New Leak Showcases Zen 3-Powered Ryzen 7000 Mobile CPUs

A new benchmark result from SiSoftware has shown off an unreleased Ryzen 7000 mobile processor that is packing AMD's previous-generation Zen 3 architecture instead of Zen 4. The Ryzen 5 7530U processor features six cores with SMT and 16MB of L3 cache.

The new chip is part of AMD's new mobile CPU strategy that will incorporate three different Zen architectures into the Ryzen 7000 series lineup, including Zen 2, Zen 3 and Zen 4, to target different performance tiers and price brackets within the mobile space.

AMD announced this along with a new naming scheme for Ryzen 7000 mobile processors a few months ago, making the cryptic numbering system much easier to decipher. 

For instance, with the Ryzen 5 7530U; the 7 notes the portfolio model year of the chip (Ryzen 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, etc.) so you know how old or how new the CPU is.

The following number in the lineup denotes the Ryzen market segment, whether it's a Ryzen 3, 5, 7 or 9 part or a Athlon Silver or Gold SKU. Numbers 1 and 2 stand for the Althon parts, numbers 3 and 4 for Ryzen 3, numbers 5 and 6 for Ryzen 5, number 7 for Ryzen 7, number 8 for Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 parts, and number 9 features Ryzen 9 parts only.

The next number is one of the most important numbers to pay attention to, as it denotes what CPU architecture the chip is using. 1 stands for Zen 1 and Zen+, 2 for Zen 2, 3 for Zen 3 and Zen 3+, 4 for Zen 4, 5 for Zen 5 etc. In the case of the Ryzen 5 7530U, we can tell it's a Zen 3 part based on the number 3.

The final number in the sequence will only feature a 0 or a 5, with 0 representing a lower model within the segment or 5 for an upper model. Then there's the lettering at the very end, with HX standing for 55W+ parts, HS for 35W+ parts, U for 15-28W parts, C for 15-28W SKUs, andr ultra-efficient 9W chips.

Zen 3 In Ryzen 7000 Should Be Better Than Zen 3 In Ryzen 5000

All we know about the actual chip is that it will feature six cores, 12 threads, 3MB of L2 cache, and 16MB of L3 cache. Operating with a 2GHz base clock. What we don't know is if the 7530U will be operating on Zen 3 or Zen 3+, the latter of which is a more efficient version of Zen 3.

Unfortunately, we don't have any other SiSoftware results to compare against, but we don't expect performance to remain perfectly linear with other Zen 3 and Zen 3+ Ryzen 5 SKUs. Since AMD is reusing these older CPU architectures for Ryzen 7000, expect AMD to enhance these chips with new features and potentially higher clock speeds.

Just because AMD is using older CPU architectures doesn't mean the chips will be as fast or as slow as older generation models operating on the same CPU architecture.

AMD can do a lot of tweaking to the chips, including boosting clock speeds with newer TSMC nodes that are backward compatible with the same CPU architectures. It can also add new features, such as DDR5 support to older architectures, thanks to AMD's chiplet designs.

A great example of this is AMD's new entry-level optimized Mendocino architecture which takes AMD's Zen 2 CPU architecture and enhances it with new features, including RDNA 2 graphics, LPDDR5 memory support, and TSMC's 6nm node that improves transistor density by 18%. We don't know how much additional performance 6nm will provide, but expect an improvement in power consumption, performance, or both.