AMD's Ryzen 7000 series laptop CPU lineup is split with some Zen 4 SKUs and some refreshed Zen 3 and Zen 3+ SKUs. We already knew that the Ryzen 7040 and 7045 series processors used the Zen 4 architecture, but to try and make things a bit easier, AMD has also changed the Ryzen sticker for Zen 4 chips to make it easier to differentiate between a Zen 4 and a Zen 3+ powered laptop at a glance.
When you buy a laptop powered by the Ryzen 7000 series mobile processor, you can get one with either the company's new “Zen 4” CPU cores, a rebranded Ryzen 6000 “Zen 3+” chip, a refreshed Ryzen 5000 “Zen 3” processor, or even a Zen 2-based APU. Due to the sheer variety of SKUs, some have found some difficulties in understanding exactly what each processor has.
Image credit: VideoCardz
Although AMD has already explained the new numbering scheme used on the Ryzen 7000 mobile series, less informed customers can still easily make mistakes and get a lower-end chip than they wanted. As such, as reported VideoCardz, AMD has decided to put an orange sticker on all devices that pack a Ryzen 7000 mobile chip based on the Zen 4 architecture (Ryzen 7040/7045 series). The photos shared by Notebookcheck on its review of the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 confirm the usage of these stickers on Ryzen 7045HX-powered laptops.
As for the laptops using the Zen3+/3/2 Ryzen 7000 mobile series processors, these will have the old grey sticker we're used to.
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KitGuru says: The orange stickers should make it easier for customers to see at a glance what they're getting, at least in terms of CPU. Still, this series also packs a variety of GPU architectures, including GCN, RDNA 2 and RDNA 3. Unlike the CPU architectures used in these processors, the GPU architecture employed isn't as easily differentiated.