AMD Raven Ridge Ryzen 5 2500U APU Spotted in HP Laptop

In 2017, AMD came back with a strong CPU architecture at last. Ryzen first launched on the desktop with the new Zen architecture. With a new design, AMD has been able to challenge Intel on both pure performance and efficiency. The improved efficiency also allows AMD to better compete against Intel in the mobile space. The first laptop to sport mobile Ryzen has now been spotted at HP.

The new 2-in-1 notebook PC, the HP ENVY x360 15-bq101na features the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U APU. This 14nm Ryzen APU combines 4 Zen CPU cores with Vega based iGPU. The chip itself features a lock of 2.00 GHz with 3.60 GHz boost frequency and 6MB of L3 cache. 4MB of shared L3 and 512KB of L2 per core make up the cache. This would be the first AMD mobile APU with L3 cache. The chip features an AMD Radeon Vega M iGPU.

HP Handicaps APU with Single Channel Memory

The rest of the laptop holds up well as an HP ENVY model. The 15.6-inch thin-edge IPS display features Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution which is above average for this segment. Unfortunately, HP is saddling the chip with just 8 GB of single-channel DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM memory. Storage is goo with 256 GB of M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. To help feed the powerful APU, HP has put in a large 55.8 Wh battery. Wireless 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2, two USB 3.0 ports (one type-C), HDMI 2.0 display output, and stereo audio round out the package.

As a result of improved performance and efficiency, AMD is able to offer 6MB of L3 cache and 4 cores just like Intel is. This is due to the impressive number of improvements made by AMD over a short period. The real key is how well performance will hold up in a thermally constrained environment. Hopefully, OEMs will not skimp on cooling and will introduce dual-channel memory as well.