Benchmarking AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Linux Performance With A $450 Lenovo Laptop

[DanL]

I'm sure this Lenovo uses soldered RAM. This is made more significant for AMD, where dual-channel makes a big difference.

Looks like an SODIMM. A 16GB module would be a worthy upgrade, especially if you can sell the 8GB one.
There's only one slot though, so no dual-channel.

[blackshard]

the blender times are interesting: ice/tiger lake can't sustain their high frequencies for very long, so intels benchmark boost is useless there. makes the 5500U even more impressive, despite the zen2 core.

This is absolutely true. Intel is pushing power usage during boost states to catch up in short benchmarks, but longer benchmarks tells the story that their architecture is not so competitive.
I miss a lot performance per watt ratios in this review.

[Michael]

This is absolutely true. Intel is pushing power usage during boost states to catch up in short benchmarks, but longer benchmarks tells the story that their architecture is not so competitive.
I miss a lot performance per watt ratios in this review.

As said in the article, no power metrics since amd_energy doesn't support the CPU.

[Drago]

When searching for a new laptop a couple months ago, I've found a lot of these really fast-but-affordable laptops only came with 8GB of RAM, and were typically soldered on with no upgrade path. I'm sure this Lenovo uses soldered RAM. This is made more significant for AMD, where dual-channel makes a big difference.

Lenovo do have laptops with RAM slots. Check E and L series Thinkpads.

[t.s.]

Lenovo do have laptops with RAM slots. Check E and L series Thinkpads.

And check the price too. Not so affordable.

[coder]

I'm sure there was a focator of chip shortage on new process, contractual obligations to fabs etc.

The contractual obligation around AMD's neck is the one with Global Foundaries, which never made any Zen2 CPUs anyway. There are lots of in-demand dies AMD can fab on 7 nm wafers, including GPUs.

I think this was simply about using a smaller die vs. the larger dies that feature Zen 3.

[mb_q]

Does is suspend to S3 (and wakes up later)? This is a common problem with Ryzen laptops unfortunately.

[edwaleni]

Lenovo Ideapad is a value brand, therefore soldered RAM is the norm. It's not unusual in this market segment to see lots of CPU or a larger screen, but give up flexibility inside the case. If you want more flexibility look at the ThinkPad E series, which in some models uses the same case design, just colored in black.

These advances in the mobility market are having a very positive impacts on the 1L desktop & IoT market as well.

[DanL]

Lenovo Ideapad is a value brand, therefore soldered RAM is the norm.

It has an SODIMM slot: https://download.lenovo.com/consumer...b/s360_hmm.pdf
Now that I look at it again, I think it has 4GB soldered and a 4GB SODIMM. It says 20GB is the maximum, so I'm guessing that's 4GB soldered and a 16GB stick.
AMD has the capability to do partial dual channel ("Flex Mode"), so at least you would have 8GB in dual channel, hopefully including the portion used for VRAM.

[Brane215]

You can see what is to come on Lenovo pages and there are already tests of some of them:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comment...g_models_form/