AMD’s insanely complex Ryzen names make purchasing a laptop difficult

“What should I buy? What’s good?” are the two questions our readers ask us and what we try to answer. These questions are nearly impossible to answer quickly with AMD’s new mobile processor name scheme. It’s absurd to ask consumers to try to solve them.

Five separate mobile processor families. Four different processor architectures. Four different manufacturing processes. A combination of graphics technology from the past few years. Different memory and I/O options. AMD’s announcements in the mobile Ryzen space are so brief that it only takes a few paragraphs for readers to understand, something is wrong.

AMD, Intel, among others, have used the familiar numeric designations at beginning of product descriptions to refer back to the “gooder-better-best” designation for many years. Most consumers know that a Core i3/ Ryzen 3 will perform better than a Core i7/ Ryzen 7 and that Core i9/ Ryzen9 processors are the most powerful and costly available. Manufacturers understand that enthusiasts are looking for more information, but not having to consult something like Intel ARK databaseFor example, Yes, descriptive model number can work.

In 2018 and 2019, Intel began providing model or processor numbers for its 10th generation Core processor Ice Lake. Intel didn’t do much. The We posted an Ice Lake introduction storyIt was clear that the numbers indicated the family name, processor generation and power level, as well as the graphics level. Consumers can still intuitively tell which technology generation is being used and the relative performance of a particular chip within the Intel lineup.

AMD? I took a well-arranged hierarchy and smashed them to pieces. Then I swept it all together, applied glue to all the parts, and placed it on store shelves for all to see. It was right that it was done right. AMD first introduced its new scheme back in SeptemberBut, for me at the very least, it is absurd.

AMD isn’t intentionally misleading, but I would love to hear your thoughts about what it would be like if you bought a Ryzen 7120 laptop for a great deal only to find out that it used processor technologies three generations older. Or that the Ryzen7045 (which isn’t unlike the Ryzen7020, right? AMD was the best. You will feel more at ease knowing that the Ryzen 7030 has processor technology starting in 2021. SixA year old graphics core. However, the Ryzen7040 family uses AMD’s latest CPU technology, its most GPU technology, and even an AI processor.

How do you find this information? AMD’s top of-the-line Ryzen 7045 series contains the Ryzen 794HX, 785HX 7745HX 7645HX, 77445HX, 77545HX and 77445HX. There isn’t a “seven-zero-something” chip in the entire processor family, and it’s crazy to expect consumers (or even journalists!) It’s impossible to connect the two.

In September, AMD informed us that the new processor/model numbers were related to processor technology. 704Zen for Series 0 4– 7035Zen 3+ series (Zen). 3.5, get it?). But consumers shouldn’t forget that and then try to analyze other technologies and core counts. You don’t need a cheatsheet to buy a laptop.

It is not worth mentioning AMD’s attempt to segment its products using suffixes. Nobody’s going to try to make sense of the U-series chip bypassing the hierarchy of mainstream thin-and-light laptops, super-thin and super-lights, whatever the “ultra-thin elite” class is — as does the HS family, too, except… see? Even chip nerds get bored.

AMD

Maybe it’s too late.

AMD realized several years ago that it can win in two different ways. First, they offer performance that is comparable or better to Intel’s, especially when you add in the power of integrated GPUs. Second, once these notebooks are presented to PCWorld reviewers, we can pass on our impressions to our readers. (There was a time in which reviewing Ryzen-powered laptops was difficult, no matter how high-end they were.

But AMD NotThe laptop space is now dominated by one company, and it’s like never before. Laptop sales have fallen because consumers bought a lot of them during this pandemic. Right Now? They have enough, thank-you. AMD’s share in the third quarter was also stolen by Intel, so AMD’s share fell to about sixteen percent.

Complexity is not the answer to shopping. The Ryzen 3/ Ryzen 5/ Ryzen 7/ Ryzen 9 hierarchy remains in place, but has been undermined due to this new naming. Is the Ryzen7 7840HS better than the Ryzen5 7645HX? The average consumer’s reaction to this is “How do I know?” It is likely to move ahead.

Find out all the AMD announcements from CES 2020: