AMD's 7 nm "Renoir" APU silicon, which features eight "Zen 2" CPU cores, has only a quarter of the L3 cache of the 8-core "Zen 2" CCD used in "Matisse," "Rome," and "Castle Peak" processors, with each of its two quad-core compute complexes (CCXs) featuring just 4 MB of it (compared to 16 MB per CCX on the 8-core "Zen 2" CCD). Chinese-language tech publication TecLab pubished a quick review of an alleged Ryzen 7 4700GE socket AM4 processor based on the "Renoir" silicon, and discovered that the chip offers significantly lower memory latencies than "Matisse," posting just 47.6 ns latency when paired with DDR4-4233 dual-channel memory.

In comparison, a Ryzen 9 3900X with these kinds of memory clocks typically posts 60-70 ns latencies, owing to the MCM design of "Matisse," where the CPU cores and memory controllers sit on separate dies, which is one of the key reasons AMD is believed to have doubled the L3 cache amount per CCX compared to previous-generation "Zeppelin" dies. TecLab tested the alleged 4700GE engineering sample on a ROG Crosshair VIII Impact X570 motherboard that has 1 DIMM per channel (the best possible memory topology).

The earliest reports on AMD's next-generation "Cezanne" APU silicon pointed at the possibility of the chip combining "Zen 3" CPU cores with a next-generation iGPU solution based on RDNA2 ("Navi 2#"). AMD plans to launch "Cezanne" in 2021, which makes it the immediate successor to "Renoir." A report by Igor's Lab has fresh details on "Cezanne." Apparently the chip sticks with the "Vega" graphics architecture on its iGPU. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's the same exact iGPU as the 8 CU version on "Renoir."

On the other hand, the "Van Gogh" silicon slated for 2021 is expected to receive RDNA2 graphics. It's important to note here that "Van Gogh" and "Cezanne" sit in the same product stack, and "Van Gogh" does not succeed "Cezanne." Rather, it's the codename for an entry-level APU, succeeding "Dali" (Athlon 3000G), which also means the RDNA2-based iGPU will be a lot slimmer than the "Vega" based one on "Cezanne." It's only by 2022 that AMD will have a performance-segment APU with RDNA2-based iGPU, with "Rembrandt." Find our older article getting into AMD's roadmaps here.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (mobile) and the RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics solutions may look identical but they're not. That didn't matter for Intel marketing, which used them to show Intel's 10th Gen Core processors to be "18-23 percent" faster at gaming than AMD's Ryzen 4000 "Renoir," according to a fascinating discovery by _rogame. In a real-world gaming performance slide that's part of an Intel Partner Connect presentation, Intel compared two notebooks, one with a 45-Watt Core i7-10750H processor, and the other with a 35-Watt AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS.

The Ryzen-powered notebook is equipped with an RTX 2060 Max-Q, and is a 22 mm-thick 14-incher, while the Intel-powered notebook uses an RTX 2060 (mobile), and is a 27 mm-thick 15.6-inch notebook that's firmly in the H-segment (mainstream notebook). The RTX 2060 Max-Q has much tighter boost frequencies of 1185 MHz than the RTX 2060 (mobile), with its 1560 MHz boost. Power management is a lot tighter on the Max-Q SKU, too, with 65 W power limits against 90 W on the RTX 2060 (mobile). Intel Partner Connect is a platform for the company to interact with some of its biggest distributors and retailers.

VLSI engineer Fritzchens Fritz, famous for high-detail EM photography of silicon dies and annotations of them, recently published his work on AMD's 7 nm "Renoir" APU silicon. His die-shots were annotated by Nemez aka GPUsAreMagic. The floor-plan of the silicon shows that the CPU component finally dwarfs the iGPU component, thanks to double the CPU cores over the previous-gen "Picasso" silicon, spread over two CCXs (compute complexes). The CCX on "Renoir" is visibly smaller than the one on the "Zen 2" CCDs found in "Matisse" and "Rome" MCMs, as the L3 cache is smaller, at 4 MB compared to 16 MB. Being MCMs with disintegrated memory controllers, it makes more sense for CCDs to have more last-level cache per CCX.

We also see that the iGPU features no more than 8 "Vega" NGCUs, so there's no scope for "Renoir" based desktop APUs to feature >512 stream processors. AMD attempted to compensate for the NGCU deficit by dialing up engine clocks of the iGPU by over 40% compared to those on "Picasso." What caught our eye in the annotation is the PCI-Express physical layer. Apparently the die indeed has 20 PCI-Express lanes besides an additional 4 lanes that can be configured as two SATA 6 Gbps ports thanks to SerDes flexibility.

AMD Ryzen 4000 series of desktop APUs are set to be released next month as a quiet launch. What we expected to see is a launch covering only a few models ranging from Ryzen 3 to Ryzen 7 level, meaning that there would be configurations equipped with anything from 4C/8T to 8C/16T. In the beginning thanks to all the leaks we expected to see six models (listed in the table below), however thanks to discovery, we could be looking at even more SKUs of the Renoir family of APUs. Mentioned in the table are some new entries to both consumer and pro-grade users which means AMD will probably do a launch of both editions, possibly on the same day. We are not sure if that is the case, however, it is just a speculation.

Fritzchens Fritz, known in the PC enthusiast community for his high-detail silicon die photography, attempted thermal imaging on an AMD "Renoir" mobile processor with great success. He discovered that the processor can survive without any cooling (not even passive cooling, but the bare processor exposed to the air). A 4-core Ryzen 3 4300U "Renoir" was used in the experiment. The thermal camera picked up that only one of the two CCXs was active during the tests. Not only was the processor found to start, but was also found to be bench-stable with Cinebench R15 and "Crysis" benchmark, during the experiment's 10-minute runtime. Cinebench R15 and 3DMark TimeSpy scores were also obtained. Find the video in the source link below.

It looks like AMD's Ryzen 4000G line of socket AM4 desktop APUs based on the 8-core 7 nm "Renoir" silicon will be a lot wider than just a couple of SKUs. We've seen plenty of material on the top Ryzen 7 4700G part that maxes out everything on the silicon, along with increased power limits and clock speeds. It looks like the Ryzen 5 4000G series will consist of 6-core/12-thread parts. One such chip, the Ryzen 5 4400G surfaced on the 3DMark database, as dug up by TUM_APISAK. They earlier brought you a 3DMark score comparison between the 4400G, the top 4700G, and the entry-level 4200G.

The Ryzen 5 4400G (possible OPN: 100-000000143) appears to be a 6-core/12-thread part based on "Renoir," with the CPU clocked at 3.70 GHz base and possibly 4.30 GHz boost. The "Vega" NGCU count of the iGPU is unknown, but its engine clock is set at 1.90 GHz (max). With the "P" (performance) preset, the 4400G allegedly scores 4395 points in the 3DMark 11 graphics test suite (graphics score); with 10241 points physics score.

ASRock is working on a variant of its DeskMini SFF desktop PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 4000G series "Renoir" desktop APU. We know this is a desktop "Renoir" since ASRock uses socket AM4 SFF boards based on the A300 or X300 platform, that the clock speeds are higher than mobile "Renoir" chips launched so far, and since the performance numbers for both the CPU- and graphics put out by HardwareLeaks (_rogame) are higher than those of the mobile Ryzen 7 4800HS. The X300 is a barebones platform, as all the connectivity on the platform is handled by the AM4 SoC. AMD is expected to debut desktop Ryzen 4000G "Renoir" APUs within 2020.

Now, take that title with the customary grain of salt, and remember: most mobile configurations aren't directly comparable due to different components, speed of the memory subsystem, and so on. Putting that salt aside, though, one thing remains: Intel beats AMD in the latest purported 3DMark benchmarks - and on the red team's home-field, so to speak: graphics performance. A benchmark posted by renowned leaker and benchmark scavenger rogame on twitter has turned up an Intel Tiger Lake-U (i7-1165G7) scoring 11879 (99.68%) in the Physics and 6912 (112.92%) in the Graphics score compared to AMD's R7 4800U 11917 Physics score and 6121 Graphics score.

For context, this pits a 4-core, 8-thread Intel Willow Cove design paired with Gen12 Xe graphics tech (2.8 GHz base, 4.4 GHz boost) against 8 of AMD's Zen 2 cores and Vega graphics. Also for context, it's expected that Intel's i7-1165G7 runs with a 28 W TDP, compared to AMD's R7 4800U 15 W envelope. Also of note is that 3D Mark isn't exactly the poster-child for CPU parallelization performance, as the benchmark scales up rather poorly as more cores are added. Perhaps more interesting as a comparison, these scores from Intel's Tiger Lake are comparable to the company's current i5-10300H (4C/8T 2.5 GHz base 4.5 GHz boost), which scores 10817 on the Physics side (making the i7-1165G7 9.8% faster with a 200 MHz slower base clock, 100 MHz higher boost & 17 W less TDP (28 W for the Tier Lake and 45 W for the i5-10300H).

Intel's 11th generation Core i7-1165G7 "Tiger Lake-U" processor armed with 4 "Willow Cove" cores and Gen12 Xe graphics fights a pitched battle against AMD Ryzen 7 4800U "Renoir" (8 "Zen 2" cores and Radeon Vega 8 graphics), courtesy of some digging by Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK. The 4800U beats the i7-1165G7 by a wafer-thin margin of 1.9% despite double the CPU core-count and a supposedly advanced iGPU, with 6331 points as against 6211 points of the Intel chip, in 3DMark 11. A breakdown of the score reveals fascinating details of the battle.

The Core i7-1165G7 beats the Ryzen 7 4800U in graphics tests, with a graphics score of 6218 points, against 6104 points of the 4800U, resulting in a 1.9% lead. In graphics tests 1, 2, and 3, the Gen12 Xe iGPU is 7.3-8.9% faster than the Radeon Vega 8, through translating to 2-4 FPS. The Intel iGPU crosses the 30 FPS mark in these three tests. With graphics test 4, the AMD iGPU ends up 8.8% faster. Much of AMD's performance gains come from its massive 55.6% physics score lead thanks to its 8-core/16-thread CPU, which ends up beating the 4-core/8-thread "Willow Cove," with the 4800U scoring 12494 points compared to 8028 points for the i7-1165G7. This CPU muscle also plays a big role in graphics test 4. This battle provides sufficient basis to speculate that "Tiger Lake-U" will have a very uphill task matching "Renoir-U" chips such as the Ryzen 7 4800U, and the upcoming Ryzen 9 4900U (designed to compete with the i7-1185G7).

Renowned leaker APISAK has digged up benchmarks for AMD's upcoming Ryzen 4700G, 4400G and 4200G Renoir APUs in 3D Mark. These are actually for the PRO versions of the APUs, but these tend to be directly comparable with AMD's non-PRO offerings, so we can look at them to get an idea of where AMD's 4000G series' performance lies. AMD's 4000G will be increasing core-counts almost across the board - the midrange 4400G now sports 6 cores and 12 threads, which is more than the previous generation Ryzen 5 3400G offered (4 cores / 8 threads), while the top-of-the-line 4700G doubles the 3400G's core-cpount to 8 physical and 16 logical threads.

This increase in CPU cores, of course, has implied a reduction in the area of the chip that's dedicated to the integrated Vega graphics GPU - compute units have been reduced from the 3400G's 11 down to 8 compute units on the Ryzen 7 4700G and 7 compute units on the 4400G - while the 4200G now makes do with just 6 Vega compute units. Clocks have been severely increased across the board to compensate the CU reduction, though - the aim is to achieve similar GPU performance using a smaller amount of semiconductor real-estate.

Several future AMD processor codenames across various computing segments surfaced courtesy of an Expreview leak that's largely aligned with information from Komachi Ensaka. It does not account for "Matisse Refresh" that's allegedly coming out in June-July as three gaming-focused Ryzen socket AM4 desktop processors; but roadmap from 2H-2020 going up to 2022 sees many codenames surface. To begin with, the second half of 2020 promises to be as action packed as last year's 7/7 mega launch. Over in the graphics business, the company is expected to debut its DirectX 12 Ultimate-compliant RDNA2 client graphics, and its first CDNA architecture-based compute accelerators. Much of the processor launch cycle is based around the new "Zen 3" microarchitecture.

The server platform debuting in the second half of 2020 is codenamed "Genesis SP3." This will be the final processor architecture for the SP3-class enterprise sockets, as it has DDR4 and PCI-Express gen 4.0 I/O. The EPYC server processor is codenamed "Milan," and combines "Zen 3" chiplets along with an sIOD. EPYC Embedded (FP6 package) processors are codenamed "Grey Hawk."

AMD released its first Dell G5 15 SE-specific OEM driver update, with a single package providing drivers for the APU (iGPU) and Radeon RX 5600M discrete GPU of the notebook. This would be AMD's first Radeon Software release in over a month, as the AAA game release cycle has cooled down, and AMD has its hands full with several new OEM designs to develop drivers for. The G5 15 SE comes with processor options that include the "Renoir" Ryzen 5 4600H and Ryzen 7 4700H; and Radeon RX 5600M discrete GPU option.DOWNLOAD: AMD Dell G5 15 SE iGPU+dGPU Combo Driver

AMD is planning to immediately update its product stack to counter the Intel 10th gen Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor family. Codenamed "Matisse Refresh," the processor will use existing IP, based on the 7 nm "Zen 2" microarchitecture, but could improve in areas such as clock-speeds. As it now stands, the Ryzen 9 3900X appears unfazed by the i9-10900K and i7-10700K at its new $410 price, however, competitiveness of the 3800X and 3700X could buckle under pressure from the i7-10700 series (K, KF, non-K, and F), as well as the Core i5-10600 series. To this effect, we're hearing rumors of a "Ryzen 7 3750X" and "Ryzen 7 3850X" seeing the light of the day soon, with an early-June announcement, and early-July market availability. References to the 3750X date back to October 2019.

Rumors of "Matisse Refresh" gained traction when WCCFTech editor Hassan Mujtaba tweeted a slide from a GIGABYTE AMD B550 motherboard series pre-launch presentation, which references GIGABYTE's own interpretation of AMD's roadmap. It lists out every CPU microarchitecture for the AM4 platform, and right next to "Matisse" is "& Refresh," confirming that "Matisse Refresh" is real. A microarchitecture "refresh" needn't even involve any physical changes to the processor design, core-counts, or architecture, and can sometimes even indicate something as simple as a second major wave of SKUs that replace existing SKUs in the market, leading to their phase-out (eg: Intel "Haswell Refresh" retaining the 4th gen Core model numbering). The slide also adds weight to the theory that desktop "Renoir," like its mobile counterpart, lacks PCIe gen 4.0. The slide also talks about AMD introducing the entry-level A520 desktop chipset in August, which will support PCIe gen 4 when paired with a capable processor.

AMD's 4th generation Ryzen "Renoir" desktop APUs, based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, could lack PCI-Express gen 4.0, hints the product page of an upcoming AMD B550 chipset motherboard by BIOSTAR. AMD already declared that the B550 lacks support for "Picasso," which means the "Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics" processors referenced in the BIOSTAR product page have to be "Renoir." On the mobile platform, Ryzen 4000H and 4000U series processors do lack PCIe gen 4.0, but it was expected that AMD will enable gen 4.0 for the desktop socket AM4 platform.

The lack of gen 4.0 support has implications for "Renoir." For starters, the APU, like its predecessors, spares only 8 PCIe lanes toward PEG (PCI-Express discrete graphics, or the main x16 slot you typically use for graphics cards). If these lanes are gen 3.0, then even the newer graphics cards, such as AMD's "Navi" RX 5700 XT, or next-gen GeForce "Ampere," would have to make do with a PCI-Express 3.0 x8 interface, despite being gen 4.0 x16-capable. We will test just how much of a bottleneck this poses, when the next-gen graphics cards come out.

Intel Xe graphics architecture makes its commercial debut as an iGPU solution in the company's upcoming "Tiger Lake" mobile processors. The iGPU can be configured along three tiers, with GT1 featuring 48 execution units (EUs), GT2 80 EUs, and GT3 leading the pack with 96 EUs, all within a 15 W envelope (for the total chip). There's a higher tier still of GT3 that comes with higher boost frequencies, tapping into the chip's overall increased 28 W TDP, but this variant of "Tiger Lake" could likely be an Apple-exclusive like its "Ice Lake" based predecessor.

NotebookCheck compiled a 3DMark FireStrike comparison between the various tiers of the Xe iGPU, and compared it to the Gen11 iGPU found with current-generation "Ice Lake-U" processors. The graph doesn't put out scores, but relative performance. Apparently, the 48 EU version of Gen12 Xe is a little over twice as fast as Gen11 GT1, and faster than even the 64 EU Gen11 GT2. The Gen12 GT2 with 80 EUs is around 1.7x faster than the Gen11 GT2 (64 EU). The 96 EU GT3 trim is over twice as fast, and its 28 W variant faster still. These performance give Gen12 a shot against AMD's Radeon Vega-based iGPU solution found in "Renoir." AMD has slimmed the number of CUs down to 8 (512 SP) with "Renoir," down from 11 CUs in the previous generation, compensating for it with higher GPU engine clocks.

The bulk of AMD's 4th generation Ryzen desktop processors will comprise of "Vermeer," a high core-count socket AM4 processor and successor to the current-generation "Matisse." These chips combine up to two "Zen 3" CCDs with a cIOD (client I/O controller die). While the maximum core count of each chiplet isn't known, they will implement the "Zen 3" microarchitecture, which reportedly does away with CCX to get all cores on the CCD to share a single large L3 cache, this is expected to bring about improved inter-core latencies. AMD's generational IPC uplifting efforts could also include improving bandwidth between the various on-die components (something we saw signs of in the "Zen 2" based "Renoir"). The company is also expected to leverage a newer 7 nm-class silicon fabrication node at TSMC (either N7P or N7+), to increase clock speeds - or so we thought.

An Igor's Lab report points to the possibility of AMD gunning for efficiency, by letting the IPC gains handle the bulk of Vermeer's competitiveness against Intel's offerings, not clock-speeds. The report decodes OPNs (ordering part numbers) of two upcoming Vermeer parts, one 8-core and the other 16-core. While the 8-core part has some generational clock speed increases (by around 200 MHz on the base clock), the 16-core part has lower max boost clock speeds than the 3950X. Then again, the OPNs reference A0 revision, which could mean that these are engineering samples that will help AMD's ecosystem partners to build their products around these processors (think motherboard- or memory vendors), and that the retail product could come with higher clock speeds after all. We'll find out in September, when AMD is expected to debut its 4th generation Ryzen desktop processor family, around the same time NVIDIA launches GeForce "Ampere."

Here is the first picture of the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G, the company's upcoming socket AM4 APU based on the 7 nm "Renoir" silicon, courtesy of VideoCardz. The picture reveals a standard-looking socket AM4 chip with commercial name and OPN markings (100-000000146), matching the Igor's Lab OPN code leak from earlier this week. The Ryzen 7 4700G offers an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and an integrated graphics solution that combines the SIMD machinery of the "Vega" graphics architecture, with the updated display- and media engines of "Navi." The iGPU is configured with 8 CUs (512 stream processors), which on the 4700G has an impressive maximum engine boost clock of 2.10 GHz, according to the Igor's Lab story.

The 8-core/16-thread CPU of the Ryzen 7 4700G has a nominal clock speed of 3.60 GHz, and a maximum boost frequency of 4.45 GHz, with several Precision Boost power-states in both directions of the nominal clock. The CPU features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache (4 MB per CCX). The iGPU engine clock goes all the way up to 2.10 GHz, which could help it overcome some of the CU deficit vs. "Picasso," which has 11 CUs (704 stream processors), but clocked only up to 1.40 GHz. Since the Ryzen 5 3400G has an unlocked multiplier, it stands to reason that even the 4700G could. If the platform I/O of "Renoir" in its mobile avatar is anything to go by, then the 4700G could feature a limited PCI-Express x8 lane setup for its PEG port. AMD is rating the TDP of the 4700G at 65 W.

Igor's Lab discovered that AMD may be working on as many as twelve desktop Ryzen G "Renoir" processors with integrated graphics. These include six SKUs each covering the 65 W and 35 W TDP categories, and include two each of 8-core/16-thread, 6-core/12-thread, and 4-core/8-thread SKUs per TDP category. All twelve chips feature increased power limits from their mobile siblings, and a reference memory frequency of DDR4-3200. The parts also feature iGPU maximum engine clock boost frequency as high as 2.10 GHz, to overcome the compute unit deficit "Renoir" has against its predecessor, "Picasso/Raven Ridge," with their up to 11 CUs.

The series appears to be led by an 8-core/16-thread SKU with CPU boost frequency as high as 4.45 GHz, iGPU engine clock as high as 2.10 GHz, and various power-state clock speeds detailed in the table below. The 6-core/12-thread part boosts up to 4.30 GHz, with iGPU engine clock up to 1.90 GHz. The 4-core/8-thread part boosts up to 4.10 GHz, with up to 1.70 GHz iGPU engine clocks. The 35 W TDP parts have, on average, 200-300 MHz lower max CPU core boost- and nominal clock speeds, but more aggressive power-management as defined in the various P-states. Half of these OPNs point to chips with identical clock speeds and core configurations. These are probably differentiated from each other with some of them being Ryzen PRO SKUs.

Hot on the heels of the Ryzen 7 4700G desktop APU reveal, a curious-looking processor reared its head on the Futuremark Database, named "AMD Ryzen 7 Extreme Edition," as unearthed by Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK, who mentions that the chip is "Renoir" based, and likely a mobile part owing to its rather low nominal clock speed of 1.80 GHz, which can boost all the way up to 4.30 GHz. The chip has all 8 cores and 16 threads enabled.

Coming back to its clock speeds, the "Extreme Edition" appears to be a 100 MHz speed bump over the Ryzen 7 4800U, a 15-Watt part with 4.20 GHz max boost. The 45-Watt Ryzen 7 4800H has the same 4.20 GHz boost clock, but much higher 2.90 GHz nominal clocks. It hence stands to reason that this is a 15 W segment part, topping the 4800U, targeting ultraportables. Interestingly, a 15-Watt Renoir with these clock speeds was recently reported as the "Ryzen 9 4900U." We'll hear more in the coming weeks.

An Intel Gen12 Xe GPU, possibly a discrete- DG1 prototype, showed up on the SiSoft SANDRA online database. The GPU is detailed by SANDRA as having 768 unified shaders across 96 execution units (EUs), a 1.50 GHz GPU clock speed, 1 MB of on-die L2 cache, and 3 GB of dedicated video memory of an unknown type (likely GDDR6). This is probably a different chip from the DG1-SDV, which caps out at 900 MHz GPU clock, although its SIMD muscle is identical.

At a clock-speed of 1.50 GHz, the chip would feature an FP32 throughput of 2,303 GFLOPs (we know this from the DG1-SDV offering 1382 GFLOPs at 900 MHz). If the software-side optimization backs this hardware, the resulting product could end up with performance in the league of the 8 CU Radeon "Vega" solution found in the AMD "Renoir" APU, or the Radeon RX 560 discrete GPU, which are just about enough for PUBG at 1080p with medium settings.

It was only a matter of time before AMD brought its 7 nm "Renoir" APU silicon onto the desktop platform. The first such chip just hit the radar as the Ryzen 7 4700G. This would be the first desktop Ryzen APU graded as Ryzen 7, thanks to its CPU core count. The 4700G features an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture. The iGPU is a hybrid between "Vega" and "Navi."

The "Renoir" iGPU features the SIMD components of "Vega," but with the display- and multimedia-engines of "Navi." The iGPU apparently maxes out on 8 NGCUs on "Renoir," amounting to 512 stream processors. Increased iGPU engine clocks attempt to make up the CU deficit compared to the previous-generation "Picasso" (8 vs. 11). The CPU features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache (4 MB per CCX). An AoTS run in which the processor is paired with a Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card surfaced on social media. Bringing "Renoir" to the desktop platform at prices competitive with Intel's 10th generation Core i3 thru Core i7 will be critical for AMD, as it nullifies a key advantage Intel has - integrated graphics, so the processors could make it to the vast majority of non-gaming builds with high CPU performance demand.Update May 10th: A possible UserBenchmark submission of this processor, where it carries the engineering sample number "100-000000149-40_40/30_Y" surfaced. It's shown having clock speeds of 3.00 GHz base and 4.00 GHz boost. We know this is a desktop platform looking at its ASRock B550 Taichi motherboard and Micron-supplied standard DIMM.

AMD's 7 nm "Renoir" silicon breathed life into the notebook processor market, by bringing 8-core/16-thread CPU performance into segments Intel reserved for 4-core/8-thread; and beat Intel in the iGPU performance front. 7 nm brought performance-Watt uplifts that spell serious competition for Intel across all notebook form factors, be it 15 W or 45 W. According to _rogame, who has a knack of getting far-out hardware rumors right, AMD has its successor on the drawing-board, and it's codenamed "Cézanne," after the French post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.

"Cézanne" could prove vital for AMD's foothold in the premium mobile computing segments as Intel is preparing to launch its 10 nm+ "Tiger Lake" processor soon, with advanced "Willow Cove" CPU cores, and Xe based integrated graphics. AMD plans to tap into its very latest IP. Although its core-count is not known, "Cézanne" will feature CPU cores based on the latest "Zen 3" microarchitecture. The iGPU will receive its biggest performance uplift in 3 generations, with an iGPU based on the cutting-edge RDNA2 graphics architecture that meets DirectX 12 Ultimate logo requirements.

While AMD's 7 nm "Renoir" APU silicon is off busy disrupting the mobile processor market, AMD needs a socket AM4 desktop APU to challenge Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 chips that have iGPUs, and it's only natural for "Renoir" to reach the desktop platform at some point. PC enthusiast _rogame unearthed details of a 35-Watt TDP AMD APU codenamed "Artic," with a rather high 3.00 GHz nominal clock speed, which could hint at the possibility of this being a desktop part. The part in question also features an iGPU ticking at 1200 MHz, and DDR4-3200 memory.

AMD has released Renoir on the mobile platform at 15 W and 45 W power-envelopes. It has, in the past, similarly segmented its desktop APUs into 65 W and energy-efficient 35 W TDP parts, with the latter using lower clock speeds and aggressive power-management to hold on to its TDP. This chip could be the latter, a possible "Ryzen 3 4200GE" of sorts. _rogame mentions that the iGPU performance is a notch lower than the 6 CU "Renoir" parts such as the 4600H, while the CPU performance is higher than the 8-core/8-thread 4700U. Here's hoping we find out more soon.

MSI announced its Bravo 15 and Bravo 17 Full HD gaming notebooks manned by an all-AMD crew. The two offer Full HD displays with 120 Hz refresh-rates, made of "IPS-level" panels (very likely AHVA). The Bravo 15 features 15.6-inch panel size, while its sibling is a 17.3-incher.

Under the hood, both notebooks pack an AMD Ryzen 7 4800H (8-core/16-thread) "Renoir" processor, Radeon RX 5500M discrete graphics, AMD SmartShift technology (load balancing between the iGPU and dGPU), and 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory. The Bravo 15 packs a 512 GB NVMe SSD, while the Bravo 17 gives you a 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD in addition to the same SSD. Two each of USB 3.2 type-C and type-A ports add to their connectivity. The Bravo 15 starts at USD $929, and the Bravo 17 at $1,099.