Get ready for more Chromebooks built with AMD silicon.
On Tuesday, the chip vendor introduced the AMD Ryzen and Athlon 3000 C-Series processors, which promise to deliver thinner, lighter and more powerful Chromebook laptops. Expect the silicon to power at least six new product models from HP, Asus, and Lenovo in the fourth quarter.
The new 15-watt processors represent a major upgrade from last generation’s A6 chips, which were announced in January 2019. In comparison, the Ryzen 3000 C-Series can offer a 110 percent to 178 percent performance increase when running web-based apps on a Chromebook, according to AMD’s benchmarks.
(Credit: AMD)
On graphics, productivity, and photo editing tasks, the chips can also boost the performance by 66 percent to as much as 153 percent, thanks in part to the integrated GPU cores onboard.
(Credit: AMD)
The new silicon marks the first time AMD is bringing its Zen architecture to Chromebooks. But don’t expect any new technology. The company is using the older 12nm Zen+ and 14nm Zen architecture it originally introduced in 2018 and 2017 to build the Ryzen 3000 C-Series.
The Ryzen silicon will be divided in three processors, which scale up from a dual core to a quad core with boost clock speeds ranging from 3.5GHz to 4.0GHz.
(Credit: AMD)
On the lower end, AMD is releasing the Athlon Gold 3150C and the Athlon Silver 3050C, two dual-core processors, which will use the first-generation Zen architecture.
(Credit: HP)
AMD says the chips will power new Chromebooks designed for the consumer, education, and enterprise markets. One of them will be the HP Pro c645 Chromebook, which is slated to arrive in early December.
But Wait, What About Intel?
The new chips are poised to help AMD grow its market share in the Chromebook market. But Intel appears ready to fight back.
On Monday, Intel released a blog post, talking up the benefits of its 11th-generation “Tiger Lake” Core processors, which are also targeting Chromebook devices. To prove its point, the company released some benchmarks pitting a newly announced Core i7-1165G7 against the 10th-gen Core i7-10610U, which was only released in the second quarter.
According to Intel’s test, the 11th-gen will offer up to 28 percent in faster browsing speeds and a 77 percent speed increase when it comes to multi-tasking between multiple windows in a browser. Graphics performance will also be boosted by up to 2.7 times.
(Credit: Intel)
“The performance details shared here provide a glimpse into how and why 11th Generation Intel Core with Iris Xe graphics delivers the world’s best processor for Chromebooks,” Marcus Yam, Intel’s “technology evangelist” wrote in the blog post.
The chipmaker plans on sharing more details about new Intel-powered Chromebooks in the coming months. The company is also teasing that some of the models will be certified under its new Evo platform, which has been challenging PC vendors to create premium laptops that offer fast performance.
