AMD’s 5 Biggest Announcements At CES 2022

The announced products at CES 2022 include AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 mobile CPUs, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs and new additions to the Radeon RX 6000 lineup.

New Ryzen, Radeon Chips For Desktops, Laptops

AMD brought several new processor announcements to CES 2022, enabling a fresh wave of laptops and desktops that will give channel partners new refresh opportunities.

At a virtual press conference Tuesday, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company unveiled new Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics products for desktops and laptops, all of which are coming this year. They include the new Ryzen 6000 mobile processors, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and several new additions to the Radeon RX 6000 lineup.

Following are AMD’s five biggest announcements at CES 2022.

AMD Launches Ryzen 6000 CPUs For Laptops

AMD used CES 2022 to mark the launch of the Ryzen 6000 CPUs for laptops across three major segments: thin and light, gaming and content creation, and commercial.

The Ryzen 6000 mobile CPUs are based on TSMC’s 6-nanometer manufacturing process, and they mostly use AMD’s new Zen 3+ architecture, which provides performance and efficiency gains over the Zen 3 architecture that was introduced in 2020. The “high-performance, ultra-efficient” architecture sports 50 new and enhanced power management features and an adaptive power management framework, which allows the new chips to support up to 24 hours of battery life for video playback, AMD said. AMD expects the new Ryzen 6000 mobile processors, combined with previous-generation Ryzen 5000 chips, to power more than 200 premium laptops this year, with availability starting in February.

Most of the new processors come with AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture to deliver major leaps in gaming performance. They will support DDR5 memory as well as PCIe 4.0 and USB4 connectivity. They’re also the first x86 processors to “fully support advanced Windows 11 security features” with Microsoft’s Pluton security processor that is integrated on the chip’s die.

The U-series for ultrathin laptops is headlined by the Ryzen 7 6800U, which comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a maximum boost of 4.7GHz, a base frequency of 2.7GHz, a combined L2 and L3 cache of 20 MB, 12 GPU cores, a maximum graphics frequency of 2.2GHz and a TDP range of 15 to 28 watts.

The H-series is headlined by the Ryzen 9 6980HX, which comes with eight cores, 16 threads, a maximum boost frequency of 5GHz, a base frequency of 3.3GHz, a combined L2 and L3 cache of 20 MB, 12 GPU cores, a maximum graphics frequency of 2.4GHz and a thermal design power of 45 or more watts.

With the Ryzen 9 6980HX hitting 5GHz for gaming laptops, the new processors feature AMD’s “fastest clock frequencies” yet, according to David McAfee, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD’s client business unit.

AMD Reveals Ryzen 7 With 3-D Chiplet Technology

AMD also revealed a new Ryzen 7 CPU coming in the spring that it said will be the “world’s fastest gaming processor” thanks to its use of the chipmaker’s 3-D chiplet technology.

The new Ryzen 7 5800X3D desktop CPU will provide, on average, 15 percent faster performance for gaming compared with the Ryzen 9 5900X. This performance gain is made possible by a vertical cache that is stacked on top of the CPU, appropriately called the 3-D V-Cache, which gives the CPU a total L2 and L3 cache of 100 MB, much higher than the Ryzen 9 5900X’s 70 MB.

AMD said the 3-D V-Cache has a bigger impact on games that “have an incredible sensitivity to memory latency.” This includes “Watch Dogs: Legion,” which saw up to a 40 percent performance improvement when comparing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D to the Ryzen 9 5900X. The 3-D chip also saw up to a 20 percent improvement for “Far Cry 6,” ‘Gears 5” and “Final Fantasy XIV.”

On a competitive level, AMD is considering the Ryzen 7 5800X3D a victory against Intel, based on a handful of tests, only half of which showed AMD in the lead. The 3-D chip was 20 percent faster for “Final Fantasy XIV” and 10 percent faster for “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” and ‘Far Cry 6,” according to AMD. But it was a tie for “Watch Dogs: Legion,” “Gears 5” and “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.”

In addition to its 100-MB cache, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D sports eight cores, 16 threads, a 4.5GHz boost frequency, a 3.4GHz base frequency and a 105-watt thermal design power. The processor is compatible with AMD 400 and 500 Series motherboards.

5nm Ryzen Desktop CPUs Will Push 5GHz On All Cores

AMD is promising a whole new generation of Ryzen desktop processors in the second half of this year, and it showed that the CPUs will be capable of pushing 5GHz on all cores.

This new lineup will be known as the Ryzen 7000 series and will use the company’s Zen 4 architecture on a 5nm manufacturing process to “extend” AMD’s performance-pet-watt leadership. The CPUs will arrive in the second half of 2022 alongside the new AM5 LGA1718 socket for motherboards that will enable new capabilities like DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 connectivity.

As a teaser, AMD showed a live demo of “Halo Infinite” running on a Ryzen 7000 CPUs at high frame rates and with all cores running at more than 5GHz.

While the new AM5 socket means customers will have to buy new motherboards for Ryzen 7000 CPUs, McAfee said the socket will be compatible with existing AM4 coolers.

AMD Expands Radeon RX 6000 Lineup With New Laptop, Desktop GPUs

AMD expanded its Radeon RX 6000 graphics lineup with eight new GPUs for laptops and two new graphics cards for desktop PCs.

AMD added five new 6-nanometer, 35-watt GPUs to its Radeon RX 6000M lineup for gaming laptops, which will be available in systems from OEMs starting in the first quarter.

The new Radeon RX 6850M XT provides 7 percent faster performance on average than the Radeon RX 6800M, according to AMD. The company said the new Radeon RX 6650M XT, which is complemented by the also new Radeon RX 6650M, provide a 20 percent boost over the existing Radeon 6600M.

The new Radeon RX 6500M and 6300M, on the other hand, provide new entry-level GPU options, with the former offering up to 200 percent faster performance than Nvidia’s GeForce MX450, AMD said.

The chipmaker also introduced a new mobile graphics lineup for ultrathin laptops, the Radeon RX 6000S series. These GPUs are optimized for power efficiency, and they include new technologies that optimize them for performance per watt in laptops that weigh less than 4.5 pounds. They will be available in laptops starting in the first quarter of this year.

AMD said the new Radeon RX 6800S can deliver more than 100 frames per second using maximum settings in select games. From a competitive standpoint, the company said the GPU can provide 10 percent better performance than Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 on select titles at 1,080p resolution.

The new Radeon RX 6700S is also capable of providing more than 100 frames per second using high settings in select games. The new Radeon RX 6600S can reach over 80 frames using high settings.

As for desktop gaming, AMD added two new graphics cards to its existing lineup: the Radeon RX 6500 XT and the Radeon RX 6400. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is being pitched as a midrange option, offering a performance boost over Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650 by 20 percent to 60 percent in select titles, according to AMD.

Radeon RX 6500 XT will be available beginning Jan. 19 at a starting price of $199 from AMD board partners including ASRock, Biostar, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor and Sapphire. It will also be available in prebuilt systems from OEMs and systems integrators this quarter. The Radeon RX 6400 will only be available in prebuilt systems starting in the first half of this year.

AMD Expands Software Features, Smart Technologies

AMD said it’s updating its software suite for Radeon graphics with new features that will bring driver-based spatial upscaling to thousands of games.

The new feature, called Radeon Super Resolution, is powered by AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution technology, and it uses upscaling techniques to improve game performance at near-native resolutions.

Other new features in the AMD Software release includes a new version of AMD Link, which lets users play PC games on other devices from anywhere, and AMD Privacy View technology, which uses head- and eye-tracking technology from Eyeware to “deliver increased levels of privacy.”

AMD said it’s also expanding the capabilities of its “smart technologies,” with the Ryzen 6000 series now able to use the company’s Smart Access Memory technology. The company has also enhanced AMD SmartShift, now known as AMD SmartShift Max, to support a broader range of games and double performance across select titles when pairing certain Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs.

The chipmaker introduced a new technology called SmartShift Eco that it said can double gaming time on a laptop’s battery when using a system that has a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU and an AMD Ryzen 6900H Series CPU. The company said another technology, called Smart Access Graphics, can provide a 15 percent performance boost.