AMD is preparing a lighter version of its Ryzen 7 mobile processor: analysis and characteristics

• AMD could release a less powerful version of the Ryzen 7 8845HS without the XDNA NPU.
• The Ryzen 7 8745HS will retain the same specifications as the 8845HS, but without the AI ​​processing capabilities.

There are rumors that AMD is preparing a slightly improved version of the Ryzen 7 8845HS APU. This chip will have its own XDNA NPU, leaving the rest intact, which shouldn't affect overall performance.

According to hardware leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, AMD could be working on a variant of the Ryzen 7 8845HS Hawk Point APU with the XDNA NPU (Neural Processing Unit) disabled. This chip is called the Ryzen 7 8745HS, and it should retain all the features of the 8845HS except for the AI ​​processing capabilities.

In other words, the 8745HS is expected to feature eight Zen 4 cores clocked at up to 5.1GHz, plus 12 RDNA 3 compute units clocked at 2.7GHz on the Radeon 780M iGPU. The chip should retain its configurable TDP range of 35-54W, since the missing XDNA NPU isn't the most power-hungry part, as far as we know.

Additionally, since the AI ​​capabilities of the Ryzen 8000 mobile chips were not enough to qualify for Microsoft’s Copilot+ certification, there should be no confusion regarding its AI capabilities. This is understandable since the entire chip — CPU, GPU, and NPU — is only capable of delivering 38 TOPS of AI power, while Microsoft requires at least 40 TOPS for its Copilot+ feature. With the loss of the NPU, this processor’s AI capabilities drop by 16 TOPS, to the 25 TOPS provided by the CPU and iGPU.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen chipmakers, whether Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA, partially reduce defective silicon to avoid waste. However, this is the first time we’ve seen it involving an NPU, because before the advent of AI, desktop chips were mostly CPU cores and sometimes GPUs.

Even if this rumor turns out to be true, which is not far-fetched, AMD may not make it available to all manufacturers, offering it as part of a brand exclusivity deal due to potentially low stock. This wouldn’t be the first time, as it recently offered the Ryzen 5 5600X3D exclusivity to Micro Center.