The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Renoir architecture. The 4600U integrates six cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture, clocked at 2.1 (guaranteed base clock) to 4 GHz (Turbo) with SMT / Hyperthreading support (12 threads). The chip is manufactured in the modern 7 nm process at TSMC, and partly thanks to this, AMD advertises a 2x improved performance per watt for the Renoir chips.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the Ryzen 5 4600U is clearly slower than the Ryzen 7 4700U and 4800U in multi-threaded workloads. However, it should still beat the fastest 15 Watt Ice Lake Intel Core i7-1065G7 (4 cores, 3.9 GHz). Thanks to the 4 GHz Boost clock, the single core performance should be similar. Therefore, the Ryzen 5 4600U is a very fast 15 Watt CPU and clearly faster than the old Ryzen 7 3700U.
Integrated Graphics
In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated graphics card with 6 CUs and up to 1500 MHz. The dual-channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy-efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 8 MB level 3 cache can be found on the chip.
Power Consumption
The TDP of the APU is specified at 15 Watt (default) and can be configured from 10 to 25 Watt by the laptop vendor. That means the chip is intended for thin and light laptops (but with fans).
Comparison to Other Renoir Processors
When compared to other Renoir processors, the Ryzen 5 4600U falls in the middle of the pack in terms of performance. The Ryzen 9 4900H and 4900HS have the highest clock speeds at 3.3 - 4.4 GHz and 3 - 4.3 GHz respectively, while the Ryzen 3 4300U has the lowest at 2.7 - 3.7 GHz. The Ryzen 5 4600U has 6 cores and 12 threads, while the Ryzen 9 4900H and 4900HS have 8 cores and 16 threads. All Renoir processors have 8 MB L3 cache.
Conclusion
Overall, the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is a powerful processor for thin and light laptops. With a 2.1 - 4 GHz clock speed and 6 cores, it is faster than the old Ryzen 7 3700U and should perform well in both single and multi-threaded workloads. The integrated graphics card and support for DDR4-3200 and LPDDR4-4266 RAM also make it a great choice for laptops that will be used for gaming or other graphics-intensive tasks. The 15 Watt TDP makes it suitable for thin and light laptops with fans.
