Should I wait for Ryzen 6000? It's the big question on our minds at the moment, and if you're reading this, you're likely debating it for yourself.
If you've already got one of the best gaming laptops with a Ryzen 5000 chip in it, it's worth considering whether you need to hold out and grab the latest generation, or whether you should stick with what you've got.
With the slew of upcoming gaming laptops on their way, including the impressive MSI Stealth GS77, this also adds another dimension to our question - are the upcoming chips worth waiting for?
Here's what we think
How Long Could The Wait For AMD Ryzen 6000 Be?
AMD officially announced the Ryzen 6000 series of laptops chips at CES 2022, with the first laptops including the processors expected to be released this month.
There may be a few months wait for more Ryzen 6000-powered laptops to enter the market as the year goes by, and this may also be pushed into 2023.
AMD Ryzen 6000 Price
The pricing of AMD Ryzen 6000 chips all depends on which laptops they get bundled into and therefore the respective cost of those devices.
Manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Razer and Asus have all confirmed to be releasing Ryzen 6000-powered laptops, so there looks to be plenty of choice available when the chip is rolled out.
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+ 2Some of these have even been announced, including the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro which will feature up to an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX chip alongside a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM.
Do note though that these are mobile processors designed for laptops, it isn't likely you'll be able to buy them as standalone processors to go into your PC. You'll be waiting for Ryzen 7000 in order to do this.
AMD Ryzen 6000 Specs
On the front of specs, it's definitely fair to say these Ryzen 6000 series chips do look rather good indeed.
The product offering is split into two with the U-series of 5 chips which are made primarily for thin, portable notebooks, and the H-series of 8 chips being made for gaming.
Processors can range from the AMD Ryzen 5 6600U with its six cores, 12 threads and a base clock of 2.9GHz to the most powerful Ryzen 9 6980HX with 8 cores, 16 threads and a base clock of 3.3GHz.
AMD's CES keynote also detailed that their new chips are expected to be up to 1.3x faster than the older 5000-series over single and multi-thread performance, as well as for productivity tasks.
click to enlarge + 2CEO Lisa Su noted that the new chips, of which there are thirteen to choose from, should offer up to 5GHz peak clock speed, and will be 30% faster than any of the existing chips in AMD's lineup.
There is also confirmed support for DDR5 RAM, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.0 and most pertinently, USB 4.
On the point of USB4, AMD says it can reach speeds of up to 40Gbps. In other words, that could transfer a 4K film in under 10 seconds.
With regards to graphics, the new 6000 series chips will support AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture which will allow it to support new AMD GPUs including the Radeon RX 6500 XT.
Should I Wait For Ryzen 6000?
Whether or not you choose to wait for Ryzen 6000 is of course down to personal preference, but there looks to be plenty to stick around for.
Truth be told, the selling point of Ryzen 6000 is simply the point that practically everything is quicker. Support for PCIe Gen 4 will mean faster SSD storage and DDR5 RAM will mean snapper memory, too.
In addition, support for USB 4 and its crazy transfer speeds is also a bonus, as is DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 support for when that becomes more widespread.
In essence, Ryzen 6000 looks to be bringing a lot of exciting new features to the table over Ryzen 5000, but whether it's worth spending out for is another matter entirely.
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It all looks enticing, but you'll be spending over four figures to get all the benefits on a new laptop with the top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 6980HX in, for instance, and this is mostly worth it for those who've been holding out for a new gaming laptop for some time.
Right now, if you've got a Ryzen 5000 series laptop with an RTX 30 series GPU and plenty of RAM and storage that you bought new last year, there's less point in you upgrading compared to someone with an older product.
Of course, for those who've got one of the best gaming PCs, as opposed to a laptop, you'll be waiting a little bit longer for Ryzen 7000 to come around, which will be more worth your while.
In addition, if you're looking for more of an affordable option, then some of the best budget gaming laptops may suit you better, and it's only a matter of time before Ryzen 6000 is rolled out to these, too.
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