Acer Swift 3 Could Bring Ryzen 4000 8-core to the Masses at $629

[Melvis]

I looked at the Swift 3 the other day close up and I thought it was such a lovely looking laptop (3500U?) and I was thinking one of these with a new 4000 series APU would be so gooooood! and here it is haha nice! but still very expensive as the current one is $1100 here. It was the only Ryzen laptop there out of 20.....sad.

 

[Valantar]

"but it's likely that the notebook is equipped with 8 GB of hardwired DDR4 memory, and a single DDR4 SODIMM slot for further expansion. "

Yes? Was that not clear from my post? LPDDR4X is non-expandable (only soldered), DDR4 is/can be. So: while this configuration is sub-par in terms of memory speed, at least it's expandable. As such, 8GB of DDR4 is somewhat acceptable, which 8GB of (non-expandable) LPDDR4X would not be as 8GB of shared memory is largely insufficient unless your usage is just basic desktop apps. That really shouldn't be hard to grasp.

The 442 shaders refresh now is still GCN5, albeit on 7nm and support for DDR4-3200. The memory bandwidth bump is one of the major reasons why the Vega 8 (7nm) can someone match the Vega 10 (14nm) with lesser shaders (at least in Timespy). They should've dropped in an updated Vega 10 to be a complete successor to the 3700U... or they could be planning on releasing a 4900U (4800U exists, albeit only with the Vega 8 mentioned).

There are only 8 CUs in silicon, so there won't be any higher iGPU configurations. The 4900U is all but confirmed (plenty of leaked specs and some benchmarks), and it bumps the base and boost clocks over the 4800U while keeping the iGPU configuration the same.

Btw, the main improvement for the iGPU isn't support for DDR4-3200, but LPDDR4X-4233. Laptops with the latter will dramatically outperform those with the former in any GPU-bound load.

And while it could of course be argued that another couple of CUs in silicon would be better, it would likely tip this die past a pain point for size and yields - ~150mm2 seems to be as high as manufacturers are willing to go for mass-market mobile chips, and it's obvious that this is the chief reason for the cut in CUs (with the per-CU perf increase serving to more than alleviate the loss). Still, next year's APUs with RDNA (hopefully RDNA 2, though that would be surprising) ought to further increase performance if you're still not happy. For reference, a (possibly 25W-configured) 4800U in a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 soundly beats the Geforce MX250 and is just ~5% behind the MX350. This is quite a lot faster than any previous Vega iGPU - at best they competed with the MX 230 in games, sometimes coming close to the MX 250 in synthetics. Of course the faster CPU also plays into this, but the net effect is nonetheless dramatically improved GPU performance.

Yeah, it must be true because you've seen it on TPU...
It's single-slot or soldered just like most if not all Swift 3 to date.
IF you need 16GB of RAM, buy a laptop with 16GB of RAM...

This is actually rather weird - Acer's own CES press release described this model as

In addition to its stylish design, AMD Ryzen™ 4000 series processors bring disruptive performance powered by innovative 7 nm process technology and “Zen 2” core architecture. Paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM, the Swift 3 (SF314-42) a powerful choice for productivity on the go

There's no way they redesigned the motherboard in three months, so something here is definitely wrong.

As for slim laptops being difficult to disassemble - not necessarily. Both in my household (one XPS 13, one Latitude 7390 2-in-1) both require nothing more than looseing a few screws and prying carefully to loosen a few clips.

 

[notb]

As for slim laptops being difficult to disassemble - not necessarily. Both in my household (one XPS 13, one Latitude 7390 2-in-1) both require nothing more than looseing a few screws and prying carefully to loosen a few clips.

It's way beyond the risk appetite of a typical buyer. And electronics' experience as well. That's what I meant.

Sure, it's easier then quantum mechanics or eye surgery. Everyone has some specialty (should have...).

 

[Valantar]

It's way beyond the risk appetite of a typical buyer. And electronics' experience as well. That's what I meant.

Sure, it's easier then quantum mechanics or eye surgery. Everyone has some specialty (should have...).

Well, sure, but that applies just as much to thicker laptops.

 

[hat]

Well, sure, but that applies just as much to thicker laptops.

Or even desktops. How many typical buyers ever open their desktop computer? I would argue desktops are a lot easier to work on than laptops, and yet here we are...

 

[ARF]

Or even desktops. How many typical buyers ever open their desktop computer? I would argue desktops are a lot easier to work on than laptops, and yet here we are...

Hmm, when one likes to play with dust bunnies, it's so much fun with the desktops.
Normal laptops have easy access to boxes like memory compartment, drive compartment, maybe to the coolers as well, so can be cleaned regularly.

 

[Valantar]

Hmm, when one likes to play with dust bunnies, it's so much fun with the desktops.
Normal laptops have easy access to boxes like memory compartment, drive compartment, maybe to the coolers as well, so can be cleaned regularly.

Maybe in 2008, certainly not in the past few years. In general in my experience, the cheaper the laptop, the less thought is put into making it serviceable. Opening and cleaning a budget 15.6" laptop is no easier than opening and cleaning an ultra book - and often it's the other way around. Now, my old ThinkPad X201 had heaps of easily accessible bays and openings, but cleaning the fan still required a full teardown.

But nonetheless, serviceability and upgradeability are (sadly) enthusiast concerns.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

These new ryzen laptops make me want to upgrade my old 6700hq laptop.. although it's not a necessity..

 

[neblogai]

Yes? Was that not clear from my post? LPDDR4X is non-expandable (only soldered), DDR4 is/can be. So: while this configuration is sub-par in terms of memory speed, at least it's expandable. As such, 8GB of DDR4 is somewhat acceptable, which 8GB of (non-expandable) LPDDR4X would not be as 8GB of shared memory is largely insufficient unless your usage is just basic desktop apps. That really shouldn't be hard to grasp.

Actually, Swift 3 with Renoir comes with LPDDR4 3200 for the 8GB model, and LPDDR4X 4266 for the 16GB model (of course, RAM is only soldered). So it will be quite fast, especialy the 16GB model, which in my opinion is the only one that makes sense if user aims to do more than just browse/play SCGO. Sustained power limit is set to 18W- but the temps are at 75C, so lets hope we can RyzenAdj it to 25W+. Overall- it is a very impressive 1.2kg laptop.
Only the other, Aspire model is limited in memory bandwidth- it comes with one channel presoldered with DDR4 2400 RAM- so that will be it's limit for the RAM in the second channel as well.