Ever wondered why we never saw Ryzen/Radeon laptops?

[SuperGeil]

Pure PC

Last year, AMD introduced its Renoir APU processors in the form of the Ryzen 4000 family. Among the high-performance units, we saw chips like AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H or AMD Ryzen 9 4900H. Throughout 2020, however, we didn't get any notebook model that was equipped with one of these processors and a graphics card at least at the level of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. The most efficient configurations, as they appeared, had at most a GeForce RTX 2060. For people who wanted to switch to AMD processor with Zen 2 cores, this situation was not very comfortable. The top graphics were paired with inferior in terms of energy efficiency, Intel Comet Lake-H processors. Admittedly, last year there was an explanation for this state of affairs. However, from the beginning it was unconvincing for many people.

Back in July of last year, news broke about the alleged limitations of AMD Ryzen 4000 series processors. It was exactly about the number of PCIe 3.0 lines that were dedicated to graphics cards. Renoir APUs were compatible with the PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, which means that a maximum of 8 PCIe 3.0 lines were dedicated for dGPUs. Some OEMs admitted that these limitations (Intel offered 16 lines for a graphics card) cause a reduction in the maximum performance of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics cards and above. For this reason, there was not a single notebook on the market with this configuration. From the information we got to, it is clear that the mentioned reason was just a smokescreen and not the real reason.

One OEM has finally secretly admitted that the real reason for this was an internal agreement between Intel and NVIDA whereby the most powerful graphics cards from the Turing family could only be bundled with Intel's 10th generation processors. Unfortunately, we don't know what exact terms and/or amounts were at stake, but the whole thing must have undoubtedly involved large sums of money, since no OEM broke out and prepared laptops based on AMD processors. Interestingly, this year's AMD Ryzen 5000-H (Cezanne-H) processors also feature a maximum of 8 PCIe 3.0 lines for a graphics card, so theoretically you could use the identical excuse as a year ago. However, AMD's abundant processor offerings for 2021 plus Intel's continued problems with the implementation of the 8-core Tiger Lake-H45 chips have led to some laptop manufacturers breaking out of their previous arrangements, and that includes NVIDIA itself. We already know that ASUS and Lenovo have broken out of this circle. Other manufacturers are also preparing their proposals for laptops with AMD Ryzen 5000 and powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 cards. The only manufacturers that will still stick to only Intel and NVIDIA RTX 3000 chips in one set will be Dell and Razer.

[Dr. Zhivago]

Collusion between Intel and Dell and Nvidia? I'm shocked! Well, not that that shocked...

I never buy anything from those companies.

[@md_Guy]

<waits patiently for local nVidiots to chime in "That's the cost of business .." or some other BS .." >

[KAC]

No I never wondered.

[LordHawkwind]

Originally Posted by KAC

No I never wondered.

Agree. Who wants to pay up to £2,000 to game on a 17" screen with an enthusiast laptop. I also don't get gaming on a mobile either. It's a 6" screen for goodness sake. I currently own an S20 (soon to be upgraded to S21) and I think I played one racing game on it and it was OK for a 6" screen

For me laptops are for work and browsing not for any kind of serious gaming. Just my 2p's worth.

[Trunks0]

It's a situational market. Which is probably why it's a rather niche segment. But I've seen them used by people that travel allot and still want to be able to game. Or just don't have the space for a desktop setup.

It's sad that AMD is shut out. As the current stuff could make for some killer combo's. There also has been abit of cry for Dell to use them more as it's getting really stupid for enterprise markets.

[LordHawkwind]

Originally Posted by Trunks0

It's a situational market. Which is probably why it's a rather niche segment. But I've seen them used by people that travel allot and still want to be able to game. Or just don't have the space for a desktop setup.

It's sad that AMD is shut out. As the current stuff could make for some killer combo's. There also has been abit of cry for Dell to use them more as it's getting really stupid for enterprise markets.

Work lets me buy what I won't because I understand what I'm doing. About 18 months ago I bought a Dell 15 3xxx laptop with an AMD 5 2500U CPU and some crappy Vega integrated GPU. For work and watching video clips and even movies it's excellent can't complain.

MD's Intel HP laptop screen died so I got him a Lenovo 4500U Laptop and he's loving it. He wouldn't know how to game but he loves the laptop as it does what he needs it to do and is very fast. For serious gaming don't think so. As you said very niche market.

[Trunks0]

I wish, I really really really wish I could get a Latitude with an AMD CPU. But nope, if I want an enterprise grade Laptop with an AMD CPU I gotta go Lenovo. Which isn't bad, but I really like the current Latitude's

[SuperGeil]

Originally Posted by Trunks0

I wish, I really really really wish I could get a Latitude with an AMD CPU. But nope, if I want an enterprise grade Laptop with an AMD CPU I gotta go Lenovo. Which isn't bad, but I really like the current Latitude's

Why so? My insperon is a turd. My brothers Thinkpad is just pure sex to type on and work with.

Originally Posted by LordHawkwind

Who wants to pay up to £2,000 to game on a 17" screen with an enthusiast laptop.

When you have friends and or limited space, they are really nice for lan parties. They are also nice for trips. 17 is too big for me, but a 15 I think is great.

[SuperGeil]

Originally Posted by @md_Guy

<waits patiently for local nVidiots to chime in "That's the cost of business .." or some other BS .." >

''If AMD were on top, they would do the same''

[Trunks0]

Originally Posted by SuperGeil

Why so? My insperon is a turd. My brothers Thinkpad is just pure sex to type on and work with.

Because Dell's enterprise level pro support has been easier to deal with for getting replacement parts and repairs. And don't compare consumer grade products to enterprise grade products. Completely different in build quality and repair-ability.

[SuperGeil]

Originally Posted by Trunks0

Because Dell's enterprise level pro support has been easier to deal with for getting replacement parts and repairs. And don't compare consumer grade products to enterprise grade products. Completely different in build quality and repair-ability.

Understandable, I did not mean to make it apples and apples, but this laptop has left a nasty impression on me.

[Trunks0]

Your not alone. I've had to combat that myself more times than I can count because of Dell's consumer grade stuff can be bleh to the extreme.

Lenovo enterprise stuff is pretty damn sweet though, it's just the support hasn't been as killer. But because you don't run into CPU shortages like with Intel powered stuff it's easier to order. Plus the AMD equipped hardware strikes a massively better price/performance ratio.