AMD: Ryzen Mobile 7040HS “Phoenix” Laptops Delayed Until April
by Ryan Smith on March 17, 2023 4:05 PM EST
For everyone who has been eagerly waiting for the first laptops incorporating AMD’s monolithic Zen 4 mobile CPU, AMD sends word on a Friday afternoon that you’ll be waiting a little longer. Laptops based on AMD’s Ryzen Mobile 7040HS series CPUs have officially been delayed by a month, pushing their expected availability from March to April.
First detailed during AMD’s CES 2023 keynote, the Ryzen Mobile 7040HS series (codename Phoenix) is AMD’s first mobile-focused, monolithic die CPUs based on the Zen 4 architecture, and will be their flagship silicon for mobile devices for 2023. Besides incorporating AMD’s latest CPU architecture, Phoenix also adds into the mix an updated RDNA3 architecture iGPU, and for the first time in any AMD CPU, a dedicated AI processing block, which AMD has aptly named the Ryzen AI. All of which, in turn, is fabbed using TSMC’s 4nm process – making it the single most advanced piece of silicon out of AMD yet.
At the time of its announcement, laptops based on Phoenix were expected in March of this year (i.e. this month). However AMD has sent over a brief announcement on a sleepy Friday afternoon stating that devices based on the new chips have been pushed back a month, to April, citing “platform readiness.” AMD’s complete announcement is below:
To align with platform readiness and ensure the best possible user experience, we now expect our OEM partners to launch the first notebooks powered by Ryzen 7040HS Series processors in April.
Source: AMD PR
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Dante Verizon - Friday, March 17, 2023 - link
AMD's problem is inefficiency in deploying and bringing laptops to market, it's dismal slowness and low availability..Although AMD has the best CPU and iGPU for notebooks, in this regard intel is still light years ahead, intel announces a new line of CPUs and in 30 days it already has several models of laptops available for purchase. AMD takes months... until today there are no 6800u-based laptops to buy here. it sucks
Bofferbrauer - Saturday, March 18, 2023 - link
It's more about the OEMs banking on the more well known name of Intel than anything AMD can do apart from advertisement.Many of those who buy the computers for sale in supermarkets and the like are still very reluctant to buy higher-end AMD laptops out of fear they wouldn't be able to sell them. It's also the primary reason why their laptops have in general the smallest SSD option, as more would make it more expensive and they fear they wouldn't sell anymore if they're a few bucks extra just for more storage.
abufrejoval - Saturday, March 18, 2023 - link
The problem with laptops as I understand it is that it's a far more collaborative exercise than with socketed desktop or even server parts.Evidently in that market AMD can't just create a reference design and have notebook OEMs use that, nor can you just give them chips and drivers and have OEMs create finished laptops within months.
Both sides need to have and commit significantly sized engineering teams for a longish period to co-create products and it's not made easier by Intel showing their displeasure to OEMs that would like alternatives: at least not, when they're smaller than Apple.
Dismal availability isn't all AMD's fault, But having proven better parts than Intel and readiness to execute in principle (some products *did* get out) for several generations now is the only way to turn the tide... albeit slowly.
IMHO to a very large degree it's the ultrabook craze which has hurt modular designs, which could really help making notebooks both much more economical and ecological. That's partly Apple, but Intel was sure happy to weaponize it against AMD, too.
It's crazy that pretty much everything generationally different in a laptop fits into something like an Intel modular compute element, but nobody wants to sell (or buy?) laptops/NUCs based on that.
But then my laptops typically look almost new after ten years of use, while my kids manage to destroy them within two to four years.
My biggest problem with AMD APUs has been their driver support: their CPU portion basically still enjoys eternal life (except for Windows' 11 kill switch), but the iGPUs were sometimes already out of support while the APU was still sold as new (Richmond first, but last Kaveri based designs fared little better). AMD seems to have a five year life cycle for GPU architecture support, started from when first generational dGPUs are sold, not when the last APUs including them become end-of-life...
And then I just hate that all AMD drivers fail to work on Windows server editions, because evidently that costs a couple of extra dollars: As a developer I can't have my OS choice dictated by the GPU I happen to use somewhere in the life cycle of my systems!
Laptop vendors not updating customized iGPU drivers doesn't help either. I basically accepted that my Ryzen 5800U based laptop wasn't ever going to be a 3D machine when I bought it for it's fast and efficient 8 cores. But it still irks that I couldn't get updated drivers in the more than two years that since have gone by, without losing variable screen refresh and potentially the battery savings that go with that: evidently that requires custom integration support and OEMs don't budget driver updates, while lack of modularity/abstractions makes it necessary.
eastcoast_pete - Sunday, March 19, 2023 - link
I am also wondering if AMD not having the drivers ready for prime time is the actual reason for the delay. Given TSMC's apparent availability of capacity of their advanced EUV nodes, that (drivers) seems to be more likely than not getting enough chips.lemurbutton - Sunday, March 19, 2023 - link
>Although AMD has the best CPU and iGPU for notebooks,No they don't. Apple Silicon is years ahead.
eastcoast_pete - Sunday, March 19, 2023 - link
May well be, but they're walled off inside their own ecosystem, and MacBooks with at least 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD aren't exactly cheap.max - Monday, March 20, 2023 - link
Basic 8GB RAM 256GB SSD is enough for most of the people. Considering the power/efficency/quality ratio of Apple MacBook Airs for asked price, it is not expensive at all. Add to that powerfull free apps like Garageband/iMovie/iWork etc. + cheap like MainStage and there is no competition in this area from Wintel side. In fact comparable Win laptops of similar quality are on the same price level. Of course, it all depends of user needs. For musician, photo/video editor there's only one reasonable option - Apple. There's no Wintel product that can compete with Apple in these areas in my opinion. More than tat - closed Apple ecosystem is an advantage in my eyes, because of security and efficiency reasons. Don't gest me wrong - Windows is not bad in these days (I'm using Wintel products at work), but I prefer MacOS and Apple hardware/software because of above reasons.mode_13h - Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - link
Hey, if you don't mind paying the Apple tax and don't mind vendor lock-in......then I bid you to enjoy your stay at the Hotel California.
max - Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - link
What do you mean Apple tax? Do you expect companies to develop hardware&software for free? Looking at the top hardware prices of other vendors, there is no, or small difference between Apple and their products. So, why don't you talk about Samsung, Huawei etc. taxes? If the price of any product borthers you, don't buy it. It's simple. I'm tired of people moaning all the time... You don't have to buy Bentley to reach the piont you want to drive.mode_13h - Thursday, March 30, 2023 - link
> What do you mean Apple tax?Apple machines simply cost more for the same specs as most non-Apple. It's been ever thus. Why do you think they're so profitable? It has a lot to do with their enormous margins.
> Looking at the top hardware prices of other vendors, there is no, or small difference
I don't think you're truly comparing like-for-like. Or you're comparing MSRP, rather than actual street price. Even then, I'll grant that big PC OEMs have prestige products they try to price like Apple, but if you look at where their volume sales happen, it's much further down-market, where they do have a significant price advantage vs. Apple.
> If the price of any product borthers you, don't buy it.
That's basically what I said.
> I'm tired of people moaning all the time...
You want to talk up the advantages of Macs and yet somehow it's unfair for someone to point out the downsides? If you didn't want to end up here, then don't bring it up in a public forum where people are allowed to respond. I guess you're a prime candidate for the fascist world of Apple.