Naming Convention Sucks...
...Chips themselves are pretty damned good.
Nice problem to have!
AMD is changing the way it names mobile processors to make it more obvious whether you’re getting their freshest Zen cores or last year’s leftovers. The chip designer’s mobile processors follow a familiar naming scheme, with the first two numbers referring to the chip’s generation and product family. The new naming scheme adds …
Of course I am aware than for Y > X a ZenY core has a better IPC than a ZenX core
However, would I have to pick a CPU, what should matter is: Instruction set / RAM interface as well as IO (including chipset) / Power usage / Price
Then I expect all 5*00U providing same instruction set and be socket compatible.
Plus, a correlation between numerical order and performance level.
If this is not the case, then this is an AMD fail.
If this is the case, I do not mind Zen level (whatever my admiration for continuous IPC increase between generations)
This sounds like hyperbole
"For example, AMD’s 5300U and Ryzen 5500U were saddled with a Zen 2 core ... "
Because the chip market is competititve, there is a truism : retail cost reflects performance, regardless of underlying tech. AMD is competing with Intel and themselves on Performance/$. When they intro new tech, it is priced to fit on that curve.
The technical details are interesting, even cool, and if you are bleeding edge, they may matter. But if you are just interested in running apps, price is a good proxy for *relative* ranking. Maybe performance / watt matters, but again, that's pretty competitive these days.