Ryzen is great — so why are most AMD notebooks embarrassingly bad?

[Redaktion]

With Ryzen, AMD has come back to the desktop market as a major competitor to Intel. But what is going on with the state of AMD-based notebooks? Generally made with absolute bottom-rung components such as 1366 x 768 TN panels and slow storage and RAM, it's clear that AMD needs to get Raven Ridge (Ryzen) into laptops as soon as possible — as well as encourage OEMs to put in a little more effort.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ryzen-is-great-so-why-are-most-AMD-notebooks-embarrassingly-bad.237106.0.html

[86lappytester]

To Notebookcheck and all manufacturers designing AMD notebook,

I am of the very few whom still uses AMD products for both desktop as well as notebooks.
Here are my thoughts and it is rather lengthy. 
I owned and used AMD notebooks like AMD notebooks like Asus K42DR based on AMD Phenom II mobile processors (Socket S1) with ATI Radeon 5470M graphics.

That laptop was great, good performance but rather hot under load if the laptop is installed with triple core and quad core CPU. Battery time was not disappointing either, able to withstand 2 hours.

However here in Singapore, AMD OEM products are not that prominent unlike in other countries. Thus, AMD notebooks there are only 1 or 2 models that are being sold, Asus is one of the brand that is being sold here while other brands are absent from SG market.

Moving onto AMD APU mobile platform to me was rather disappointing; I brought Asus X550DP based on AMD Richland platform which comes with AMD A10-5750M with support AMD Dual Graphics compatibility since it is running AMD Radeon 8650G and AMD Radeon 8670M graphics.

That is why I am writing this post to share what I observe about AMD Richland platform like Asus X550DP.

- Slow HDD as the original HDD was a SATA II connected to a SATA III bus
This HDD had very low throughput thus I have changed to a SATA III 7200rpm HDD.
With a faster HDD, the system is much faster and responsive.
- Single channel RAM, it originally came with 4GB thus I changed to a new pair
of DDR3 rams to enabled Dual channel RAM
- Since it was Ultrabook design which means thin design, the fan is rather loud under loud.
For games/3D applications, if AMD Dual graphic is turned on the fan would be even louder.
- Lacklustre driver support, not to mention this laptop is still running Windows 8.1 but not Windows 10 since there was no Windows 10 driver. AMD notebooks that is running AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire ought to have 6 months or a year periodic driver update.
This to ensure that AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire is compatible and it can run properly for newer applications/games. If not like in my experience, with an outdated driver AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire it keeps crashing.
In my case, I had to turn off the AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire through Catalyst software but not BIOS since notebooks BIOS are lock.
- No maintenance hatch to access the RAM/HDD.

Most of my findings are identical to your articles here like slow HDD, in my opinion manufacturers slow down the components of AMD notebooks. This is to minimize the temperature as well as heat generated thus the notebook will not be that warm.

For so long, I have yet to change this AMD notebook as I am patiently waiting for the upcoming Raven Ridge based notebook. I see no point just buying a new AMD APU notebook especially the CPU is still weak since it is still on Bulldozer architecture.

Once I have thought of upgrading my Asus X550DP to Asus X550ZE an updated to the Richland platform. However, I did not go ahead as what I will gain from this increment upgrade other than just improved graphics performance.

Whereas CPU performance since it is on Bulldozer architecture, it is sub-par but however day to day usage it's fine. Thus, my wish for Raven Ridge based notebooks are:

- Include a MSATA storage for OS and a separate Hard disk
Or consider a SSHD hard disk.
- Ensure that the notebook is running Dual channel if not the intergraded graphics is crippled
by single channel memory.
- Proper cooling design in the sense:
If the notebook is running only a APU without a dedicated graphics or AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire function single cooling is fine.
If the notebook is running AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire function which means APU and a dedicated graphics. Ought to have dual cooling if not the fan can be rather loud on Single cooling design.
Since both integrated graphics and dedicated graphics are working hand in hand, the heat output is even more than notebooks with switchable graphics 
- 6 months or a year periodic driver update especially for notebooks running AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire function.
Windows 10 is rather active at hunting for newer drivers, manufacturers ought to be active in this as well.
I have shared my opinion with manufacturers like ASUS, whether they take in my feedback or not I am not sure. However, this AMD Richland notebook of mine.

I hope to pass its baton to a worthy successor which I hope is a Raven Ridge notebook. However, I just hope issues that I encounter are rectify especially driver update for notebooks with AMD Dual graphics/Crossfire function. Thanks for reading this comment.

Max
AMD user (Desktop and Notebook)

[Douglas Black]

Dear Max,

Thank you for sharing your (comprehensive) thoughts!

[Dave Kelly]

One of the best articles I have ever read . Sums up AMD Laptops to a tee .
Now I read this week that we will now have to wait till 2018 for Zen APU laptops .
What the hell are you doing AMD ? , as the article clearly says we need these APUs yesterday and here you are pushing their release back further again .
Time for talk is over so lets see these Zen APUs for xmas .

[Anonymous]

AMD's Zen architecture is a great CPU architecture which is not yet available in mobile CPU's. That's why AMD based laptops aren't very good right now.

The mobile CPU's from AMD that are currently available are based on derivatives of the Bulldozer architecture, not Zen.
Bristol Ridge uses the Steamroller architecture, which is the last derivative of Bulldozer that will ever be made - They didn't even make a desktop chip using Steamroller.
And the GPU architecture used in Bristol Ridge is Polaris.

The Zen architecture is currently used in Summit Ridge chips (8 cores, no GPU, desktop only), and it will be used in Raven Ridge (4 cores + Vega GPU, desktop and mobile).

[Cookie]

9 months later and we're still embarrassed by the "range" of Ryzen mobile laptops. Even worse in the Australian market.
Intel are putting 6 cores in gaming laptops and AMD don't even have a gaming laptop or a 6 core mobile chip. It's a sad time to try to support AMD while buying a laptop