Everything announced at AMD’s CES 2021 keynote

We can all agree that most of 2020 was pretty dismal but at the back end of the year, we saw tech giants like Nvidia and AMD introduce the latest iteration of their incredible hardware with GPUs galore and next-generation Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. Yes, these were plagued by stock shortages but it certainly set 2021 and beyond up as a pretty exciting time for PC owners, gamers, and more.

Now we’re just about into 2021, it’s CES time and with it, AMD has a whole showcase with unveiling even more hardware for enthusiasts to enjoy. We’ll be rounding up all of what was announced so you can be as informed as possible when inevitably trying slot these into your rig.

As usual, AMD CEO Lisa Su was front and center to let us know what AMD has been up to post Radeon RX 6000 series GPU and Ryzen 5000 series CPU developments. First though, she took a look back at 2020 and the way AMD helped researchers around the world combat the difficulties of the COVID 19 pandemic. Su also stated that AMD provided 12 petaflops of processing power to different institutions over the year.

There was also lot of talk around the strong partnerships developed with other tech conglomerates such as Microsoft, HP, Lucasfilm, and Lenovo. But, we won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty and get straight into the product announcements and what’s to come for AMD in 2021.

As previously mentioned, AMD launched its Ryzen 5000 series processors in late 2020, really opening up the power both for creative and gaming users. Now, these processors are being included in the latest ultra-thin and gaming laptops to bring that performance to portable devices, providing users with the option to not be tied down to a hefty machine.

There were three Ryzen 5000 series CPUs that were officially announced for laptops – the Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 9 5900HX, and Ryzen 9 5980HX.

The Ryzen 7 5800U comes in with 8 cores, 16 threads, and a 4.4GHz boosted clock, bringing desktop capabilities in new thin and light laptops. The introduction of the Ryzen 7 5800U showcases a bunch of advantages over its Intel counterpart in areas such as Content Creation, Video Encoding, and Design & Visualization. Content Creation sees an 18% uplift, Video Encoding at 44%, and Design & Visualization at 39%, really detailing that Ryzen powered laptops are the way forward for 2021.

The two other Ryzen mobile chips simply have one thing in mind – gaming. Both the Ryzen 9 5900HX and Ryzen 9 5980HX aim to again, give you desktop performance while on a tiny, portable device with their incredible specs. The Ryzen 9 5900HX details 8 cores, 16 threads, and a boosted clock of up to 4.6GHz whereas the even more powerful Ryzen 9 5980HX takes that one step further thanks to its 8 cores, 16 threads, and a boosted clock of up to 4.8GHz. When put to the test, we saw Horizon Zero Dawn running at over 100 FPS on 1080p high settings, extremely impressive considering where we were with laptop gaming just a few short years ago.

Similar to that of their desktop counterparts, these mobile processors run off a lower wattage than what you’d traditionally expect. This has a massive knock-on effect for laptops and the longevity of battery life you’ll be able to squeeze out of them. Su stated that with the Zen 3 architecture chips, you’ll be looking at up to 17.5 hours of general usage and up to 21 hours of movie playback. This a huge step in the right direction for improving the multi-faceted usage of laptops and makes them even more attractive for traveling business users.

You won’t have to wait long for these next-generation laptops either with Su stating that you can expect to pick up this new tech from February 2021.

Along with Ryzen 5000 series CPUs being packed into portable devices, it seems there’s also going to be Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs slotted in alongside them. This also sees the introduction of RDNA 2 architecture for these gaming laptops, massively improving performance over the previous generation. You’ll be able to take advantage of two times the performance over Radeon RC 5700XT laptop variants, 65% generational performance-per-watt improvement, and DX12 Ultimate experience. All of these combine to provide 1440p gaming with ease, showcasing over 60 FPS in games such as Dirt 5.

Su also sneakily alluded to new 6000 series desktop GPUs coming in the first quarter of 2021, maybe suggesting lower-priced models such as the 6700 and 6600.

Finally, there was a small inclusion of the work AMD is doing with cloud server solutions and more importantly, the hardware that goes into them. This means the introduction of third-generation Epyc processors named Milan. These come in as the world’s highest performance x86 server processors while also delivering the best value for businesses. When compared to their Intel rivals simulating weather and forecast models, the Epyc processors managed to complete it 68% faster, and incredible feat and one that Intel will be reeling from.

Overall, this was another fantastic showing for AMD and how they’re really trying to continually improve their tech to aid PC users, gamers, and portable device owners. With the announcements of Ryzen 5000 series and Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs laptops, there’s no better time to secure a portable machine, maybe to replace your bulky desktop, or to take your high-performance computing on the go.

Intel is certainly going to have a serious battle on its hands if they want to even try and compete with the power and performance of the components Su’s team is putting out there so let’s see how those 11th gen processors perform post-launch.