AMD quietly updated its mobile processor lineup to introduce the Ryzen 8000HX line of high core-count processors, codenamed "Dragon Range Refresh." These first came to light earlier this week, when a ROG Strix laptop was launched based on a Ryzen 9 8940HX processor model. The "Dragon Range Refresh" is essentially identical to the Ryzen 7000HX "Dragon Range" series, with minor SKU-specific changes such as clock speeds. "Dragon Range" is basically the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" multi-chip module in a mobile-friendly BGA package. It comes with one or two 5 nm "Zen 4" CCDs for CPU core counts up to 16, and a 6 nm client I/O die with a basic iGPU, but a powerful 28-lane PCIe Gen 5 I/O. These chips are targeted at gaming notebooks and mobile workstations where it's a given that they're paired with discrete GPUs.

The Ryzen 8000HX "Dragon Range Refresh" family consists of four models, the Ryzen 9 8945HX, the Ryzen 9 8940HX, the Ryzen 7 8840HX, and the Ryzen 7 8745HX. The 8945HX is a 16-core/32-thread part with a maximum boost frequency of 5.40 GHz—basically the same chip as the Ryzen 9 7945HX, but at a possibly lower price to notebook OEMs. The Ryzen 9 8940HX is also a 16-core/32-thread part, but with a touch lower clock speeds, with 5.30 GHz max boost. Both the 8845HX and 8840HX have a cTDP of 55 W. Next up, is the Ryzen 7 8840HX, a 12-core/24-thread part with identical specs to the Ryzen 7 7840HX and a maximum boost frequency of 5.10 GHz. The series ends with the Ryzen 7 8745HX, a single-CCD chip with 8-core/16-thread core-count; and 5.10 GHz maximum boost, or identical specs to the 7745HX.The Ryzen 8000HX "Dragon Range Refresh" series appears to be coexisting with the Ryzen 9000HX and 9000HX3D series based on the newer "Fire Range" MCM and "Zen 5" microarchitecture. The idea behind these models is to offer better prices to gaming notebook OEMs. The 8-core variants of "Dragon Range" are preferable to 8-core variants of Ryzen 8000H "Hawk Point" for their larger 32 MB L3 caches, and PCIe Gen 5 x16 interface for discrete GPUs, besides up to two CPU-attached M.2 Gen 5 NVMe slots being made possible.