We don’t see too many Chrome OS devices with AMD processors but they’re out there. And there’s another one coming, this time with more modern silicon. The 2022 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is powered by AMD Zen 3 chips, according to an Acer press release today. These chips are an advanced iteration of the AMD Chromebook processors introduced in 2021.
Specifically, the 2022 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 uses the following AMD chips, specifically designed for Chromebooks:
- AMD Ryzen™ 7 5825C
- AMD Ryzen™ 5 5625C
- AMD Ryzen™ 3 5425C
- AMD Ryzen™ 3 5125C
While these aren’t the latest AMD 6000 chips that I hope will eventually end up in Chromebooks, they’re a solid step up from the prior generation. Each Ryzen chip has integrated Radeon graphics and should offer much better performance than the AMD-powered Chromebooks of the past. Those were aimed at the entry-level market but these new chips are more akin to a wider range of performance levels.
Once I get additional details on these AMD Zen 3 chips, I’ll share some thoughts, so stay tuned for that.
All models share some hardware including a 14-inch touch screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution and a Gorilla Glass trackpad. Memory options top out at 16 GB and local storage is up to a 256 GB NVMe drive. WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 are standard fare, as is a full HD webcam with a privacy shutter. A pair of USB Type-C ports, one USB Type-A, HDMI on some models, and a microphone/headphone jack come along for the ride.
Acer says to expect up to 10 hours of battery life on the new Acer Chromebook Spin 514 which weighs in at 3.3 pounds. These are all convertible models as part of the Spin lineup, of course, and support a USI stylus, which is not included.
Custom configurations will be available but Acer is specifically noting that a $579.99 model will be available in Q3 for $579.99. Here’s what powers that config:
- AMD Ryzen 3 5125C
- 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR4X SDRAM
- 128GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD•MSRP: $579.99
Chrome Enterprise versions of the 2022 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 with AMD will also be available, starting at $899.99.
5 Comments
Sorry but am going to hit you with a few links.
1. 9to5Google had some info on these AMD chips: https://9to5google.com/2022/05/05/amd-ryzen-5000-chromebook-processors/
Already regard AMD 5000 CPU performance to be competitive with 11th gen Intel so was mostly interested in the iGPU comparisons. According to this, the Radeon Vega in the Ryzen 7 matches up well with the 80EU Iris Xe in the 11th gen Intel Core i5:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Iris-Xe-G7-80EUs-vs-Vega-8-R4000_10395_10313.247598.0.html
This means that Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 should be able to support Steam. As well as boring work stuff like content creation, data science etc. Speaking of which Google I/O is going to have a TensorFlow.js on ChromeOS presentation that you computer science grad student types might be interested in.
2. As for AMD Ryzen 6000 Chromebooks: don’t hold your breath. This is one of the several articles that talks about the “curious” lack of even WINDOWS Ryzen 6000 Chromebooks:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-ryzen-zen-3-plus-laptop-cpu-adoption/
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/zen3-plus-mobile-adoption-is-slow
Everyone is pretending that there is this great mystery why but we all know the reason: bottleneck at TSMC, which has allocated nearly all their available bandwidth to Apple and the mobile chipmakers like MediaTek and Qualcomm who pay them far more money than AMD is able to. What little capacity AMD has left, they primarily dedicate it to desktops, servers and discrete GPUs, which make them far more money than laptop chips do.
The original plan was for AMD to address this for Chromebooks at least by having Samsung manufacture “6000C” APUs in 4Q2022 on their 4nm node. But since then, it has been discovered that this node has horrible yields, less than half of TSMC’s 4nm node. Qualcomm and Nvidia abandoned this node over the yield problems, and Intel decided not to use it at all. It would be a shock were AMD to proceed in light of it.
TSMC states that the chip shortage and capacity problems will begin to let up late 2022/early 2023. (Intel is claims that they will extend into 2024!) If we go by TSMC’s more optimistic scenario, then it means that 11th gen Intel, AMD Ryzen 6000, MediaTek Kompanio 1200/1300 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 3 Chromebooks for power users will finally be relatively commonplace in 2023.
Oh, no need to apologize, I appreciate the linked info! AMD must have provided 9to5 Google with advance info. There was a 9am ET embargo on the Acer news to coincide with AMD’s. But I wasn’t able to get any information from AMD in advance. I did see their press release on the new chips a few minutes after I posted, so I added the link then for more CPU info. Yeah, the chip shortage is lasting longer than people expected and has really hosed things up; particularly for Chromebooks since CPU inventory will be allocated first to Windows machines. Hopefully Google allows Steam support for these new AMD processors, or at least some of them.!
Thanks! The Verge – ambivalent about Chromebooks as always – pointed out that this batch of “5xxxC” chips is merely “5xxxU” chips rebranded and configured to run at 15W TDP by default:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/5/23057974/amd-chromebook-ryzen-5000-c-series-zen-3
AMD Ryzen 7 5825C = AMD Ryzen 7 5825U
AMD Ryzen 5 5625C = AMD Ryzen 5 5625U
AMD Ryzen 3 5425C = AMD Ryzen 3 5425U
AMD Ryzen 3 5125C = AMD Ryzen 3 5125U
The real news here: the Ryzen 5 and the Ryzen 7 are going to be the first ever x86 Chromebooks with more than 4 performance cores. The funny thing: support for >4 x86 performance cores was actually put into the kernel for Alder Lake. But then Intel screwed the platform by recommending only Alder Lake U for ChromeOS: 2 performance cores with up to 8 (small core single thread) efficiency cores.
Did some more digging. If this “laptopsreviewer.com” site is reliable, it appears that the Iris Xe 80EU version that is in the Intel Core i5 performs at about the same level as the Nvidia GeForce MX230. That is “ballpark” with what I have read elsewhere. It states that the iGPU on the Ryzen 5 5625U version with 7 CUs is roughly equivalent to the MX250. Caveat: due to the 5625C being limited to 15W instead of 28W, the iGPU runs at 1.6GHz. However, I bet that still equals the MX230. Which means that the Ryzen 7 GPU is much better than the Core i5 competition and the Ryzen 5 GPU is at least equivalent.
Based on this, I am going to state that anyone wanting a performance Chromebook should get the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5. The 11th gen Intel competition has only 4 cores (to 6 and 8 for AMD) and the 12th gen looks to only have 2 performance cores.
Thanks, Dr. Tofel for your good news about this new Acer line. I am looking to replace both my Samsung CBPro and 5th gen powered Linux laptop with one device, and a Ryzen 5 or 7 version with 16 Gb RAM would do this nicely! I can do my Linuxy things and CB things on the one machine, and have the speed and power with the video editing, OCR work that wish I do.
That’s why I am here on your site, daily!
The 2022 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 3500C processor, which is based on the AMD Zen 3 architecture. It features four cores, eight threads, and a base clock speed of 2.1GHz. The processor also supports up to 8MB of L3 cache and a maximum clock speed of 3.7GHz. The processor is paired with an AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics card, providing enough power for basic tasks, such as web browsing, streaming, and light gaming.