We said it a few days ago, for us AMD’s biggest mistake is its APUs, an idea that, although it is excellent on paper and whose technology has allowed us to create excellent chips like the one in the different PlayStation and Xbox, on PC they feel grounded. from no one. Since they are in no man’s land, they are not attractive for any particular use. The consequences? Having to improvise new versions to output these processors, as is the case at hand.
AMD laptop and desktop processors
Desktop CPUs usually go to a socket that allows us to install and uninstall them from the motherboard, however, the reality is that what both Intel and AMD do is solder their processors to a small board that we call Interposer and it is in charge of routing the pins of the chip to the socket. This allows things like porting chips from desktop to laptop, where the mid-board is removed from the equation, or vice versa, where the chip is soldered onto it.
Well, AMD decided to move its Ryzen microprocessors for laptops, which are different chips from desktop ones, to be able to be installed on AM4-compatible motherboards. We are referring to the Ryzen 4000G and Ryzen 5000G, which were initially targeted at the pre-built PC market before being sold in the box. They’re really just a way for Lisa Su’s company to get rid of surplus laptop chips. The differences with respect to the conventional versions? A much more powerful integrated GPU, but a reduced processing capacity due to having less cache.
AMD APUs will return to the desktop, this time for socket AM5
Just when we thought that AMD’s so-called APUs were not going to return for desktop computers, we came across the rumor that in a short time we would have three types of processors compatible with the AM5 boards of the Ryzen 7000, one of them is the ones that are already found on the market, while the other two would be in the first place the Ryzen 6000G based on the architecture of the same name that appeared last year for laptops and which was based on the Zen 3+ architecture. The ones we would have left would be the current Ryzen 7040 for laptops that would also have their desktop version.
All this supposes the return of AMD APUs for desktop computers, after their long absence, not surprisingly, the last launch of this type dates from 2021. However, this paints the scenario that they do not manage to place all the chips they wanted on laptops. After all, these AM5 socket chips were not planned on the company’s roadmap. In other words, as we have said before, it is an exercise in cleaning up stock.
In any case, it is not about seeing everything from the negative side, for those who want to have a MiniPC with everything integrated and without additional expansion capabilities, these chips are the ones that give the best performance of all. What’s more, now we can assemble our low-cost box and not pay premiums for the complete configuration.
