What you need to know
- AMD has today revealed its "Zen 2" 7020 Series processors for laptops, including Ryzen 5, Ryzen 3, and Athlon Gold options.
- The 6nm U-series CPUs focus on long battery life and strong multi-core performance, as well as RDNA 2 Radeon 610M integrated graphics for solid mobile gaming.
- 7020 Series APUs, part of AMD's Mendocino lineup, are the first to arrive, with Ryzen 7030, 7035, 7040, and 7045 chips expected in 2023.
- The first laptops with AMD 7020 chips are expected Q4, 2022.
AMD has today revealed more details about its "Zen 2" Mendocino APUs, first revealed at Computex 2022 and further leaked via benchmark results at UserBenchmark. AMD's 7020 processors, made for "everyday computing," are the first of the series to arrive with Athlon and Ryzen options. Systems from Lenovo, HP, and Acer with these chips are expected Q4 2022.
AMD 7020 Series processors are built for laptops using a 6nm process. Combined with AMD's Radeon 610M "RDNA 2" graphics, these chips are expected to deliver snappy everyday performance, decent framerates in lightweight games, and long battery life. AMD is launching three 7020 Series chips in 2022, with Ryzen 7030, 7035, 7040, and 7045 processors expected in 2023.
AMD is offering three different U-series chips in the 7020 series, all with an 8-15W TDP and Radeon 610M integrated graphics. The Athlon Gold 7220U is a dual-core chip with clock speed up to 3.7GHz and 5MB cache, best reserved for lightweight systems. The Ryzen 3 7320U is a step up, offering four cores, clock speed up to 4.1GHz, and 6MB cache. Last but most powerful is the Ryzen 5 7520U with four cores, clock speed up to 4.3GHz, and a 6MB cache.
Laptops with a 40-45Wh battery are expected to run for up to 12 hours on these chips, according to AMD. Dedicated hardware for video and audio help optimize the system for low-power running. Despite the long battery life, AMD is claiming between a 31% and 80% increase in performance for its Ryzen 3 7320U compared to the Intel Core i3-1115G4.
Note that these tests were performed using just 4GB of RAM on the Ryzen system and 8GB of RAM on the Intel system. It's curious to see AMD isn't comparing against 12th Gen Intel mobile chips, which represent a rather significant upgrade over the 11th Gen hardware. AMD is also advertising speedy app load times thanks to its Ball Grid Array (BGA) NVMe SSD support.
The AMD 7020 platform includes speedy LPDDR5 RAM support and other modern features like Wake-on-Voice, standby, inking, and fast charging. Microsoft's Pluton processor is included to allow a full suite of Windows 11 security tools.
The Radeon 620M integrated graphics are no slouch, either. AV1 decode support is on board to handle high-res streaming, while the RDNA 2 architecture boosts efficiency to help keep battery life as long as possible. AMD claims you'll be able to hit 60FPS at 720p in plenty of esports titles, including CS:GO, League of Legends, and DOTA 2.
Keep an eye out for the first systems with AMD 7020 processors inside starting Q4, 2022. Lenovo's IdeaPad 1, HP's Laptop 17, and Acer's Aspire 3 are listed as initial systems sporting this new platform. There's no update on pricing; we're still expecting laptops with these APUs to cost between $399 and $699. While we wait for launch, be sure to check out our picks for best AMD Ryzen laptop available now.
