The AMD Ryzen 7040 series (Phoenix Point) was launched earlier this year. However, the chip manufacturer seems to have an update ready in the form of the Ryzen 8040 series (Hawk Point). They will not try to compete with the best gaming CPUs or with the best budget CPUs, at least not directly, as they are primarily intended for use in laptops. However, budget gaming laptops may consider them a valuable addition.
Phoenix Point brought AMD’s Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3 graphics to the market for ultra-thin laptops in 35W–54W HS and 15W–30W U flavors. However, Phoenix had a rough launch, with AMD promising a March release, but missing the deadline and not shipping the Zen 4 chips to partners until April. This means that it wasn’t until after May that we started to see laptops with Phoenix in retail. In other words, Phoenix has not been on the market for very long, so it’s a bit surprising to see AMD planning an update so early in the lifecycle.
Hardware detective Bank Leaks discovered the Geekbench 6 results for the Ryzen 9 8940H, Ryzen 7 8840HS, and Ryzen 5 8640HS. It seems that AMD is maintaining a similar lineup to the Phoenix HS series, with only three models. Geekbench 6 also reports the Hawk Point chips as Phoenix, suggesting that AMD is simply rehashing the Phoenix silicon for the new processors.
The Ryzen 8040 series continues to use Zen 4 cores, but the graphics engine remains uncertain. Early rumors pointed to Hawk Point with RDNA 3.5 graphics, a slight improvement over RDNA 3. We do not expect AMD to increase core counts, so if there is any improvement in RDNA 3.5, it would be higher clock speeds or perhaps integrated L3 cache for the GPU. Unfortunately, Geekbench 6 does not expose the iGPU specifications, so we cannot confirm any of the initial speculations.
Specifications of the AMD Ryzen 8040 Hawk Point
Model | Cores/Threads | Boost/Base Frequency (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | Graphics | Graphics Core Count | Graphics Frequency (MHz) | TDP (W) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ryzen9 8940H | 16/08 | ? | 4,0 | Radeon 780M | 12 | ? | 35-54 |
Ryzen 9 7940HS | 16/08 | 5.2/4.0 | 16 | Radeon 780M | 12 | 2,800 | 35-54 |
Ryzen7 8840HS | 16/08 | ? | 3.8/16 | Radeon 780M | 12 | ? | 35-54 |
The Ryzen 9 8940H and the Ryzen 7 8840HS are 8 cores/16 threads, while the Ryzen 5 8640HS has a 6 cores/12 threads configuration. The core count is the same as their Phoenix predecessors. All Hawk Point and Phoenix CPUs have a configurable TDP of 35-54 watts. However, the Ryzen 9 parts will generally be sold in laptops using the 54W configuration, while the others tend more towards the lower end of the 35W spectrum.
The base clock speeds seem unchanged in the Ryzen 8040 series. The Ryzen 9 8940H, Ryzen 7 8840HS, and Ryzen 5 8640HS run at 4.0 GHz, 3.8 GHz, and 4.3 GHz, respectively, the same as their Phoenix counterparts. The maximum boost clocks are unknown, although the Geekbench 6 shows slightly above 5.1 GHz for the Ryzen 9 8940H, 5.0 GHz for the Ryzen 7 8840HS, and 4.9 GHz for the Ryzen 5 8640HS. These reported values are aligned with the Phoenix boost clock speeds (minus 100 MHz in each case, as we are looking at real-world clocks instead of maximum boost here).
The Geekbench 6 corroborated that the Ryzen 9 8940H and the Ryzen 7 8840HS use the Radeon 780M, while the Ryzen 5 8640HS was downgraded to the Radeon 760M. As the leaked benchmarks assess processor performance, we don’t get to see the iGPU clock speed.
Market Comparisons for AMD Ryzen 8040 Hawk Point
Model | Single Core Score | Multi-Core Score |
---|---|---|
Ryzen9 8940H | 2,512 | 13,104 |
Ryzen 9 7940HS | 2,485 | 11,829 |
Ryzen7 8840HS | 2,286 | 11,550 |
Ryzen 7 7840HS | 2,397 | 11,112 |
Ryzen 5 8640HS | 2,276 | 10,469 |
Ryzen 5 7640HS | 2,323 | 8,903 |
The usual disclaimer of salt splashes applies to these initial benchmarks. The results for Hawk Point were single runs, while the scores for Phoenix are the aggregated results from the Geekbench 6 database. There is a significant difference in sample size, and the benchmarks were not run on the same laptops.
The Ryzen 9 8940H was only 1% faster than the Ryzen 9 7940HS in single-core performance, but 11% faster in multi-core performance. This is the biggest outlier, but considering the 7940HS may have results from both 35W and 54W laptops, we expect a single result run at 54W to be higher. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 7840HS showed 5% higher single-core performance than the Ryzen 7 8840HS, while the Ryzen 7 8840HS exhibited 4% higher single-core performance than the Ryzen 7 7840HS.
Lastly, the Ryzen 5 7640HS outperformed the Ryzen 5 8640HS by a 2% margin in single-core performance. However, the Ryzen 5 8640HS took revenge in the multi-core test, where it surpassed the Ryzen 5 7640HS by a significant 18% delta. Again, it’s hard to tell how relevant these general comparisons versus single results may be, but it is possible that AMD has managed to fine-tune to sustain higher clocks in multithread workloads.
AMD will most likely release Hawk Point next year, probably sooner rather than later, although the new chips do not represent a major performance leap from Phoenix Point. For that, consumers will have to wait for Strix Point, which may also arrive next year. Strix Point will leverage AMD’s upcoming Zen 5 microarchitecture, so a more significant generational performance increase is expected. However, the graphics portion will not receive the same treatment as Strix Point is still expected to come with the RDNA 3.5 graphics engine.
Intel will release Meteor Lake for laptops on December 14, so the chips will be on the market soon. It makes sense for AMD to update Phoenix Point to remain competitive in the mobile segment compared to Meteor Lake. It is still unknown how they will perform.