Surface Book 3 might pack Ryzen 4000 CPU — watch out, Intel

(Image credit: AMD)

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 AMD model is growing green with envy as the spotlight will no longer shine on its alluring processor. A new Surface device in the family -- the upcoming Surface Book 3 -- might be electrified by an AMD chip -- a much more powerful one, too.

The 15-inch variant of the Surface Laptop 3 turned heads as it was the first Microsoft device to be juiced up by an AMD Ryzen mobile processor and Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics. The Redmond-based tech giant boasted it was the fastest mobile processor AMD has ever made.

When we tested both the AMD and Intel versions of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 earlier this year, we found that its Intel iteration was much faster.

The Surface Laptop 3 for Business -- equipped with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor -- scored a 19,298 on the Geekbench 4.3 overall performance test, which trampled the 11,612 score achieved by the AMD-powered Surface Laptop 3 (Ryzen 5 3580U).

Now, there may be a new AMD Ryzen 4000-powered Surface device for us to test, and this time, it should keep pace with Intel.

Hardware leaker @_rogame (via TechRadar) spotted a listing in the 3DMark 11 database that implies the upcoming Surface Book 3 will sport an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U APU paired with a Radeon RX 5300M mobile graphics card.

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The hardware spy speculated that the powerful AMD APU may appear on the upcoming Surface Book 3.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4500U is a six-core processor based on AMD's latest 7nm Zen 2 architecture with a 2.3 GHz base clock and 4 GHz boost speeds. The chip is also paired with a GPU that runs up to 1,500 MHz.

Latest rumors say the 2020 Surface Book 3 is slated to be released alongside the Surface Go 2 in the spring, but with COVID-19 concerns climbing, there's a chance the launch date will be pushed back.

It's easy to theorize that Microsoft will continue working with AMD for a Surface device successor, but of course, we won't know for sure until the Redmond-based tech giant unzips its lips and spills the beans on future AMD plans.

Compared to its previous generation, AMD Ryzen 4000 chips reportedly have a 15% increase of inter-process communication, a 59% jump in graphics performance and improved efficiency levels for ultraslim laptops.

Should this APU power a future Surface device as speculated, we can't wait to experiment with it in our labs to find out if it lives up to AMD's impressive claims. 

Kimberly Gedeon

Kimberly Gedeon, holding a Master's degree in International Journalism, launched her career as a journalist for MadameNoire's business beat in 2013. She loved translating stuffy stories about the economy, personal finance and investing into digestible, easy-to-understand, entertaining stories for young women of color. During her time on the business beat, she discovered her passion for tech as she dove into articles about tech entrepreneurship, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the latest tablets. After eight years of freelancing, dabbling in a myriad of beats, she's finally found a home at Laptop Mag that accepts her as the crypto-addicted, virtual reality-loving, investing-focused, tech-fascinated nerd she is. Woot!