Report: Ryzen "Raven Ridge" APU Not Using HBM2 Memory

[zakhrov]

AMD never actually said that their zen based APUs will have HBM or HBM2 memory integrated on die. That said the integrated Vega 10 GPU should easily keep up with most games on low to medium settings and be much smoother than any Intel integrated graphics this side of the Iris pro. Remember that the Ryzen 2700U and 2500U are going up against Kabylake-U which are 15W processors.

[zakhrov]

However, I completely agree with the single-channel memory being very unfortunate. What were they thinking? .

That is typical OEM backstabbing when it comes to AMD laptops. Even the older Bristol ridge was bogged down by horrible configurations from OEMs. Single channel memory, thermal and power limits that neutered performance and inferior quality components.

[zakhrov]

The Ideal Raven Ridge Laptop:

Ryzen 2500U/2700U configured at 35W TDP
16 GB of DDR4 2600/3200 in dual channel
256GB NVME SSD + 1TB SATA HDD
65WHr or higher 6-cell Li-ion battery
15.6" or 17.3 " 1080p or 1440p screen with freesync

Unfortunately we will never see something like this

[haplo602]

FYI: you can place 2 DIMMS on the same memory channel too.

A lot of AMD APU laptops have 2 goddamn DIMM slots, but they are SINGLE memory channel regardless. Check with Speccy from windows, or google up terminal commands to do that from Linux.

It's a thin and kinda cheap laptop, putting 2 slot single channel config makes no sense .... it complicates the BOM

[molecule-eye]

I'm pretty sure the HP Envy x360 is dual channel. They have an 8GB, 12GB and 16GB dual channel models. I don't see any single channel models, unless the guys at fudzilla took a stick out.

[starshipeleven]

It's a thin and kinda cheap laptop, putting 2 slot single channel config makes no sense .... it complicates the BOM

I don't know enough to refute your statement, I just know that OEMs always placed AMD APUs in single channel even when they had 2 slots, and this is a fact you can confirm easily by googling and seeing all the cringing at that.

[starshipeleven]

I'm pretty sure the HP Envy x360 is dual channel. They have an 8GB, 12GB and 16GB dual channel models. I don't see any single channel models, unless the guys at fudzilla took a stick out.

aaaand another misguided one.
you can have single-channel with dual DIMM slots too, and this was done extensively with older AMD APUs.

[ckonte]

aaaand another misguided one.
you can have single-channel with dual DIMM slots too, and this was done extensively with older AMD APUs.

That's not the case. Here are the configurations available from HP store:

• 8 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2 x 4 GB)Included in price
• 12 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (1 x 4 GB, 1 x 8 GB)+$70.00
• 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)+$150.00

I read Phoronix since a long time ago and I find it extremely interesting (thanks Michael!), but I'm quite disappointed about the quality of this article: pure misinformation.

[molecule-eye]

aaaand another misguided one.
you can have single-channel with dual DIMM slots too, and this was done extensively with older AMD APUs.

aaaaaand no. I'm not talking about just having dual dimm slots, I'm talking about both being populated. How about have a look at their website: http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-env...uch-1za07av-1? Also, there's a reddit thread about one of the models (8gb?) where a user cracked it open and actually saw--with his own eyeballs!--two sticks of RAM in there.

[molecule-eye]

FYI: you can place 2 DIMMS on the same memory channel too.

A lot of AMD APU laptops have 2 goddamn DIMM slots, but they are SINGLE memory channel regardless. Check with Speccy from windows, or google up terminal commands to do that from Linux.

It's true that not all apu chipsets in the past supported dual channel memory (even if they had two dimm slots), but unless you prove that the chipset used in the envy doesn't support dual channel memory, I won't believe it.