Ryzen AI 7 Pro 160 bests previous-gen Ryzen 9 — chip hits Geekbench with three Zen 5 and five Zen 5c cores

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Performance is better than previous generation Zen 4-based Ryzen 9 processors

Ryzen Mobile CPU
Ryzen Mobile CPU (Image credit: AMD)

AMD's two new Ryzen AI 9 HX 300 processors are the only Zen 5-based mobile chips on the market so far. But that could change soon; Benchleaks on X (Twitter) has discovered the first non-Ryzen 9 AI-series CPU from AMD in the Geekbench browser, featuring the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 160 with just eight Zen 5/Zen5c cores.

The new CPU is undoubtedly one of AMD's upcoming lower-end SKUs that will join the CPU manufacturer's lineup of outgoing Ryzen AI 300 series processors. Adding the 'Pro' nomenclature confirms that AMD will make professional/business variants of the AI 300 series, just as it has done with previous CPU generations. The 100 series nomenclature is a naming scheme AMD officially changed at the last minute before the Ryzen AI 300 series debut. As a result, we can expect this new chip to be changed to 300 series nomenclature when it hits the market.

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Geekbench Benchmark Results
CPUs:Single Core ResultsMulti Core Results
Ryzen AI 7 Pro 1602,51411,772
Ryzen AI 9 HX 3702,54414,158
Ryzen 9 8945HS2,38711,654
Ryzen 9 7945HX3D2,82016,460
Core Ultra 9 185H2,26612,133
Intel Core i7-14700HX2,49013,420
Intel Core i5-14500HX2,35013,505

According to the Geekbench spec sheet, the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 160 sports eight cores in two clusters, one holding three cores and the other five cores. The first cluster houses Zen 5 cores, while the other houses more power-efficient Zen 5c cores. The chip also comes with Radeon 870M integrated graphics, a new mid-range RDNA 3.5-based iGPU that will compliment the flagship Radeon 890M launched with the Ryzen 9-based AI 300 series variants.

One strange addition is the L3 cache capacity, which comes in at just 8MB. This could be an error on Geekbench's part, but if this information is correct, it represents a significant reduction in L3 cache compared to previous generation parts which had 16MB (desktop variants have up to 32MB).

Geekbench performance is within striking distance of the previous generation Ryzen 9 8945HS, which also comes with eight cores. The 'AI Pro 160' chip yielded a single-core result of 2,514 points and a multi-core score of 11,772 points, respectively. The Ryzen 9 8945HS yielded a slightly slower score of 2,387 points and 11,654 points, respectively, in the single and multi-core Geekbench benchmarks. This represents a 5% advantage and 1% advantage in the single -and multi-core results in favor of the Ryzen 7 AI Pro 160.

Assuming these benchmark results showcase the real-world performance of the new AI pro 160 chip, these results provide evidence that AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 7 parts will perform very similarly to its previous generation Ryzen 9 chips. Users will be able to opt for a Ryzen AI 300 Ryzen 7 part (when they come out) and know they will get previous-generation Ryzen 9 performance.

Compared to Intel, the new Ryzen 7 part outperforms Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H but doesn't have enough juice to outperform Intel's more performance-oriented mobile processors (based on Raptor Lake Refresh), such as the Core i5-14500HX and Core i7-14700H. But these Raptor Lake parts are much more inefficient than AMD's Zen 5 processors, so it isn't an all-out win for Intel. AMD's Ryzen AI 300 series CPUs (including the new Ryzen 7 part) all target a balance of power efficiency and performance to work best inside thin and light laptops. By contrast, Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh parts are mainly aimed at high-performance laptops, such as big bulky gaming laptops. The best comparison is from the Core Ultra 9 185H, Intel's closest competitor (until Lunar Lake debuts) to the new Ryzen AI 300 series.

As previously stated, we expect this Ryzen AI 7 Pro 160 processor to arrive in the future but rebranded to AMD's official 300 naming scheme, which the company switched to right before Computex 2024. With eight core Ryzen 7 Pro processors on the horizon, we can expect mainstream Ryzen 7 parts, as well as Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 parts, to come in the not-too-distant future.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Metal Messiah.
    We might also be looking at AMD's new "Kraken Point" lineup of processors. That would also explain why it is called the Ryzen AI 7, and not Ryzen AI 3xx.

    But since we are dealing with an early sample here, there is no sure way to fully confirm whether this is indeed a Kraken Point SKU.

    Moreover, Kraken Point is actually rumored to have a 4 Zen 5 and 4 Zen 5C configuration instead.


    The chip also comes with Radeon 870M integrated graphics, a new mid-range RDNA 3.5-based iGPU that will compliment the flagship Radeon 890M launched with the Ryzen 9-based AI 300 series variants.

    But since this Ryzen Strix Point chip spotted is an early engineering sample/ES before AMD decided to switch to the new "300" series branding, then most probably the igpu could also be the 880M processor.

    Because the 880M igpu was also earlier dubbed as "870M".

    Also at Computex most of the companies were showcasing prototype Laptops running early samples of this APU. Even the Ryzen AI 9 365 was previously codenamed as "Ryzen AI 9 165" sporting the 870M igpu.


    https://i.imgur.com/gSTX01f.jpeg

    One strange addition is the L3 cache capacity, which comes in at just 8MB. This could be an error on Geekbench's part, but if this information is correct, it represents a significant reduction in L3 cache compared to previous generation parts which had 16MB

    Nothing strange. The Ryzen AI 7 parts will sport less L3 cache. There is no error here. Also make a note that we are dealing with an early engineering sample here.


    Adding the 'Pro' nomenclature confirms that AMD will make professional/business variants of the AI 300 series, just as it has done with previous CPU generations

    PRO variants were already confirmed before. Expect the Ryzen AI 300 PRO SKUs to be released by October, which would be six months after the Ryzen PRO 8000 series launch.

    1808699762377642252View: https://x.com/AnhPhuH/status/1808699762377642252

    So based on this Geekbench leak, we are looking at the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 SKU.
    .
    Reply
  • Notton
    "...outgoing Ryzen AI 300 series processor"
    did you mean incoming?
    outgoing means "retiring" or "withdrawing"
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    That reminds me of outgoing vs incoming call logs ! This author always uses the term "outgoing" for current CPU/GPU products in his write-up, which of course is incorrect/misleading.
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    I was just digging in the Geekbench entry and the code, and it appears the chip isn't throttling, but despite that the chip had a very low boost clock speed of up to 4.3 GHz.

    Also, the Lenovo laptop system's 64 GB of DDR5 RAM was just rated at just 1,870 MT/s, which is indeed very slow. This has also effected the overall scores. So the final retail silicon should perform even better.


    https://i.imgur.com/LbZwrnw.png
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    Are these business and enterprise processors? The "Pro" monicker means we could be looking at some exclusive features for these chips.

    Never heard of Kracken Point before anyway though. 😎
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    This can't be any coincidence. The Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 "Strix" APU has also been spotted within BAPCO's CrossMark benchmark.

    And yes, like I highlighted before in my previous post, this chip sports the 880M igpu, and not the 870M as this new Geekbench leak shows, and as the article claims.

    FWIW, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip was also spotted as well. Both were using the LPDDR5-7500 memory configuration. Poor scores by the way !

    Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 HP laptop.

    Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 Lenovo laptop.


    https://i.imgur.com/kxgZGJG.png

    https://i.imgur.com/5Joocbt.png
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    The controversial BAPCO bench is back? Lulz😀
    Reply
  • usertests
    Metal Messiah. said:
    But since we are dealing with an early sample here, there is no sure way to fully confirm whether this is indeed a Kraken Point SKU.
    It was obvious to me that a SKU like this would exist, disabling some amount of cores on each cluster since it's possible to have a bad core on both. I wonder if this is the lowest form of the Strix Point die, or if they could do a 2+4 as well (completely intersecting with Kraken).

    TechyIT223 said:
    Never heard of Kracken Point before anyway though. 😎
    Kraken Point is to Strix Point, as "Little Phoenix"/Phoenix2 is to Phoenix/Hawk Point (which ended up being used in the low-end 8300G/8500G desktop APUs). Kraken is a smaller die presumed to have 4+4 cores, and 8 CUs.

    AMD has done crazy things like disable 8-core APU dies into 2-cores before (e.g. the Ryzen 3 5125C Chromebook chip). Now that they have more money and confidence, they can just make smaller dies to target more segments so they aren't wasting good dies.

    Below Kraken Point, we may see a Mendocino successor "Sonoma Valley" with 0+4 cores. Going from Zen 2 to Zen 5C would be great for that segment.
    Reply
  • Metal Messiah.
    usertests said:
    It was obvious to me that a SKU like this would exist, disabling some amount of cores on each cluster since it's possible to have a bad core on both. I wonder if this is the lowest form of the Strix Point die, or if they could do a 2+4 as well (completely intersecting with Kraken).

    Well not sure about the final config of this Strix Point variant/Kraken Point, but a 2+4 core config wouldn't be out of equation either.

    I doubt this one is the lowest die though, since it sports the 880M igpu, a 12CU part. And as per rumors Kraken Point was supposed to feature only 4 WGPs or 8 Compute Units.

    So either this is some other Strix Point variant, and not Kraken Point as we assume, but nothing can be confirmed from this leak.
    Reply
  • usertests
    Metal Messiah. said:
    So either this is some other Strix Point variant, and not Kraken Point as we assume, but nothing can be confirmed from this leak.
    If 3+5 is correct, then it's pretty much certain that it has to be the 12-core Strix Point die with 1 Zen 5 core and 3 Zen 5C cores disabled. Unless a whole lotta leaks are wrong of course.
    Reply