AMD muddies the laptop CPU waters again with a Zen 4 refresh. So, where are our actual next-gen Zen 5 chips?

Now that the next-gen graphics cards have made their entrance, we've started seeing some high-end next-gen laptops file through, too. These tend to feature Intel Core Ultra 200H-series or AMD Ryzen AI HX 300-series processors, but before long we might start seeing AMD Ryzen 8000HX-series 'Dragon Range Refresh' chips inside gaming laptops.

AMD has just announced these chips, and there are four of them so far, the AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX, Ryzen 7 8840HX, Ryzen 9 8940HX, and Ryzen 9 8945HX (via Tom's Hardware). These aren't fully next-gen processors, though. They look almost identical to the previous-gen 7000-HX chips, as they're just a refreshed range of the same Zen 4 chips for the new generation of laptops. Here are the specs:

For those unaware, the 'HX' designates that these are essentially (but not quite) full-blown desktop chips crammed into mobile devices. This means they should be more powerful than other chips (Ryzen 'HS' ones, for instance) but also consume more power. As you can see in the table above, they also have a bunch of cache, which is great for gaming.

There is one slight difference between this range and the previous-gen one, and that's that the Ryzen 9 8940HX is 100 MHz faster than the Ryzen 9 7940HX on the boost clock. That might get you a fraction of a frame here or there, but I doubt it'll amount to much. In all important respects, these chips are practically identical to their predecessors.

What makes them important is just that they should come to reside in at least some of the best gaming laptops over the coming months and offer performance that can properly match the new high-end Nvidia GPUs. Having configurable TDPs of up to 75 W is no joke, nor are the mid-5 GHz boost clocks.

Of course, an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 gaming laptop paired with an AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX or Ryzen 9 8945HX is sure to be a battery-guzzling, heat-producing beast, so I wouldn't expect the sleekest and coolest laptops to run such configurations. But for those looking for sheer horsepower, these Dragon Range chips should offer a lot.

If you spot any decent laptops with a previous-gen Ryzen 7000HX chip inside, you won't be losing out on much of anything compared to these new ones, and you might save a bit of money by opting for it. But if you want a current-gen GPU, these will probably be paired with the newly refreshed 8000HX chips listed here.

We should also note that properly next-gen Zen 5 chips are on the way too, in the form of AMD's 'Fire Range' 9000HX-series processors. That, crucially, will include at least one X3D chip in the form of the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, announced at CES earlier this year. They're supposedly due in the first half of this year, which means they've got less than two months to make an appearance.

If you want true top-of-the-line, this X3D Fire Range chip will be where it's at—the latest architecture, plus a dollop of 3D V-Cache. I dare say it'll be a tad more expensive than this refreshed Zen 4 8000HX line-up, though.

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