AMD Beats Six-Year Goal To Deliver 25x Improvement In Energy Efficiency

A recent announcement from AMD has revealed that the company has surpassed its goal to boost energy efficiency in mobile processors.

The 25×20 goal was originally set in 2014 and aimed to improve energy efficiency of mobile processors by 25 times by 2020.

It looks like AMD has done just that. The new AMD Ryzen 7 4800H mobile processor has managed to improve the energy efficiency by 31.7 times the baseline in 2014.

What Does This Mean For Laptop Users?

By doing so, the Ryzen 7 mobile processor manages to offer great efficiency for laptops which is always great news for laptop users. This results in better battery life, greater performance, lower energy costs, and also less environmental impact.

“We have always focused on energy efficiency in our processors, but in 2014 we decided to put even greater emphasis on this capability,” said Mark Papermaster, executive vice president of Technology and Engineering at AMD.

“Our engineering team rallied around the challenge and charted a path to reach our stretch goal of 25 times greater energy efficiency by 2020. We were able to far surpass our objective, achieving 31.7 times improvement leading to gaming and ultrathin laptops with unmatched performance, graphics, and long battery life. I could not be prouder of our engineering and business teams.”

How Is Energy Efficiency Determined?

The energy efficiency of a processor is determined by the amount of work performed per unit of energy used. With AMD’s 25×20 goal, it meant that AMD had to focus on providing a highly efficient system-on-chip (SoC) architecture. This meant working on improved real-time power management features and silicon-level power optimizations.

From 2014-2020, AMD managed to reduce the average compute time for tasks by 80% and also reduced the energy usage by 84%.

AMD Leading The Way In Sustainability

Not only is this fantastic news for those who purchase laptops with new AMD chips, it’s also a great statement from AMD on sustainability.

AMD is the first semiconductor company to have climate protection goals approved as a “science-based target” by the Science-Based Targets Initiative. This also includes the 25×20 goal.

“Stewardship of our planet can go hand-in-hand with developing powerful technology and helping our customers achieve their aims,” said Susan Moore, AMD’s corporate vice president for corporate responsibility and international government affairs.

“The power efficiency improvements we have made within our laptop processors make a difference in the world around us. Reporting publicly each year on progress and ultimately achieving, and surpassing, the 25×20 energy efficiency goal reflects AMD’s commitment to sustainable technology.”

Koomey’s Law Surpassed

AMD’s drastic improvements in power consumption for the Ryzen 7 4800H has also outpaced the trends predicted by Koomey’s Law.

Koomey’s Law is based on the Moore’s Law idea that predicts energy efficiency trends will improve consistently each year. AMD’s new processor has surpassed this prediction by 2x.

Dr. Jonathan Koomey, an industry expert on energy-efficient computing said: “I have reviewed the data and can report that AMD exceeded the 25×20 goal it set in 2014 through improved design, superior optimization and a laser-like focus on energy efficiency. With a chip 31.7 times more energy-efficient than its 2014 predecessor, AMD has far outpaced in real-world efficiency gains what would be expected from a traditional Moore’s Law pace as embodied in Koomey’s Law.”

Whichever way you look at it, it looks like AMD has really set a precedent with energy efficiency. It will be interesting to see if other chips in the 4000 mobile processor range provide similar energy-efficient results – without impacting on the performance of the chip.

What do you think of AMD’s progress in sustainability and energy efficiency? Is this something that would make you more likely to buy from AMD? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.