AMD launches Ryzen Pro 7040 series: an AI-enhanced Core i7 killer for professional laptops

AMD has taken aim at both Apple and Intel with its latest range of mobile processors, the AMD Ryzen Pro 7040 series. Its promise to buyers? That it beats its rivals for performance, graphics capabilities and even battery life.

As the “Pro” in its name indicates, these chips are designed for commercial laptops. AMD’s hope is that IT managers will choose a Ryzen Pro-powered system rather than one featuring an Intel vPro chip.

Matthew Unangst, senior product manager at AMD, was bullish in an exclusive briefing for European journalists. “The Ryzen Pro 7840U stands alone. It’s the only product among these [see the graphic below for the rival chips] that can deliver great multitasking performance, the best processor performance and deliver on the power efficiency and battery life that is leading in the industry.”

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U versus Apple M2

Quite apart from Intel, Unangst believes that its 7840U chip is also a superior performer to the Apple M2 opposition. In particular, it cited 18% better responsiveness, 3% superior multitasking and a 6% combined boost compared to the ten-core M2 Pro.

“If we take a look specifically at our Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U against the Apple M2 Pro, we see that with a Ryzen 7 Pro we still deliver great performance, leadership performance in fact, head to head,” said Unangst.

What of battery life, you ask? Here, AMD compared the 7840U against its hand-picked rivals in a “real-world” scenario of taking part in a Microsoft Teams video conference whilst running a number of Microsoft Office applications in parallel. You won’t be surprised to see that, according to AMD, its solution won out in style.

AI in the AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7040 series

AMD’s final piece in the jigsaw is down to AI. “The journey around AI is just the beginning,” said Unangst. “And with our Ryzen Pro 7040 products, we’re going to start that journey with a focus on advanced video collaboration.

“We’ve worked hand in hand with Microsoft to enable a set of capabilities around Windows Studio effects. Utilising Ryzen AI technology in the Ryzen Pro 7040, we will deliver enhanced capabilities around video conferencing that will deliver a better video conferencing experience.”

In practice, that means enhanced background blurs, auto framing (so the camera follows you) and eye-gaze correction. But, as the slide below indicates, this is just one of the chip’s promised abilities. We look forward to trying it in practice ourselves soon, with HP and Lenovo laptops based on the Ryzen 7040 series processors starting this month.