AMD’s Ryzen Mobile platform – Raven Ridge – launched their initial vanguard products just weeks ago, but how does their latest Ryzen 5 2500U APU compete against the discrete competition in Nvidia’s MX150? Is it the cruise missile straight at Nvidia and Intel’s mobile graphics that AMD had hoped for?
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AMD are releasing two new APUs with their Ryzen Mobile launch, the Ryzen 5 2500U and Ryzen 7 2700U. Both of these accelerated processors combine AMD’s Zen processor tech with their latest Vega graphics architecture into one power efficient package.
The Ryzen 7 2700U hasn’t yet made it to market, but AMD’s other little piggy, the Ryzen 5 2500U, has been available in HP’s Envy x360 2-in-1 for a couple of weeks. Notebookcheck.net have got their hands on this model and have been putting it through its paces. Unfortunately, they couldn’t supply clockspeeds yet, as all the usual telemetry applications were displaying incorrect readings.
In Cinebench R15 single-threaded, the Ryzen 5 2500U performs only 5% worse than Intel’s i7-7700HQ, and 18% worse than their current generation Kaby Lake-R penultimate processor, the i7 8550U. Not too shabby for the Ryzen 5 model. In multithreaded Cinebench testing, Intel’s i7 7700HQ performs 28% quicker than the Ryzen 5 APU.
In 3DMark 11, at 1280 x 720, the Ryzen 5 2500U outperforms its older RX460 cousin by 6%, and just misses the mark on Nvidia’s Maxwell-based 940MX. This second-tier Raven Ridge APU performs 24% slower than the green team’s laptop-leader graphics chip – the Pascal-based MX150.
All performance is relative. Pricing and power efficiency have a big part to play in all processors – but these are especially important in the mobile market. Pricing for AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U puts it in a dead heat with Intel’s mainstream mobile CPUs, which are distinctly lacking in graphical grunt, and Nvidia MX150-fitted laptops in this price range tend to ditch the processing power to keep prices low. Competing at this lower price bracket seems to be a job for Nvidia’s likely rebranded 940MX – the MX130.
Where the Ryzen Mobile platform really shines is in power efficiency, thanks to the APU’s single-die construction. The Ryzen 5 2500U manages less than 50% of the power draw under load compared to its Polaris RX460 cousin, and 36% less power than Nvidia’s MX150.
With a considerable price drop versus AMD’s competitors and drastic performance increases compared to Intel’s integrated graphics, AMD’s Ryzen Mobile is shaping up to be yet another ground-shaking product from the red team. Hopefully AMD’s Ryzen 7 2700U can take the fight to the competition and give customers a real mobile powerhouse processor alternative to the green team and big blue.