AMD claims it had no knowledge of fake Ryzen 5 7430U CPUs in Chuwi laptops — Chinese vendor announces recall of products and refunds, PCB manufacturer could be culprit

AMD has responded to the recent Chuwi scandal, where certain laptop models featuring outdated Ryzen 5 5500U processors were falsely labeled as newer 7430U variants. According to HKEPC, AMD has made an official statement claiming the company had no knowledge of the matter and stated it does not condone any sort of product mislabelling from any manufacturer whatsoever.

The CPU maker further warned that it has the right to pursue legal action against entities that mislabel its CPU products. AMD has not officially announced it is going after Chuwi yet, but it likely will if the situation gets out of hand.

"Recently, we have come to the attention of CHUWI, which has misrepresented AMD Ryzen 5 5500U products as Ryzen 5 7430U. AMD has never authorized, confirmed, or acquiesced to this behavior in any way, nor has it participated in the labeling or promotional decisions of related products, and is completely unaware of this matter."

AMD has clear and strict regulations governing the naming, use, and labeling of product models. Any unauthorized use of model names or mislabeling will seriously disrupt the normal market order and may mislead consumers.

AMD has always placed great importance on the accuracy and transparency of product information, and is committed to maintaining a fair and orderly market environment and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of users. Our company has taken this matter very seriously and reserves the right to pursue legal action against the relevant parties."

--AMD

To recap, two Chuwi laptop models have been caught featuring fake labeling for each model's respective CPU inside — CoreBook X and CoreBook Plus. Both models were allegedly marketed as having AMD's Ryzen 5 7430U mobile CPU, but teardowns revealed that the OPN code for both models' CPUs contradicted their exterior labeling. Instead, these CPUs had older Ryzen 5 5500U processors under the hood.

Helping matters further is that both CPUs share very similar CPU specifications, making it difficult for novice users to discover which CPU is really inside. The Ryzen 5 7430U and 5500U feature six cores and 12 threads, a 15W TDP, and very similar clock speeds. Where they differ the most is in the architecture and L3 cache capacity; the 7430U comes with Zen 3 cores and 16MB of L3 cache, and the 5500U comes with Zen 2 cores and 8MB of L3 cache.

Chuwi attempted to downplay the issue by suggesting there was a mix-up in product batches, but Chuwi was caught changing the processor label at the firmware level, which is something that does not happen by accident. Furthermore, Chuwi allegedly demanded that Notebookcheck remove information about the scandal from its website.

Chuwi has since announced a recall on all of its products with mislabeled CPUs, and is offering a full refund for owners of the affected products. These items are the CoreBook X, CoreBook Plus, and Ubox mini PC.

The plot thickens

Despite all of the evidence piling against Chuwi, another manufacturer has potentially succumbed to the same problem. ComputerBase discovered a forum thread where two owners of a Nikear A15 Pro laptop claim they have a mislabeled 7430U chip inside their laptops. Computerbase noted that the affected Nikear laptop and Chuwi CoreBook X laptop take advantage of the same PCB inside.

If this is all true, the problem might actually lie with the PCB manufacturer rather than the laptop makers themselves. The only problem with this information is it was taken from a forum post and has not been confirmed by a reputable outlet or manufacturer. As a result, take this information with a grain of salt.

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