What you need to know
- AMD just announced its Ryzen 8040 Series processors.
- The chips focus largely on AI improvements and promise better performance for both Llama 2 and Vision models.
- AI has become increasingly important for computing, including creative work, gaming, and general computing.
- AMD Ryzen 8040-Series processors are shipping now and will be available in 2024.
AMD has just unveiled its Ryzen 8040-Series processors. The new chips feature the latest tech from AMD, including XDNA (NPU), Zen 4 (CPU), and RDNA 3 (GPU). The processors promise significant performance over the Ryzen 7040 Series and seem to stack up well against competing Intel processors. Of course, we'll have to see the new Ryzen 8040 processors in the real world before we can judge them properly.
The Ryzen 8040 Series, also known as "Hawk Point," is shipping now and will be available starting in Q1 2024. You can expect to see a variety of PCs, including gaming laptops, with the new chips in the near future.
| Model | Cores/Threads | Max Boost (up to) | cTDP (up to) | Graphics | NPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 8945HS | 8/16 | 5.2GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8845HS | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8840HS | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 20-30W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 7 8840U | 8/16 | 5.1GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 780M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8645HS | 6/12 | 5.0GHz | 35-54W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8640HS | 6/12 | 4.9Ghz | 20-30W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8640U | 6/12 | 4.9Ghz | 15-30W | Radeon 760M | Yes |
| Ryzen 5 8540U | 6/12 | 4.9GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 740M | No |
| Ryzen 3 8440U | 4/8 | 4.7GHz | 15-30W | Radeon 740M | No |
AMD Ryzen 8040 Series performance
We'll have to see the Ryzen 8040-Series CPUs to get a full gauge of their power, but AMD shared several performance benchmarks. The Ryzen 8040 Series gets up to 1.4x better performance over the Ryzen 7040 Series for both Llama 2 and Vision models.
AMD also compared its new chips to the existing Intel Core i9-13900H. The comparisons use the phrase "up to" in all instances, which allows AMD to compare its top-end to the Intel processor. Testing by AMD was done with a system with a Ryzen 9 8940H.
The Ryzen 8040 Series gets up to 1.1x better multi-thread performance and up to 1.8x better performance for gaming when compared to the Intel Core i9-13900H. Content creators should see up to a 1.4x increase in performance when using the Ryzen 8040 Series as well.
Of course, Intel's Meteor Lake chips are on the horizon, so the narrative could soon shift when the blue team puts out its latest and greatest.
All about AI
AMD focused heavily on AI in its announcement of the Ryzen 8040 Series. Artificial intelligence has become increasingly important for creative work, gaming, and even general computing. AMD already has AI in a variety of processors, including EPYC chips and the Ryzen 7040 lineup. The company continued that trend with its Ryen 8040 Series.
All but two of the Ryzen 8040-Series processors have an NPU dedicated to AI. Ryzen CPUs are built to accelerate AI workloads as well. Similarly, AMD Radeon graphics are optimized for parallel processing of AI workloads.
Over 50 PCs powered by some form of AMD Ryzen AI tech are already available, including systems from ASUS, Razer, HP, Acer, and Lenovo. Software makers are on board as well, such as Adobe, Microsoft, and MAGIX.
Ryzen 8040-Series chips have XDNA NPUs. Alongside today's chip announcements, AMD teased XDNA 2, which promises "more than 3x generative AI NPU performance." XDNA will arrive with AMD's "Strix Point" chips that are set to launch later in 2024.
