Advanced Micro Devices Inc. today introduced a new line of laptop processors, the Ryzen 7040U series, that promises to outperform the M2 chip in Apple Inc.’s latest MacBooks.

The Ryzen 7040U series features four central processing units on launch. All four chips are designed to power ultrabooks, or lightweight laptops with a long battery life. Because such machines usually don’t include a standalone graphics processing unit, the new CPUs have one built in to speed up applications.

The chips are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. using a four-nanometer process and feature AMD’s latest Zen 4 CPU core design. Compared with the previous-generation design, Zen 4 provides a 13% increase in instructions per cycle, a measure of chip performance. It also adds cybersecurity and artificial intelligence optimizations.

The most advanced CPU in the new Ryzen 7040U series is the Ryzen 7840U, which combines eight Zen 4 cores with 12 GPU cores. The latter modules are based on AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture. Like Zen 4, the architecture offers faster performance than AMD’s previous-generation GPU technology as well as optimizations designed to speed up AI software.

The 7840U has a default clock speed of 3.3 gigahertz. It can accelerate to 5.1 gigahertz when running demanding applications and run up to 12 processor threads at once.

According to AMD, the 7840U can provide higher performance than Apple’s laptop M2 chip under certain conditions. The M2 debuted last June and powers several of the iPhone maker’s newest MacBooks. It features 20 billion transistors made using a five-nanometer process. 

In an evaluation conducted by AMD, the 7840U completed the PassMark 10 benchmark test 75% faster than Apple’s M2. According to the chipmaker, the evaluation also determined that the 7840U can run browsers 5% faster and speed up some creative applications by 9%.

AMD says the performance improvements are even more significant when the chip is compared with Intel Corp.’s Core i7-1360P laptop chip. According to the company, the 7840U can run some productivity applications up to 39% faster. It also promises to provide 29% higher performance for web browsers. 

The chip’s performance is only partly the result of its Zen 4 CPU cores and built-in GPU. The 7840U also includes an AI module, dubbed Ryzen AI, that is described as the first of its kind in the laptop CPU market. It’s based on technology that AMD obtained through its $50 billion purchase of chipmaker Xilinx Inc., which closed last year.

The AI module is also available as part of the 7640U, the second most advanced chip in the new Ryzen 7040U chip series. The 7640U features six CPU cores, or two less than the flagship 7840U. The remaining processors in the series feature four cores.

Image: AMD