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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

AMD has launched [anandtech.com] the first two of its Ryzen mobile APUs (codenamed "Raven Ridge"): the Ryzen 7 2700U [notebookcheck.net] and Ryzen 5 2500U [notebookcheck.net]. Both APUs come with "Vega" graphics cores.

These are 15 W TDP chips intended for lower-power but high performance designs (e.g. "Ultrabooks"). Chips with higher TDPs will come out later. In comparing the Ryzen 7 2700U to the AMD FX-9800P [notebookcheck.net], an Excavator-based 15 W TDP chip that was released in 2015, AMD claims that CPU performance has been increased by 200% while GPU performance has increased by 128%. The 200% figure is a result of doubling the core/thread count (the Excavator chip used 2 "modules" rather than 4 real cores) and Ryzen's approximate 52% increase in instructions per clock:

In AMD's slide nodes, the CPU difference was taken using Cinebench R15 in multithreaded mode – a Ryzen 7 2700U scored 719, while the last generation FX-9800P scored 240. 720/240 = 3.00x, or a +200% gain.

The GPU gains look like a better fit to AMD's earlier predictions, moving from 8 3rd Generation GCN compute units to 10 5th Generation Vega compute units. Even without the throughput improvements in graphics, that's a base 25% increase in available hardware. The peak frequency moves up from 758 MHz to ~1300 MHz, which is a +70% increase as well. Together that accounts for a +112% increase in performance, leaving the base architecture design improvements to account for the remainder. In AMD's slide nodes, the GPU difference was taken using FutureMark's TimeSpy– a Ryzen 7 2700U scored 915, while the last generation FX-9800P scored 400. 915/400 = 2.29x, or +129% gain.

For power, AMD stated a 58% decrease in (total) power consumption from the previous generation and the new generation. This is listed as taking the total system level power consumption during the Cinebench R15 multithreaded test. The Ryzen 7 took 1594 joules while the FX-9800P took 3782 joules. 1594/3782 = 42% power, or a 58% reduction. Combining the CPU performance and the power advantage, AMD is quoting a 270% performance per watt improvement for the new Ryzen 7 mobile parts. That's an impressive number, any way to slice it.

The efficiency of the Raven Ridge APUs shows that AMD is currently on track to meet its goal of improving energy efficiency by 25x (+2400%) in just 6 years [anandtech.com] (with 2014 "Kaveri" [wikipedia.org] chips as the baseline). Raven Ridge is considered 5.86x as energy efficient as Kaveri, so AMD wants its 2020 chips to be at least 4.27x as energy efficient as Raven Ridge.

Intel's 15 W Kaby Lake mobile APUs (e.g. the Intel Core i7-8550U [notebookcheck.net]) appear to be worse than AMD's new APUs [arstechnica.com] due to lower clock speeds and AMD's much faster integrated graphics:

On the graphics side, the difference is even more pronounced; in the Time Spy subtest of 3DMark, AMD is claiming performance of more than double that of Kaby Lake-R, even edging slightly ahead of a previous generation Kaby Lake paired with a GeForce 950M discrete GPU. Integrated graphics are never going to make these systems into gaming powerhouses, but AMD is claiming respectable framerates (minimum of 30, sometimes averaging as high as 60fps) across a range of games (including Dota 2 and Overwatch), albeit at reduced quality settings. As a stopgap to enable some light gaming while on the road, the Ryzen parts look like they'll do a tolerable job.

Both APUs support dual-channel DDR4-2400 DRAM.

Also at Tom's Hardware [tomshardware.com], Notebookcheck [notebookcheck.net], and VentureBeat [venturebeat.com].

Previously: AMD Profits in Q3 2017 [soylentnews.org]

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