News AMD Shakes Up Ryzen Mobile Model Naming Scheme Ahead of Mendocino, Dragon Range

[Admin]

AMD has upd its mobile CPU model numbers for 2023 ahead of a new range of CPUs, including Mendocino and Dragon Range.

AMD Shakes Up Ryzen Mobile Model Naming Scheme Ahead of Mendocino, Dragon Range : Read more

 

[shady28]

This is a highly deceptive practice.

How many people will buy 7000 series AMD thinking it is a Zen 4, when it is really a Zen 2 from 3 years ago?

They did the same thing with the 5000 series, 5700U is a Zen 2 4700U with like +100Mhz, while 5800U is a Zen 3.

 

[peachpuff]

This is a highly deceptive practice.

How many people will buy 7000 series AMD thinking it is a Zen 4, when it is really a Zen 2 from 3 years ago?

They did the same thing with the 5000 series, 5700U is a Zen 2 4700U with like +100Mhz, while 5800U is a Zen 3.

Yup, the first number being the model year, means they can regurgitate last year's chip as long as they make some minor change to it and release it this year with a higher number. Hopefully this is just for mobile.

 

[shady28]

Yup, the first number being the model year, means they can regurgitate last year's chip as long as they make some minor change to it and release it this year. Hopefully this is just for mobile.

They can get away with this kind of stuff in the US.

The EU doesn't seem so gullible in this regard. I hope they make AMDs OEMs slap stickers on them saying "This CPU is old crap from 2019".

 

[-Fran-]

Wait... So they'll still be using the Ryzen # with the new 4 digits already including it? Why are they being redundant there? So dumb, lol.

This is a step in the right direction to explain more plainly all the weird combinations between generations of products instead of forcing people to "google" the CPU name and find out that way. They just need to make this explanation available to everyone right next to the Laptop displays.

Regards.

 

[King_V]

There is no conspiracy.

Am I thrilled with it? No. For the new numbering system, they probably should've added a prefix, say, a letter maybe, along with the 4 digits, and the letter(s) suffix.

That way, the new numbering system is obvious. Staring it at 7 is an indicator as well, since nothing else had a number starting at 7000 yet, but it does very much seem like a change in generation.

At least, for those people familiar with and used to it. For new customers, I don't know if this is the confusion point of real confusion. Having been out of the game for a while, I was very confused back in 2012 trying to figure out Intel's model numbers when I ultimately got a Sandy Bridge based system. But first gen was still around, and I didn't know what any of the numbers meant back then.

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

Its seems like like one step forward and a half step back with this one. Obviously if this info is widely distributed and AMD educates their audience, it will be nice, but the mixing of generations with the thousands digit is pretty bad no matter how you slice it.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

:: From the AnandTech article ::
“Model year” is the operative term here, as the Mendocino APUs would be the first products to use the new numbering system, even though they’re launching in the tail end of 2022. So similar to automobiles, AMD is operationally giving themselves some leeway to fold end-of-year products into the following calendar year.

In accordance with AMD’s APU mixing, this also gives AMD further room to recycle/refresh existing parts for future model years by incrementing the model year number. To be sure, AMD is already doing this with parts like the Renoir/Zen 2-based Ryzen Mobile 5000 chips, which in turn has led to some of the confusion AMD is looking to resolve with their new numbering system. One way or another, OEMs want to have parts with “current” model year numbers, and as AMD isn’t going to be doing top-to-bottom overhauls of its mobile APU architecture every single calendar year, this is the compromise to allow AMD to refresh their hardware as development and market conditions allow.

:: From the AnandTech forums ::
Furthermore, the 4000 and 6000 happened precisely because AMD wanted to avoid the backlash that having mobile and desktop being out-of-sync in terms of technology despite releasing around the same time had created up until that point.

Ryzen mobile (zen1, first gen, Raven Ridge) launched around the same time or only slightly before the Ryzen 2000 (zen1+, second gen, Pinnacle Ridge) chipsets. If they launched it at 1000 series, they would be releasing products that customers would associate with being old (as in the desktop 1000 series). Customers, for example, looking at AMD Ryzen 2000 desktop might think, I want a laptop with "AMD Ryzen" but I want the latest, so surely I would be looking for a Ryzen 2000 mobile.

TLDR; the out-of-sync timing of AMD's mobile/desktop chipset release cadences is why the naming was a bit messed up.

This allowed AMD to appease the biggest customers in the consumer space - the big OEMs that sell vastly more CPUs than what is used in DIY markets - all the while also not misleading the DIYers.

But now people are complaining that the numbering isn't simple. It's like the classical pick 2 out of 3 situation, options being:

1. simple numbering,
2. informative numbering and
3. OEM-sellable numbering.

:: My thoughts ::
Most of this was taken from the AnandTech article & Forum Postings on AnandTech about this subject.

In the end, I think Marketing went with Options 2 & 3

Is this optimal, nope.

But this is what the marketing people at AMD choose to solve their Mobile Numbering issue that was a problem that started from way back in the day.
They also want to be able to sell older mobile APU's while being honest about it.
They also wanted OEM's to have the latest iteration of whatever APU's they be selling.

This was a "Hard Compromise" to meet all those requirements.

It sucks, nobody is particularly happy, but it needed to be done to meet all those complicated requirements.

It's a compromise and as with any good compromise; all sides will have things they don't like, but will have to accept to get what they want.

 

[david germain]

AMD has upd its mobile CPU model numbers for 2023 ahead of a new range of CPUs, including Mendocino and Dragon Range.

AMD Shakes Up Ryzen Mobile Model Naming Scheme Ahead of Mendocino, Dragon Range : Read more

is there a print error on the second image. x5xx = Ryzen 5 x6xx = Ryzen 5
no Ryzen 6 or is the second R5 actually the R5x?
yeah that Market Segment area is a mess. thats going to need a triple read before hitting buy.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

is there a print error on the second image. x5xx = Ryzen 5 x6xx = Ryzen 5
no Ryzen 6 or is the second R5 actually the R5x?
yeah that Market Segment area is a mess. thats going to need a triple read before hitting buy.

Honestly, the 4, 6, 8 should be reserved for DeskTop APU variants for the sake of consistency with mobile naming since it's a mobile first part.

 

[phoebus]

Mendocino? Will it overclock as the slot 1 one did?