AMD revealed its plans for the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 series laptop CPUs during a recent press conference. The company said it’s adding an “extreme gaming laptop CPU” for 2023, code-named “Dragon Range” that’s set to be the “pinnacle of gaming performance” and have the "highest core, thread and cache ever for a mobile gaming CPU.”
Dragon Range will use AMD’s Zen 4 architecture, which was first revealed during CES 2022. The CPU will have a 55W TDP, meaning that it will “largely exist in the space where gaming laptops are plugged in the majority of the time,” according to AMD director of technical marketing Robert Hallock (via The Verge). This CPU is designed for laptops thicker than 20mm.
The Dragon Range CPU will use the same “HS” suffix as the Ryzen 9 4900HS. Despite the high power draw, the CPU will, according to Hallock, be “notably more power-efficient than other laptops in that competing timeframe.” Dragon Range will have a PCIe 5 architecture and DDR5, according to analyst Ian Cutress who spoke with AMD. The company also told him that some models may support LPDDR5.
Well there we go, @AMD Dragon Range replaces the HX market, DDR5. Phoenix in the more traditional H market, LPDDR5 only. Process node not mentioned. Graphics not mentioned. $AMD pic.twitter.com/4BCYQSMe1zMay 3, 2022
AMD also announced the “Phoenix” line of CPUs, which are made for thinner laptops. This CPU will exist in the 35-45W TDP range and is also based on Zen 4 architecture. Like Dragon Range, this CPU line is aimed at gaming laptops. Dragon Range and Phoenix CPUs are expected to launch sometime in 2023.
While CPUs are vital for gaming, graphics cards tend to do most of the heavy lifting – especially for graphically-intensive modern video games. Still, a speedy CPU is important and it’s clear AMD wants to be seen as a viable competitor to Intel, which has dominated the CPU space for decades. The Dragon Range and Phoenix CPUs may give the company the edge it’s looking for on the gaming front.
Of course 2023 is still over half a year away, which means we won’t see laptops with AMD’s new CPUs for quite a while. We’ll keep you posted on any follow-up news as it happens.
