AMD Ryzen 9 5900H Spotted: Zen 3's Crazy IPC Gains Coming to Laptops

Just under a month ago, the first signs of AMD's new high-end Cezanne mobile chips surfaced with the spotting of the Ryzen 9 5900HX. That chip is likely to be unlocked for overclocking on mobile platforms, which while powerful, is likely not everyone's cup of tea. In a slightly more mainstream fashion, today AMD's Ryzen 9 5900H surfaced, packing 8 Zen 3 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of 4.64 GHz.

The information comes from a Geekbench 5 submission (as spotted by hardware detective Apisak), where the chip has been subjected to extensive performance tests. 

Getting down to brass tacks, single-core performance is where the 5900H shines, jotting down a GB5 score of 1,520 points and a multi-core score of 9,325 pts. Of course, the multi-core score can vary, depending on the thermal properties of the device the chip is installed in.

For comparison, although we haven't had the chance to test a notebook with the 4900H ourselves, digging through the GB5 4900H submissions shows that it scores between 1175 and 1275 points in single-core performance with a few outliers and a multi-core score of about 7500 pts, again with a few outliers in both directions. 

25% Performance Uplift over Last-Gen?

This makes the 5900H a solid 25 percent more powerful in single-threaded applications and about 20 percent more powerful in multi-threaded tasks. This is in-line with the 19% increase in IPC Zen 3 has over Zen 2 at the same TDP, and we would put the higher single-threaded figure down to improvements in the boost algorithm: 4.64 GHz single-core boost is nothing to scoff at even in desktop solutions -- and this is a mobile part. 

We can't tell which device the chip was installed in, but with the popularity of the 4900H, chances are we'll be seeing it in quite a handful of devices. The 4900H is a 45 W part, and although the GB5 submission doesn't state this detail, chances are the 5900H will also be a 45 W TDP part so that notebook makers can install it into their new models without having to re-engineer the cooling systems. A 5900HS will likely fall into the 35 W TDP area.

All that being said, the chip hasn't formally been announced yet, and chances are it will still take quite some time before it shows up in laptops that you can actually buy. The 4900H reared its head this time last year, and it took until March for the formal announcement to land, with devices landing in Spring. Expect a similar timeline for the Ryzen 5000 'Cezanne' mobile parts.