AMD’s 6000 series goes Pro
AMD SEEMS DETERMINED not to let a month go by without launching something. This month, we have a new set of 6000 Pro series laptop processors. These feature Rembrandt architecture with 6nm Zen 3+ cores, and integrated RDNA 2 promising “ultimate performance for professionals”. The top chip is the Ryzen 9 Pro 6950 in H (45W), and HS (35W) flavors. You get eight cores, a 3.3GHz base clock, and a boost speed of 4.9GHz, with 20MB of L2/L3 cache. Below this is the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850 and the 12-core Ryzen 5 Pro 6650, then two ‘U’ low power 28W versions: the Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U, and Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U. The Zen 3+ core brings DDR5 memory, Wi-Fi 6E, USB 4, and Thunderbolt support. There are also three less capable Zen 3 versions to complete the range. The ‘Pro’ tag means you get hardware security features, longterm support, and IT management tools that customers with sensitive data want.
As you’d expect, the launch comes with bar charts showing performance hikes, but AMD claims CPU gains over the previous Pro chips of between 1.1 and 1.3x, and a jump on the GPU side of between 1.5 and 2.1x as the RDNA 2 engine gets to work. Comparisons with Intel’s nearest rivals show the usual AMD trick of strong multithreaded scores and comparable single-thread ones. Expect laptops from the usual suspects this summer: Lenovo has ThinkPads and HP ProBooks planned. AMD has been making progress into a traditional Intel heartland: the high-end business laptop market. These new Pro chips are a serious attack on that. We know they’re good, as the regular Ryzen 9 6900HS is a beast. AMD is aiming at Intel’s best customers.