AMD launches Ryzen 4000G-series ‘Renoir’ APUs for desktops: 8 cores and Radeon Vega
After being impressed with the performance and feature set of AMD’s Ryzen 4000-series mobile ‘Renoir’ APUs, many users of desktop computers have been anticipating the arrival of AMD’s Ryzen 4000-series desktop processors impatiently for months.
Now AMD has finally introduced its new desktop APUs with up to eight cores featuring its latest Zen 2 microarchitecture as well as integrated Radeon Vega graphics. For now, the processors will be available to OEMs, but eventually they will also make their way to the channel.
The family of AMD Ryzen 4000G-series processors with Radeon Vega graphics includes six APUs: three SKUs with a 65W TDP aimed at mainstream desktops as well as three models with a 35W TPD designed for small-form-factor machines.
The top-of-the-line Ryzen 7 4700G and Ryzen 7 4700GE processors feature eight Zen 2 cores running at 4.4 GHz or 4.3 GHz, 12 MB of cache, and a Radeon GPU with eight compute units (512 stream processors). Other SKUs — the Ryzen 5 4600G/4600GE and the Ryzen 3 4300G/4300GE — feature four or six cores as well as an integrated Radeon GPU with six or seven CUs.
Renoir for desktops
Based on many reviews, AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile APUs have proven to be competitive against Intel’s latest 10th Generation Core (Comet Lake) processors for laptops for the first time in years. In the mainstream desktop space, the new APUs promise to significantly strengthen AMD’s positions as they feature up to eight cores (a first for AMD’s APUs with integrated graphics) as well as more or less modern Radeon Vega GPU.
Alongside its Ryzen 4000G-series offerings for consumer desktops, AMD also released its new eight-core Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G/4750GE, six-core Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G/4650GE, and Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G/4350GE for business desktops.
AMD’s 4th Generation Ryzen Pro APUs feature a 35 W or 65 WTDP and offer similar performance as their consumer-oriented counterparts. Meanwhile, they bring in such capabilities as an integrated TrustZone security processor, Transparent Secure Memory Encryption (TSME), Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, per-Application security for select applications, content protection, and DASH manageability.
All AMD’s ‘Renoir’ processors with Zen 2 CPU architecture and Radeon Vega graphics use the AM4 socket, yet their support depends on actual motherboard and its BIOS version. Since AMD currently sells the APUs only to OEMs, its motherboards partners have time to enable support of the new APUs in their products.
AMD announces its new Ryzen 4000G-series processors for desktops just in time for back-to-school (BTS) season and it is realistic to expect the first machines based on the new APUs to arrive shortly. It is unclear when AMD intends to start sales of its ‘Renoir AM4’ APUs in retail, but fall seems like a reasonable timeframe.