New gaming laptops from Asus and MSI that leverage AMD's Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APUs are starting to show up at major U.S. retailers, including Amazon, Newegg and Best Buy, with availability depending on the PC and retailer.
Renoir brings all the goodness of AMD's Zen 2 microarchitecture and TSMC's 7nm FinFET manufacturing process to the mobile space. The Ryzen 4000-series family tree has two branches. The U-series, which focuses on power efficiency, is rated for 15W, while the H-series aims to provide the best performance that Zen 2 has to offer within a 45W envelope. With this generation, AMD introduce the exclusive HS-series processors that offer similar performance as their H-series counterparts but at a lower 35W target.
AMD Ryzen 4000 Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Model
Cores / Threads
Base / Boost Clock (GHz)
L2 Cache (MB)
L3 Cache (MB)
GPU Compute Units
Graphics Frequency (MHz)
TDP (W)
AMD Ryzen 9 4900H
8 / 16
3.3 / 4.4
4
8
8
1,750
45
AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS
8 / 16
3.0 / 4.3
4
8
8
1,750
35
AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
8 / 16
2.9 / 4.2
4
8
7
1,600
45
AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS
8 / 16
2.9 / 4.2
4
8
7
1,600
35
AMD Ryzen 5 4600H
6 / 12
3.0 / 4.0
3
8
6
1,500
45
Ryzen 5 4600HS
6 / 12
3.0 / 4.0
3
8
6
1,500
35
AMD is determined to take the fight to Intel with the latest Renoir chips. The entry-level SKU, if you can even call it that, starts at 6 cores and 12 threads. The Ryzen 7 4800H and Ryzen 9 4900H top the product stack, offering up to 8 cores and 16 threads.
The device weighs 3.64 pounds and has a thickness of 0.7 inches. It packs a 14-inch, 1080p resolution screen and features the flagship Ryzen 9 4900HS processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 discrete graphics card. The Zephyrus G14 also boasts 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a spacious 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD.
In terms of graphics power, the RTX 2060 has 1,920 CUDA cores and 6GB of GDDR6 14 Gbps memory. The exact operating clocks will depend on whether Asus is utilizing the mobile or Max-Q variant of the RTX 2060. Although the model isn't specified, the Zephyrus G14 is likely using the latter given the device's svelte body.
The Zephyrus G14 is currently up on Best Buy for $1,449.99. However, the retailer doesn't specify a release date, only that the laptop is arriving soon.
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MSI Bravo 15
MSI Bravo 15 (Image credit: Newegg)
The MSI Bravo 15 stands as one of the handful of laptops that will go all in with AMD. With a footprint of 14.13 x 9.99 x 0.85 inches, the MSI Bravo 5 features a 15.6-inch "IPS-level" display with 1080p resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate.
The laptop can come with the Ryzen 5 4600H six-core, 12-thread option or the more powerful Ryzen 7 4800H eight-core, 16-thread part. The Bravo 15 also relies on AMD's latest Navi-based Radeon RX 5500M graphics card that brings together 1,408 Stream Processors (SPs) clocked up to 1,645 MHz and 4GB of GDDR6 14G bps memory.
The MSI Bravo 15 is up for pre-order at Newegg and will be released on April 29. The base configuration with a Ryzen 5 4600H, 8GB of DDR4-2666 memory and a 512GB PCIeM.2 SSD starts at $929. The Ryzen 7 4800H configuration with 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory and a 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD will set you back $999.
Asus TUF Gaming A15
Asus TUF Gaming A15 (Image credit: Amazon)
The Asus TUF Gaming A15 is engineered for durability and passed multiple military-grade tests. The laptop is supposed to be able to withstand drops, vibration, humidity and very harsh temperatures.
With dimensions of 14.1 x 10.1 x 1 inches, the laptop sports a 15.6-inch "IPS-type" display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and an impressive refresh rate of up to 144 Hz. This specific model pairs a Ryzen 7 4800H processor with an RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card.
The laptop's other specifications include 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory and a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD for storage. The TUF Gaming A15 was listed for $1,199.99 at Amazon with a April 30 release date.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
I'm eager to see an OEM put the new 8-core Ryzen mobile chips into a high-end 2-in-1 device. AMD appears to finally be pushing mobile performance forward the way they did in the desktop space. Gaming laptops are not versatile enough for me though.
I'm eager to see an OEM put the new 8-core Ryzen mobile chips into a high-end 2-in-1 device. AMD appears to finally be pushing mobile performance forward the way they did in the desktop space. Gaming laptops are not versatile enough for me though.
I'm sure we'll see plenty of coverage for the "U" series chips soon. The gaming laptops are actually more interesting to me though, this is a market that AMD has struggled to break into... and their new H and HS chips have the potential to make real headway. Even if they don't seize a large portion of the market, the threat has really pushed Intel to pull out the stops. So either way we're seeing a lot more cores per dollar... just as we have in every other segment so far. So regardless of whether you go Intel or AMD, it's pretty exciting.
