Best guess: they're capacity constrained and mobile is a bigger target for them - they need to start getting design wins ASAP.
There may also be other factors. The desktop APUs are probably a lesser bin. If they're getting good yields of chips that make the grade for mobile, they may not yet have enough "inferior" chips around to do a proper launch for the desktop APU. In that case we should expect to see it later when they've built up enough of them, a bit like the 5600 XT.
I am a bit amazed at the heated passion for or against the Ryzen 4000 mobile APUs. Personally, I think it's great that we finally have real competition in the ultraportable and performance laptop space, and look forward to the first head-to-head reviews. Since I neither own shares not work for AMD or Intel, all I care about is who can sell me the biggest bang for my bucks. If that ends up being AMD, even better, as it keeps the competition alive.
There is more to a laptop than processor. Significantly, there has been a deluge of classy amd based models.
No more oem crap configurations models and foot dragging to oblige intel. Intels stuff is all over Asus's front lawn e.g.
They have had it up to here w/ intel's years of reiterated & rebroken promises on 10nm (which they have invested heavily in and relied on for their roadmaps).
The final straw has been their egocentric hubris in robbing supply of more humble cpuS, in a bid to win the unwinnable battle of cores, using ever bigger & lower yield chips.
mosesman cribs it well imo "Summary Better than expected.
The Ryzen 4000 mobile 7nm will ramp in 1Q20 (1 quarter ahead of our view), with specs including 8-cores that beat competitors single thread performance and blow them away in all other metrics, including performance per watt. There will be over 100 laptop designs for 2020 in all categories (Thin & Light, gaming/creator, pro) and AMD is set to replicate desktop success in 2019 in laptops. Intel has limited options, given their 14nm power and die size issues, and 10nm being a broken node at the moment, in our opinion."
Thanks Ian! Question: do I see this correctly? One could, in theory, run a 4800U chip just as hard and fast as the 4800H, provided the cooling solution can handle the higher TDP? If so, I would love to see some vendors offering this variant. Being able to clock down to 1800 MHz and its low power envelope and yet turbo up to the same 4.2 GHz Max as the 4800H would be very attractive!
On a related note, did you hear whether SmartShift is indeed ready for prime time? The ability to switch seamlessly between iGPU and dGPU is essential to make a performance laptop a real daily driver, at least for my situation. A dGPU just eats too much battery when unplugged.
AMD states that the U series chips can be configured to run in 25W mode rather than the standard 15W (if the OEM supports it and provides enough cooling) for better sustained performance. Obviously this still wouldn't match the sustained performance of a 45W H series part.
I would think there are at least some binning differences between the U series and H series that allow the H series to run better at high frequencies (or allow the U series to run more efficiently at lower frequencies), however I don't know if it's anything more than that.
Usually there's a bit of a trade-off between being able to operate well at low voltages and being able to operate well with higher clocks and higher voltages - so it'd make sense that a chip binned for 15W operation might not run as well at 45W as a "genuine" 45W chip, even though they're the same design.
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Spunjji - Thursday, January 9, 2020 - link
Best guess: they're capacity constrained and mobile is a bigger target for them - they need to start getting design wins ASAP.There may also be other factors. The desktop APUs are probably a lesser bin. If they're getting good yields of chips that make the grade for mobile, they may not yet have enough "inferior" chips around to do a proper launch for the desktop APU. In that case we should expect to see it later when they've built up enough of them, a bit like the 5600 XT.
eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
I am a bit amazed at the heated passion for or against the Ryzen 4000 mobile APUs. Personally, I think it's great that we finally have real competition in the ultraportable and performance laptop space, and look forward to the first head-to-head reviews. Since I neither own shares not work for AMD or Intel, all I care about is who can sell me the biggest bang for my bucks. If that ends up being AMD, even better, as it keeps the competition alive.SolarBear28 - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
+1Spunjji - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
+1,000Hul8 - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
I have to wonder if some people have gambled and sold stock short...msroadkill612 - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
There is more to a laptop than processor. Significantly, there has been a deluge of classy amd based models.No more oem crap configurations models and foot dragging to oblige intel. Intels stuff is all over Asus's front lawn e.g.
They have had it up to here w/ intel's years of reiterated & rebroken promises on 10nm (which they have invested heavily in and relied on for their roadmaps).
The final straw has been their egocentric hubris in robbing supply of more humble cpuS, in a bid to win the unwinnable battle of cores, using ever bigger & lower yield chips.
msroadkill612 - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
mosesman cribs it well imo"Summary
Better than expected.
The Ryzen 4000 mobile 7nm will ramp in 1Q20 (1 quarter ahead of our view), with specs including 8-cores that beat competitors single thread performance and blow them away in all other metrics, including performance per watt. There will be over 100 laptop designs for 2020 in all categories (Thin & Light, gaming/creator, pro) and AMD is set to replicate desktop success in 2019 in laptops. Intel has limited options, given their 14nm power and die size issues, and 10nm being a broken node at the moment, in our opinion."
eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
Thanks Ian! Question: do I see this correctly? One could, in theory, run a 4800U chip just as hard and fast as the 4800H, provided the cooling solution can handle the higher TDP? If so, I would love to see some vendors offering this variant. Being able to clock down to 1800 MHz and its low power envelope and yet turbo up to the same 4.2 GHz Max as the 4800H would be very attractive!On a related note, did you hear whether SmartShift is indeed ready for prime time? The ability to switch seamlessly between iGPU and dGPU is essential to make a performance laptop a real daily driver, at least for my situation. A dGPU just eats too much battery when unplugged.
SolarBear28 - Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - link
AMD states that the U series chips can be configured to run in 25W mode rather than the standard 15W (if the OEM supports it and provides enough cooling) for better sustained performance. Obviously this still wouldn't match the sustained performance of a 45W H series part.I would think there are at least some binning differences between the U series and H series that allow the H series to run better at high frequencies (or allow the U series to run more efficiently at lower frequencies), however I don't know if it's anything more than that.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
Usually there's a bit of a trade-off between being able to operate well at low voltages and being able to operate well with higher clocks and higher voltages - so it'd make sense that a chip binned for 15W operation might not run as well at 45W as a "genuine" 45W chip, even though they're the same design.