What you need to know
- AMD has announced its new Zen 3+ Ryzen Pro 6000 mobile processors for business PCs.
- Eight new H- and U-series Ryzen Pro 6000 6nm CPUs are joined by three revamped Ryzen Pro 5000 7nm CPUs.
- AMD claims a 50% power reduction since 2018, as well as up to twice as much performance per watt as competing chips.
- Expect these new CPUs in laptops starting Q2 2022.
AMD unveiled its new Ryzen 6000 mobile processors at CES 2022, with a promise that the Pro counterparts would be arriving later in the year. That time has come, as AMD has announced today eight new H- and U-series Ryzen Pro 6000 mobile CPUs and three new Ryzen Pro 5000 chips to complement the lineup.
These Ryzen Pro processors are intended to compete directly with Intel's vPro business CPUs, including the latest 12th Gen "Alder Lake" mobile lineup. Like the non-Pro Ryzen 6000 CPUs announced earlier this year, the new Pro 6000 options use the latest Zen 3+ architecture featuring a 6nm process and RDNA 2 graphics. The revamped Ryzen Pro 5000 chips are still using the Zen 3 architecture with a 7nm process.
The new 6000-series processors also include extra features like DDR5 RAM support, PCIe 4.0 and USB 4.0 support, and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, all features commonly found in the best business laptops. Here's a look at all of the new Ryzen Pro processors announced today.
| Model | Cores (Threads) | Frequency (Up to) | L2 + L3 Cache | TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 Pro 6950H | 8 (16) | 3.3 (4.9) GHz | 20MB | 45W |
| Ryzen 9 Pro 6950HS | 8 (16) | 3.3 (4.9) GHz | 20MB | 35W |
| Ryzen 7 Pro 6850H | 8 (16) | 3.2 (4.7) GHz | 20MB | 45W |
| Ryzen 7 Pro 6850HS | 8 (16) | 3.2 (4.7) GHz | 20MB | 35W |
| Ryzen 5 Pro 6650H | 6 (12) | 3.3 (4.5) GHz | 19MB | 45W |
| Ryzen 5 Pro 6650HS | 6 (12) | 3.3 (4.5) GHz | 19MB | 35W |
| Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U | 8 (16) | 2.7 (4.7) GHz | 20MB | 28W (15-30W) |
| Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U | 6 (12) | 2.9 (4.5) GHz | 19MB | 28W (15-30W) |
| Ryzen 7 Pro 5875U | 8 (16) | 2.0 (4.5) GHz | 20MB | 15W (10-25W) |
| Ryzen 5 Pro 5675U | 6 (12) | 2.3 (4.5) GHz) | 19MB | 15W (10-25W) |
| Ryzen 3 Pro 5475U | 4 (8) | 2.7 (4.1) GHz | 10MB | 15W (10-25W) |
To show off the 15W to 28W scalable performance, AMD compares its Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U chip at high and low TDPs to the older Ryzen 7 5850U. As you can see below, performance has increased significantly on the GPU side.
AMD also compares the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U to Intel's 12th Gen 28W P-series competitor in a number of benchmarks. It's always good to take these in-house benchmark tests with a grain of salt — we are expecting to do our own tests once we go hands-on with the new CPUs — but it looks as though AMD has come up with some truly strong competition for Intel vPro.
The new Ryzen Pro 6000 processors look to indeed be powerful, but AMD hasn't forgotten about power management. With the combination of the new 6nm process for lower power at higher frequencies, optimized core utilization from Zen 3+, updated power states and platform control, and platform upgrades (like low-power display panels and DDR5 RAM), AMD is claiming some significant drops to power usage. It looks as though you can expect up to a 35% drop in video conferencing battery draw, as well as a 17% drop for web browsing and a 32% drop for video streaming compared to Ryzen 5000.
For Microsoft Teams video conferencing specifically, AMD expects up to 45% longer battery life compared to the Core i7-1260P. In MobileMark 2018, the HP EliteBook 865 G9 laptop with 76Wh battery lasted more than 26 hours with a Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U inside. Again, these numbers must all be taken with a grain of salt, as it's no secret that manufacturers love to pad their numbers in any way possible.
A big draw to AMD's Pro processors is security, and just like the older Ryzen Pro 5000 mobile chips, these new options go all out. Like their non-Pro counterparts, Ryzen Pro 6000 CPUs integrate the Microsoft Pluton security processor to help protect against modern, sophisticated attacks. Combined with everything from AMD Memory Guard to Windows 11's built-in security to any OEM security additions, your sensitive data won't be easy to steal.
And finally, new for 2022 is a dedicated manageability processor that's integrated into each AMD CPU. It supports more than 32 Open Standards-based manageability profiles to help companies keep tabs on the security of their deployed PCs. You can expect to see these new AMD Pro processors in some of the best Windows laptops starting Q2 2022. Keep an eye out for HP's new EliteBook and ProBook laptops, as well as a number of Lenovo ThinkPads and ThinkBooks. Have a look at our early hands-on with the ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 for more information.
