AMD Ryzen 5 4600U Review

Get to know the Ryzen 5 4600U! This Laptop processor is a beast in AMD's mid-range-low-power series. Launched in 2020, it's armed with 6 cores and 12 threads. It runs at a base frequency of 2.1GHz, can boost up to 4GHz, and has a power requirement of 15W, ready to power up your gaming rig. The Ryzen 5 4600U is a product of the Renoir 7nm process and is a part of the acclaimed Ryzen 5 series.

And guess what? The Ryzen 5 4600U is the ultimate successor to AMD's previous-gen gaming champion, the Ryzen 5 3580U. The Ryzen 5 3580U was based on the legendary Zen+ and 12nm process, and it made its grand entrance into the gaming scene back in 2019. But now, it's time for the Ryzen 5 4600U to take the throne and conquer the gaming world!

This CPU packs 6 cores and 12 threads, the first time this many come in a mainstream package! Plus, it costs about the same as the Core i5-9400H, which only has 4 cores and 8 threads. Talk about a total noob!

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is another epic drop from Team AMD, cranking things up in the neverending AMD vs Intel CPU war. But hey, core count ain't everything, especially for playing the hottest PC games. Single-core performance gotta be on point too.

Can the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U finally dethrone the king of mainstream CPUs, the Core i5-9400H? It's a maybe. The Ryzen 5 4600U doesn't quite reach the same single-core performance as its rival, but more games are starting to use all those threads, so who cares!

The AMD Ryzen 5 1st Generation boasts the Zen 2 architecture, which brings 7nm processors to the mainstream for the first time. But there's more to this story than just a smaller size. Get ready for some serious performance upgrades!

Finally, shrinking down to 7nm means the CPU sips power like a pro! Thanks to the Zen 2 architecture, AMD Ryzen 5 1 Gen processors like the Ryzen 5 4600U and Ryzen 5 4500U can be up to 58% more efficient than their Intel counterparts. Not the biggest deal, but hey, lower electricity bills are always welcome, especially these days. Every penny counts!

AMD just unleashed its Zen 2 architecture, raising the stakes in the high-stakes battle for desktop PC dominance against Intel. This new lineup of chips pushes core counts and raw power to crazy high levels, threatening Intel's reign for the first time in a decade. Buckle up, it's about to get intense!

Alright, listen up. When it comes to pure gaming performance, Intel still holds the crown. If squeezing out every last frame per second is your top priority, then a Intel CPU might be the better choice. But here's the thing: that advantage shrinks at higher resolutions or if you pair the CPU with a less powerful graphics card. mattersToo

For gamers on a budget who aren't afraid of a little overclocking and have decent cooling, the Ryzen 5 4500U is a solid option. You can get pretty much the same performance as the Ryzen 5 4600U (especially for gaming) by overclocking it a bit. Plus, it's cheaper! This is why we gave the Ryzen 5 4500U an Editor's Choice award.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U, like all the other CPUs in AMD's Renoir family, is built on a tiny 7nm manufacturing process – the smallest you can find right now. This means it uses less power and runs much faster than previous CPUs.

Shrinking down to a 7nm process gives the Ryzen 5 4600U a whopping 15% boost in IPC (instructions per clock). Basically, compared to a similar CPU from the last generation (Ryzen 5 1 Gen) clocked at the same speed, you'll get 15% better performance. It might not be a huge difference in everyday tasks, but it's still something.

The high number of threads (over 7!) in the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U makes it a monster for tasks that use all the cores at once (multi-threaded workloads), especially for the price. If you edit a lot of videos or work with giant spreadsheets, the Ryzen 5 4600U will give you a noticeable performance boost.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is another impressive addition to AMD's 1 Gen of Ryzen 5 processors. It boasts 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of up to 4 GHz. While the specs might not look super top-of-the-line on paper, the real-world performance you get for your $282.66 is fantastic.

One of the best things about the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is that it comes with a free CPU cooler! You can grab the Ryzen 5 4600U for $282.66 without having to spend extra on cooling.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600U comes with a basic heatsink cooler, nothing fancy. But it gets the job done for this low-power CPU (TDP of 15W). You won't need a fancy aftermarket cooler unless you want to overclock it.

For a 6-core CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U is a steal at $282.66! It seems crazy cheap compared to its main competitor, the 4-core Intel Core i5-9400H which costs $250. Basically, you get extra cores for almost nothing.

The launch of Ryzen 5 wasn't perfect. Some gamers experienced performance issues and the CPUs ran a bit hot. But after a month of optimizations, driver updates, and BIOS fixes, Ryzen 5 seems to be running smoothly now.

The Ryzen 5 4600U boosts up to the advertised 4 GHz, and with AMD's software you can push one core even higher to 4+0.1 GHz. But don't expect much beyond that without a serious cooler upgrade and manual voltage tweaks.

More cores, more power! The Ryzen 5 4600U's 6 cores outperform everything Intel throws at it, including both the competitor's closest rival and a higher-end model.

The included cooler with the Ryzen 5 4600U is rated for 15W and doesn't have fancy features like a copper base or LED lights. But it keeps the CPU cool enough to reach its XFR-boosted speeds, which is an extra 200 MHz! We were even able to overclock it to 4 GHz + 0.2 GHz without overheating. The cooler fan also blows down onto the motherboard, providing extra cooling around the CPU socket. If you want more RGB bling, you can buy a separate LED cooler from AMD.