AMD launches Ryzen 5 2500U and Ryzen 7 2700U APUs with integrated Radeon Vega graphics

First Ryzen APUs will feature in ultra-thin and light laptops from Acer, HP and Lenovo, which will be out in weeks

AMD has today released its long-awaited Ryzen-based APUs, featuring the Zen microarchitecture integrated with Radeon Vega GPU cores, modified for laptops and mobile devices.

Officially termed the "Ryzen processor with Radeon Vega graphics", the company claims its 15W Ryzen 7 2700U leaves a 91W Intel Kaby Lake Core i5-7600K desktop CPU in the dust in its favoured Cinebench benchmark.

However, the company has released just two parts, the Ryzen 5 2500U and the Ryzen 7 2700U, whose availability will be focused on high-end laptops from jsut manufacturers - Acer, HP and Lenovo - to ensure plentiful availability in time for the Christmas sales season.

The company is pitching its APUs for both gaming and professional applications in ultra-thin and light laptop and 2-in-1 form factors.

The two parts are fairly similar, and pretty much as specified in leaks earlier this month. Both offer four cores and eight threads: the Ryzen 5 2500U runs at a standard 2GHz, but can boost up to wind-in-the-hair 3.6GHz; the Ryzen 7 2700U, meanwhile, runs at a standard 2.2GHz and can boost to 3.8GHz, as the mood takes it.

The devices, AMD claims, are 24 per cent thinner than its less-than-stellar seventh-generation offerings. Both APUs come with integrated Radeon Vega M graphics, a modified version of the Vega core that ought to run cooler than the standard desktop Vega parts .

However, AMD hasn't yet revealed the price.

The company claims that its Ryzen 7 2700U APU will offer 200 per cent more CPU performance and 128 per cent more GPU performance compared to its seventh-generation offerings, while consuming 58 per cent less power.

The APUs, of course, come with all the usual Ryzen SenseMI performance features, including Precision Boost 2, Mobile XFR cooling, Neural Net Prediction and Smart Prefetch, as well as Pure Power ‘smart sensors' to optimise power consumption.

Precision Boost 2 is governed by CPU temperature, current and load, and offers an all-core boost at 25MHz increments.

Mobile XFR, meanwhile, promises "sustained clock speeds in premium notebooks with great cooling solutions". AMD claims that it can improve Ryzen performance by 23 per cent in its favourite Cinebench benchmark.

The emphasis on "cooling solutions" indicate, perhaps, that the APU carries with it heat dissipation issues, which shouldn't really be a surprise given the water-cooled Vega high-end graphics card AMD released just months ago.

However, properly implemented, the Ryzen APUs should provide AMD with a compelling argument for makers of laptops, 2-in-1s and other similar devices.