 4000 refresh .... where are the desktop 4000 parts?

    I thought AMD skipped 4000-series desktop to reset the numbering scheme somewhat. Last I recall, the 5000 series realigns both Ryzen APUs and CPUs to the same Zen arch, although AMD is cheating a bit in the APU end of things (supposedly low-end APUs using Zen 2, and high-end APUs using Zen 3).
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    TechLurker said:
    I thought AMD skipped 4000-series desktop to reset the numbering scheme somewhat. Last I recall, the 5000 series realigns both Ryzen APUs and CPUs to the same Zen arch, although AMD is cheating a bit in the APU end of things (supposedly low-end APUs using Zen 2, and high-end APUs using Zen 3).
    That's what I thought and hoped as well. The numbering scheme was more confusing than needed before. I'm hoping the new 5000 mobile series is based on Zen 3. Otherwise, really, what was the point in going to 5000?
    Reply
  • Endymio
    TechLurker said:
    I thought AMD skipped 4000-series desktop to reset the numbering scheme somewhat. Last I recall, the 5000 series realigns both Ryzen APUs and CPUs to the same Zen arch
    It was my understanding that all the 4000-series parts were Zen 2 arch. If that isn't the case, where are the Zen 2 APUs? 3200g/3400g are Zen 1.
    Reply
  • escksu
    Endymio said:
    It was my understanding that all the 4000-series parts were Zen 2 arch. If that isn't the case, where are the Zen 2 APUs? 3200g/3400g are Zen 1.

    Yes, ryzen 4000 series are all zen2. As for the APUs, i dont think think they available for retail, only oem.
    Reply
  • Endymio
    escksu said:
    Yes, ryzen 4000 series are all zen2. As for the APUs, i dont think think they available for retail, only oem.
    But they're not showing up OEM either ... what vendor is selling 4000-series desktops now?
    Reply