The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS is a highly anticipated release from AMD's Phoenix series, offering a fast and powerful high-end laptop processor for computing enthusiasts. With its 8 cores (octa-core) based on the Zen 4 architecture, supporting hyperthreading with 16 threads, this processor is designed for intensive tasks and multitasking.
The processor cores can clock from 4 GHz (base) up to 5.2 GHz (single-core boost), and the chip includes 8 MB L2 cache and 16 MB L3 cache. The L3 cache is significant as it helps in the fast transfer of data between different levels of the CPU cache hierarchy, reducing data access time, and improving the processor's overall performance.
The R9 7940HS should offer slightly better performance than the previous top model, Ryzen 9 6980HX, with 8 Zen 3 cores clocking up to 4.9 GHz at 54W TDP and Ryzen 9 6980HS with 35W TDP. The processor should also perform similarly to the Ryzen 7 7745HX with 8 Zen 4 cores, max 5.1 GHz, 55W TDP, and 32 MB L3 cache.
The chip integrates a modern and fast RDNA 3 graphics card (iGPU) called Radeon 780M, which boasts 12 compute units (CUs) and clock speeds of up to 2.8 GHz. This feature will benefit users who need a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU) for gaming or other intensive graphics workloads.
Another noteworthy feature of the Phoenix series is the inclusion of a video engine with AV1 de- and encoding. AV1 is a new video codec designed to offer high-quality video compression while reducing the required bandwidth. The Xilinx FPGA-based XDNA AI accelerator (Ryzen AI) in the 7940HS processor is also a powerful addition, boasting a faster performance than the AI engine in the Apple M2 SOC.
The processor's connectivity features include two possible USB 4 (40 Gbps) ports and 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes for a GPU and SSDs. These features allow for faster data transfer speeds and will benefit users who require high-speed connectivity.
One of the most significant changes in the Phoenix series is the use of a single monolithic design, unlike the chiplet design of the 7045HX series. This change offers better performance for users who need faster data transfer speeds between the different cores of the processor.
The processor is manufactured in the modern 4nm process at TSMC, which offers improved performance and power efficiency over previous generations. The TDP of the R9 7940HS can be configured between 35 and 45 Watts, allowing users to customize their system's power usage to their needs.
Overall, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS is an impressive addition to the Phoenix series. The processor offers high clock speeds, significant cache sizes, and powerful graphics processing capabilities. The inclusion of the Xilinx FPGA-based XDNA AI accelerator, video engine with AV1 de- and encoding, and dual-channel DDR5-5600 / LPDDR5x-7500 memory controller (with ECC support) makes it a formidable contender in the laptop processor market. The Phoenix series' shift to a single monolithic design further improves performance, and the modern 4nm process at TSMC ensures better power efficiency.
This processor is ideal for users who require high performance and power efficiency, such as gamers, content creators, and data scientists. With the announcement of the R9 7940HS only a few months ago, it is exciting to see the performance benchmarks and reviews when the processor is released to the market. In this article, we will take a closer look at the features and specifications of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and discuss its potential for various use cases.
Firstly, let's talk about the processor's architecture. The R9 7940HS is based on the Zen 4 architecture, which is the latest iteration of AMD's Zen microarchitecture. The Zen 4 architecture is expected to deliver significant improvements in performance, power efficiency, and scalability over its predecessor, Zen 3. One of the notable features of the Zen 4 architecture is the support for DDR5 memory, which offers higher bandwidth and lower power consumption than DDR4. The R9 7940HS features a dual-channel DDR5-5600 memory controller, which should provide a significant boost in memory performance compared to previous generations.
The R9 7940HS offers 8 cores (octa-core) and 16 threads, which is a significant upgrade over its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 6980HX, which had 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture. The clock speeds of the R9 7940HS range from 4 GHz (base) up to 5.2 GHz (single-core boost), which is slightly higher than the Ryzen 9 6980HX's clock speed of up to 4.9 GHz. The processor includes 8 MB of L2 cache and 16 MB of L3 cache, which should provide a good balance between cache size and latency.
The R9 7940HS's graphics capabilities are also impressive. It features an RDNA 3 integrated graphics card (iGPU) called Radeon 780M with 12 CUs (compute units) and up to 2.8 GHz clock speed. The RDNA 3 architecture is expected to deliver significant improvements in graphics performance and power efficiency over its predecessor, RDNA 2. The Radeon 780M should be able to handle most modern games at reasonable frame rates, and it can also accelerate tasks such as video encoding and decoding.
Another notable feature of the R9 7940HS is its Xilinx FPGA based XDNA AI accelerator (Ryzen AI). The Ryzen AI should be faster than the AI engine in the Apple M2 SOC, which is currently one of the fastest AI accelerators on the market. This makes the R9 7940HS an attractive option for data scientists and machine learning engineers who require high-performance AI acceleration.
The R9 7940HS's connectivity features are also impressive. It includes two possible USB 4 (40 Gbps) ports and 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes for a GPU and SSDs. The USB 4 ports should provide high-speed connectivity for peripherals such as external hard drives and displays, while the PCIe 4.0 lanes should provide ample bandwidth for high-speed NVMe SSDs and GPUs.
The R9 7940HS is manufactured in the modern 4nm process at TSMC, which is one of the most advanced foundries in the world. The 4nm process should provide significant improvements in power efficiency and transistor density compared to previous generations. The R9 7940HS's TDP can be configured between 35 and 45 watts, which should provide a good balance between performance and power efficiency depending on the use case.
In terms of performance, the R9 7940HS should be one of the fastest laptop processors on the market. Early benchmarks and reviews have shown that it performs significantly better than its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 6980HX, in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. It also performs well in gaming benchmarks, thanks to its RDNA 3 iGPU.
