AMD has announced its new Ryzen 5000 C-series chips for Chromebooks with a significant leap from the older Zen architecture to Zen 3 and the 7nm process, which means nearly double the performance of the old 3000 series chips in synthetic benchmarks if the company’s claims are right.
The four new 15W CPUs deliver up to eight x86 cores and come with Radeon RX Vega graphics for eight GPU cores. These new 5000-series chips, however, will be used in premium Chromebooks, with the 3000-series continuing to be used in mainstream models.
AMD is also claiming double the battery life compared to Intel’s competing Tiger Lake models. However, that comparison is against 11th gen processors running at double the TDP, so the win isn’t that surprising. The new 5000 series chips are also behind on graphics, using the Vega GPU and not the latest RDNA2 tech, which is used in the company’s 6000-series chips.
The new chips, specifically the Ryzen 7 5825C, Ryzen 5 5625C, and Ryzen 3 5425C, are also pretty much remodels of AMD’s U-series chips with 100MHz higher CPU boost frequencies for a 100-200 MHz reduction in GPU clock rates. The Ryzen 3 5125C, however, seems to be an exception as there are no competing dual-core, four threaded counterparts in the 5000 U-series.
| Processor | Cores/Threads | TDP | Boost and Base Frequency | GPU Cores | Cache |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 7 5825C | 8C/16T | 15W | Up to 4.5GHz 2.0GHz base | 8 | 20MB |
| Ryzen 5 5625C | 6C/12T | 15W | Up to 4.3GHz 2.3GHz base | 7 | 19MB |
| Ryzen 3 5425C | 4C/8T | 15W | Up to 4.1GHz 2.7GHz base | 6 | 10MB |
| Ryzen 3 5125C | 2C/4T | 15W | 3.0GHz | 3 | 9MB |
Compared to its own, the new Ryzen 7 5825C offers up to 67% better web browsing performance than the older Ryzen 7 3700C and up to a 107% improvement in multitasking performance.
These new chips will be in the upcoming 14-inch HP Elite C645 G2 and the 14-inch Acer Spin 514 Chromebooks, launching in Q2 and Q3, respectively.
Acer Spin 514 sports the new Ryzen chipset
Acer’s 14-inch two-in-one Chromebook starts at $579.99, a justified price hike over the previous model especially considering that the base model gets the Ryzen 3 5125C, 8GB dual-channel LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB NVMe SSD storage.
You can spec out the device to go as high as the Ryzen 7 5825C, 16GB RAM and 256GB storage, and an optional display upgrade to a 100% sRGB colour gamut one. Acer claims a 10-hour battery life per charge. WiFi 6 support, a 1080p webcam with a shutter and a Gorilla Glass-covered trackpad.
| Specifications | Acer Spin 514 |
|---|---|
| Processor | Up to Ryzen 7 5825C |
| RAM | Up to 16GB LPDDR4X RAM |
| Storage | Up to 255GB SSD storage |
| Display | 14-inch Full HD display IPS touchscreen Corning Gorilla Glass 45% NTSC (100% sRGB colour support optional) |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6 support |
| Ports | 2 x USB-C 1 x USB-A 3.5mm headphone jack HDMI available on select configurations |
| Battery | Up to 10 hours per charge |
This is, however, a considerable leap for AMD on its own, as the company has previously struggled to make laptop processors that can keep up with their Intel counterparts.
In the News: Lenovo announces 7 Yoga laptops and an all-in-one desktop
