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AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

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Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#21
post #4

I really hope that those will be as good as their new CPUs and Apple would consider them if they don't have ARM in the works. It would be nice to have an octa-core in a laptop. Also would be really nice to have Vega as well — current Radeons aren't very good compared to 10-series nVidia chips.

They are 200% faster. Says so in the article. Think when Apple finally moved to Intel and th speed increase. EVEN though Apple claimed they were the as fast if no faster before the switch. AMD had horrible performance on laptops and they are finally able to say they doubled the speed AKA they had a horrible product before. "For its own part, AMD claims that the new Ryzen chips will offer dramatically improved perform…

That's triple the speed.

Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#22
post #6

IF someone comes out with a unibody laptop with a Ryzen in it, I'm fully in. It'll easily replace my current macBook fleet.. (nb: eyes the GPD Pocket and its revisions..)

I’ve bought a Ryzen 5 for a home server, but sadly is awfully unstable. Apparently there is a bug in the Ryzen family. I’m using it with Freenas 11 (FreeBSD) and the system is having horrible random freezes with black screen. There are some threads talking about same issues, this make me lose faith in AMD, and going back to Intel.

Disable "Global C-State Control" in UEFI to work around the bug. It seems to be a perfectly reliable workaround.

Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve bought a Ryzen 5 for a home server, but sadly is awfully unstable. Apparently there is a bug in the Ryzen family. I’m using it with Freenas 11 (FreeBSD) and the system is having horrible random freezes with black screen. There are some threads talking about same issues, this make me lose faith in AMD, and going back to Intel.

Have you tried disabling SMT? And have you tried installing the latest microcode update? AMD has been having problems for a while, but I think they ought to have been fixed by now. I, myself was thinking to acquire a Ryzen 5 1600 for a high performance programming desktop. I was thinking of running FreeBSD, it's sad to hear that it's glitchy.

Disabling SMT only reduces the frequency of the segfault bug occurring. AFAIK it does nothing for random whole machine freezes, for which there is a reliable workaround (other post of mine).

Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#25
post #6

IF someone comes out with a unibody laptop with a Ryzen in it, I'm fully in. It'll easily replace my current macBook fleet.. (nb: eyes the GPD Pocket and its revisions..)

I’ve bought a Ryzen 5 for a home server, but sadly is awfully unstable. Apparently there is a bug in the Ryzen family. I’m using it with Freenas 11 (FreeBSD) and the system is having horrible random freezes with black screen. There are some threads talking about same issues, this make me lose faith in AMD, and going back to Intel.

This is an acknowledged and solved fab issue. Get it RMA'd.

Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the 15W TDP number for the whole package or just the CPU?

The whole package. The chip CPU + GPU is a single die.

TDP can apparently be configured to be higher or lower (12-25W).

See https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-2700u

Re: AMD takes on Intel with new Ryzen processors for laptops

#27
post #6

IF someone comes out with a unibody laptop with a Ryzen in it, I'm fully in. It'll easily replace my current macBook fleet.. (nb: eyes the GPD Pocket and its revisions..)

I’ve bought a Ryzen 5 for a home server, but sadly is awfully unstable. Apparently there is a bug in the Ryzen family. I’m using it with Freenas 11 (FreeBSD) and the system is having horrible random freezes with black screen. There are some threads talking about same issues, this make me lose faith in AMD, and going back to Intel.

Check whether your chip is affected by the segfault bug. It affects Ryzen CPUs, but not Threadrippers or Epycs. It's a free RMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/6ubmd1/ryzen_compilati...

If your system is totally new, try checking your RAM with memtest too.

My Threadripper build had similar issues in Linux and Windows. Ended up being my PSU. I tried to save $30 buying a refurb one from Corsair. My system would lock up occasionally at totally stock settings and even shutdown on its own. Works perfectly now after I swapped it out.

FWIW, I'm really happy with the Threadripper/X399. Most of the early Ryzen bugs are worked out. It's a great value for the performance. Compiling large C or C++ code bases is insanely fast.

Still, I'd be wary of buying AMD's first gen mobile offering. When you buy a laptop you're buying a whole system and battery life, no glitches after sleep/wake, heat, noise, etc. trump raw performance. Intel has way more experience there. This Radeon iGPU also sits in a weird market segment. People who don't game/render/3D model on the go do just fine with the weak Intel iGPU. People who really care about that stuff can get a big laptop with faster dGPU or just do 3D on their desktop. So I guess their target is people who casually game but want a thin-ish laptop?

NB: I don't doubt AMD's ability to make a decent mobile platform. Just Intel has shipped hundreds of millions more units, so they've seen every "system crashes after sleep when re-pairing with $OBSCURE_BLUETOOTH_DEVICE" issue on earth. On a desktop you can always swap hardware, but on a laptop you're stuck with what you get.

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