This is our first review of AMD's Ryzen Mobile 4000 U-series processors, the low power variants intended for slim, light, ultraportable laptops. Our exploration will beginning in the mid-range with the Ryzen 5 4500U, a six core and vi thread part with a 2.3 GHz base of operations and 4.0 GHz boost, aslope 8 MB of L3 enshroud and 6 Vega GPU compute units clocked upwards to 1500 MHz. All with a default TDP of 15W.

When you lot look at AMD's Ryzen 4000 line-upwards, this isn't the lowest-finish part, at that place is a Ryzen 3 4300U on the market with but four cores, but the 4500U is the next step up.

AMD'southward segmentation in the U-serial generally deals with core and thread counts, so this Ryzen five 4500U gets an impressive half dozen cores, but without SMT. The 4600U, i step higher adds dorsum in SMT. Then Ryzen seven parts both accept 8 cores, which we'll hopefully become some hands-on time with soon.

These Ryzen 4000 APUs are Zen 2-based, the same architecture powering 3rd-gen Ryzen desktop CPUs under the Ryzen 3000 brand. Upgrades over previous generation APUs includes the increase in core count, depending on the model, just there's also a change to the GPU layout.

While this APU still uses the Vega compages and has fewer compute units, at viii downward from 11, AMD has heavily optimized the design for 7nm, so we see higher clocks and better performance overall.

Other important upgrades include support for DDR4-3200 and LPDDR4X-4266 memory, upgraded display and multimedia engines, and significant improvements to battery life through efficiency optimization. It's a fundamental overhaul of AMD's mobile offering that makes them more competitive with Intel's powerhouse line-up, every bit we've seen demonstrated with the H-series that comfortably beats Intel'southward options in many productivity tests.

Main contest for Ryzen Mobile 4000 and the Ryzen 5 4500U comes from Intel's divide U-series that has both Comet Lake and Ice Lake chips available. Some popular options include the Cadre i5-10210U on the Comet Lake side, and the Core i5-1035G1 on the Ice Lake side. Nevertheless, given what we've seen with AMD'southward higher power mobile parts, it'due south likely the Ryzen 5 4500U will deliver competitive performance with Core i7 CPUs, as we'll encounter in the coming benchmarks.

For today's benchmarking, we've used Lenovo's IdeaPad 5 14". This is non a full review of the laptop and honestly we're not sure what we call back of it notwithstanding -- the display is really bad though at 66% sRGB panel, which is disappointing.

The IdeaPad 5 offers two power profiles which run the Ryzen v 4500U at unusual limits. The "intelligent cooling" mode pb to a long term package power limit of 19W, while the "extreme performance" mode clocked it up to 26W. We'll exist showing the operation in both profiles where possible.

This laptop also has 16GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory, as opposed to LPDDR4X. We suspect this will exist a common configuration for mid-range to entry-level systems, while the college-end stuff will employ LPDDR4X retentivity. Just something to keep in mind.

Every bit usual, our laptop benchmark results are an boilerplate across systems of the same configuration. We test with dual-channel memory where possible and endeavour to make a fair comparison, though this can be tricky with laptops. You can see the full listing of laptops we tested here.

Benchmarks

Let'south kick this ane off with a wait at Cinebench R20. As we've come to look with Ryzen, the Ryzen 5 4500U does very well in this criterion, particularly when looking at multi-cadre. In its 26W configuration, the 4500U is able to become within the ballpark of Intel'south six-core H processors, including the Core i7-9750H and Core i7-10750H. Meanwhile it finishes ahead of the flagship Comet Lake Cadre i7-10710U despite simply having half-dozen threads versus twelve in the Intel role.

The 4500U as well easily beats the Core i7-1065G7 in multi-thread workloads. This is Intel's best Ice Lake processor on 10nm, but because it only has four cores it cannot get close to the 4500U, even when using 25W of power. The 4500U is around l% faster at 26W, which is an enormous discrepancy. The departure betwixt 19W and 26W isn't very big in this test as the Ryzen APU is able to boost for quite a while, often up to effectually 36W or so.

In terms of single-thread performance, the 4500U is likewise impressive, every bit information technology can run up to the four.0 GHz turbo on a single core without exceeding the ability limit. This allows information technology to evangelize, in a worst case situation, equivalent performance to Water ice Lake, or better operation than almost every other processor in this chart, especially U-serial parts built on 14nm.

We also are seeing a substantial generational leap for AMD's U-series. The Ryzen v 4500U is over fourscore% faster than the Ryzen 5 3500U, albeit with a 4W increase to power in our test configuration thanks to Lenovo'south weird settings. However information technology's clear the 4500U is a huge leap for efficiency.

Video encoding is traditionally not something y'all would do on an ultraportable as 15 - 25 watt processors are non fast at this. However, the Ryzen 5 4500U makes a case that a U-series laptop is capable of video encoding in Handbrake, with x265 instructions.

As seen on the chart, this long-term workload is approximately as fast every bit Intel's six-core H processors when the 4500U is able to consume 26W of power. Even at 19W, the 4500U delivers impressive performance, far outstripping Intel's U-series parts.

The margin is so large in some situations, it's a chip of a bloodbath. For example, the 26W 4500U is 52% faster in Handbrake than the 25W Core i7-1065G7, and exactly double the performance of Intel'south Cadre i5-10210U, which is a quad-core Comet Lake processor. While nosotros wouldn't want to encode videos on any of Intel's U-series CPUs, the 4500U starts to put ultraportables in the frame for heavier productivity tasks.

The same story continues with a look at Blender. Commonly this is a workload you wouldn't want to run on an ultraportable, with possibly the exception of the Core i7-10710U at 25W. But the Ryzen five 4500U approaches the performance of half-dozen-core H-series parts, while outperforming every other Intel U-series option. The margins to Water ice Lake are meaning, with a forty% gain at 25W and over sixty% at the lower power targets.

One of the virtually impressive utilise cases for the Ryzen 5 4500U is lawmaking compilation. The 26W variant performs at the level of a Cadre i7-10750H in this workload, while the margin to Ice Lake with the 19W configuration is 38%, for just a 4W increase in long term ability draw. This could make a huge departure for those wanting quick compilations in a mixed multi- and unmarried-threaded compile.

With some heavier workloads out the way, let's see how the 4500U does in more than relevant workloads to an ultraportable. Here is Excel with a large number crunching test. The 4500U is outperformed here, marginally, by Ice Lake with both CPUs using similar ability in their outburst country. But given the 1065G7 is a higher tier processor, and the 4500U beats parts like the Core i5-10210U, this is still a good showing from AMD.

While our Excel benchmark is reasonably heavy, PCMark's productivity test is on the lighter side. In this mixed benchmark, the Ryzen 5 4500U holds a significant functioning pb, matching the Ryzen 5 4600H, likely because pregnant aspects to this test are lightly threaded.

What nosotros end up with is meliorate light productivity performance than Intel's 14nm and 10nm processors. The 4500U is seven to 15% faster than the Core i7-1065G7, and over 10 percent ahead of the 10210U.

It's a similar story in the Essentials test, which covers web browsing and app loading. In the worst case for Ryzen, it's marginally ahead of Ice Lake'southward best 25W processor, which given the 4500U's mid-tier position is fantastic. Compared to other parts, such equally the 10210U and older fries like the Core i7-8565U, we're seeing more substantial gains.

In 7-Zip we see strong results from Ryzen. The 4500U isn't faster than Intel'south Core i7-10710U with equal power limits, merely it does outperform every other relevant bit, including the Core i7-1065G7 and even some of Intel's quad-core H processors. This bodes well for a workload that is common for productivity and important for ultraportable type devices.

Cryptography functioning sees the Ryzen 5 4500U fall behind the Core i7-1065G7 in a rare loss for Ryzen. Still, the 4500U is still in the ballpark of other U-series processors.

MATLAB is another strong result for Water ice Lake, with the Ryzen v 4500U sitting in the class between the 1065G7 and other U-series processors, like the Core i5-10210U. Non a bad issue for the 4500U, especially equally the 1065G7 is a college tier part, however for MATLAB there is a reason to go for a more premium notebook processor.

And at present we become to anybody'southward favorite PDF exporting benchmark. This is a exam that was horrible for previous Ryzen mobile generations. But with superior unmarried-thread performance, the 4500U fares much better here. It isn't as fast every bit the Cadre i7-1065G7, losing by around vii%, only sits somewhere in the middle and does get close to Intel's 14nm U-series processors, especially the quad-cadre variants.

Adobe Photoshop is some other productivity workload that we experience is reasonable for an ultraportable laptop. While Intel more often than not holds a lead in this benchmark when looking at H-series parts, it'due south a different story for U-series. The Ryzen 5 4500U is seen offering comparable operation to the Core i7-1065G7. With significant parts of Photoshop still being lightly threaded at best, AMD's equivalent single-thread performance is doing the task. You can come across just how much worse older Ryzen processors are.

Normally we'd show you lot Adobe Premiere benchmarks next, but the latest update doesn't play nicely with ultraportable hardware. With the Ryzen 5 4500U, Premiere still does not allow some GPU accelerated furnishings to run on the Vega GPU, such as the Lumetri filter. AMD says this is Adobe's error, and that Ryzen Mobile 4000 should be capable of running GPU accelerated filters. Meanwhile, the latest update has, in its attempts to increase GPU accelerated encoding, fully broken support for the MX250. Not to mention that this type of video encoding relies heavily on discrete GPUs now, and isn't a not bad use example for whatsoever ultraportable organization.

You lot tin can come across this in activeness with Puget's DaVinci Resolve benchmark. While the Ryzen 5 4500U is faster than the Core i7-1065G7 in this test, most H-series laptops with a discrete GPU are iv to five times faster. Then while Ryzen U-serial parts are great for CPU-limited productivity, any time you want GPU acceleration, an ultraportable is not the right sort of system for that job.

Gaming Tests

Bated from some lite GPU acceleration, the main use case for the integrated GPU in the Ryzen v 4500U is gaming at low settings. Let'due south run through a few benchmarks and meet where AMD'southward refreshed Vega GPU fares when cut down to vi compute units.

In Grand Theft Automobile 5 at low settings running at native 1080p, the 4500U is able to provide a performance lead over Ryzen 3000 APUs, beating the Ryzen 7 3750H. With the 4500U providing effectually 60 FPS on average, this is playable using just integrated graphics.

Nosotros as well see the 4500U providing a notable performance lead over Intel's Ice Lake Core i7-1065G7 when configured to 25W. However, Nvidia's MX250 remains the preferred pick for this championship, with the 4500U unable to outperform Nvidia's bones detached pick. We'll see how that changes when all the Vega CUs are unlocked when we test the Ryzen seven 4800U later.

The situation is a bit different in Culture VI. This is a game that Ryzen processors beloved, with the 4500U massively outperforming Ice Lake and fifty-fifty the MX250. Not only that, but the 4500U leaves older Ryzen APUs in the dust, especially the 3700U, although there is a power configuration difference hither.

CS:Get hits both the CPU and GPU at lowest settings with mobile processors. The Ryzen 5 4500U performs well, merely Ice Lake is ~15% faster in its G7 graphics configuration with everything unlocked. However, given the 4500U is a cut down processor, it'due south a proficient result, outperforming the MX250.

Gears 5 represents a more heavily GPU express game running at medium settings, which is a bit unrealistic on ultraportable laptops. Hither, the 4500U is 17 percent faster when comparing average frame rates, to the Core i7-1065G7, just it falls backside the MX250. Notwithstanding we do get, in combination with a higher ability limit, effectually double the frame rate of AMD's 3500U.

Functioning Breakup

Before jumping into the conclusion, permit's run across some performance comparisons. We'll with the Ryzen 5 4500U versus the Core i7-1065G7, when both have roughly the same power limit. Information technology would have been nice to compare the Ryzen 5 APU confronting a Core i5 from Intel'southward Ice Lake series, only we retrieve the point can be made simply fine anyway.

This is comparing AMD'due south mid-tier Ryzen 4000 APU, to Intel's best 25W offering with Ice Lake.

In multi-cadre workloads, the Ryzen five 4500U is up to 50% faster, particularly in longer term tests similar Handbrake and Blender. In more than burst-type workloads, gains are not as pronounced, but Ryzen 5 still leads past effectually 15%. When looking at unmarried-threaded performance, Ryzen besides generally leads only not always, and margins are close in the unmarried digits.

At lower ability limits information technology'due south harder to make a fair comparison, but yous can wait Ryzen to be faster here likewise, except in a few edge cases. Single-thread performance is largely equivalent, while multi-thread workloads see Ryzen accept the crown.

In a more reasonable course comparison, here we accept the Ryzen v 4500U upward against the Cadre i5-10210U. While the Ryzen processor is consuming 4W more power, this allows the CPU to provide upwardly to double the operation of Intel's Comet Lake quad-core in multi-thread workloads.

The 4500U is also 5 to 10% faster in single-thread tests, and generally delivers a far superior experience when you too factor in the enormous gap in GPU capabilities.

While non really a fair battle, the Ryzen v 4500U tin can be a reasonable ultraportable substitute for the Core i7-10750H in some workloads, which is very impressive. It's single-digit percentages behind in tests like Handbrake, Cinebench, light productivity and GCC compilation.

That'due south not to say ownership a U-serial processor instead of H-series always makes sense, because the 4500U isn't in the same class for things like video editing, just depending on how you lot utilise your laptop, there might be no reason to go for a six-core H-series Intel system.

And finally we accept the gen-on-gen performance departure betwixt the Ryzen 5 3500U and Ryzen 5 4500U. There is a 4W ability difference, but nosotros are seeing very substantial operation gains. Workloads like Handbrake are well over twice as fast, and unmarried-thread performance is improved past over 25%.

What We Learned

All things considered, the Ryzen 5 4500U is an impressive mid-range low-ability processor. The Zen 2 architecture is able to deliver an enormous performance gain over the previous generation when scaled downwards into a 25W power envelope or lower. Single-thread performance is way upwardly, now matching or exceeding Intel'southward U-serial parts, while multi-thread functioning benefits significantly from six CPU cores, even if SMT is disabled on this particular chip.

In a way, AMD is redefining the sort of workloads an ultraportable laptop is suitable for. Earlier you lot might have chosen a six-core Intel H-serial laptop for video encoding, code compilation or CPU based rendering because U-serial components are likewise dull. But the Ryzen 5 4500U approaches the performance of a Core i7-10750H in many of these tasks, making a U-series laptop suitable for genuine video encoding or coding work for the kickoff fourth dimension.

1 could argue the 4500U is a better choice than Intel's best mainstream Ice Lake processor, the Core i7-1065G7, despite not really competing in terms of class or price. And this may exist AMD'south weakest point in mobile at the moment, when y'all cannot notice these APUs on flagship laptop models that have the nicest build quality and accompanying components.

When matching up the Ryzen 5 4500U against a Core i5 part like the 10210U, Intel's competing role is just not up to scratch. If the option you lot take is betwixt a 4500U organisation or a Core i5 system at the same price, it's an accented no brainer, the 4500U is giving y'all so much more.

AMD is also delivering good integrated GPU performance. In the Core i5 bracket it's an easy victory for Ryzen, but the 4500U is too able to outperform Intel's fully unlocked Core i7-1065G7 nearly of the fourth dimension. This makes the 4500U suitable for low-cal gaming, whether that's casual games at modest settings, or even some higher performance titles at the lowest settings.

Nosotros're besides happy to study no glaring software problems with this Ryzen 4000 laptop (which we purchased from retail shelves, information technology's not a review sample). The launch of the kickoff Ryzen Mobile series was plagued with issues, many of which were showstoppers and related to bugs with the GPU.

What remains an unknown at this point is battery life. Anecdotally the bombardment life from the IdeaPad 5 seems decent, but Intel CPUs are specially good in this department, especially Ice Lake. For what it'south worth, AMD is claiming similar bombardment performance to Ice Lake, helped largely by their more efficient CPU. AMD doesn't expect to win for idle bombardment consumption.

Moving forrard, and having completed testing on this mid-range Ryzen Mobile 4000 part, we're excited to discover what's possible with the 8-core models, especially the Ryzen 7 4800U. It'southward possible the 4800U will outperform a number of H-series processors and be a superb option for CPU-limited productivity, but we'll have to wait and see when we finally get some hands on fourth dimension with those laptops.

Shopping Shortcuts
  • AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Laptops on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Laptops on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS Laptops on Amazon
  • Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q Laptops on Amazon
  • Intel Cadre i7-1065G7 Laptops on Amazon
  • Intel Cadre i7-10750H Laptops on Amazon
  • Intel Core i7-10875H Laptops on Amazon