AMD explains that the Ryzen 4000U will not support PCIe 4.0 and SmartShift

During CES 2020 the AMD Ryzen 4000U and Ryzen 4000H processors. These new processors, despite the name, are based on the Zen2 @ 7nm architecture. Processors specially developed for laptops, offering autonomy and power. Something very interesting about these processors that was not said during the presentation, is that they are based on PCIe 3.0.

The company indicates that this is because PCIe 4.0 has no utility in notebooks. AMD is quite right about this, as this interface doesn't bring much beyond the M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 drives. These storage units are expensive, and laptops are often looking for the best possible power-to-price ratio.

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AMD implements PCIe 3.0 in the Ryzen 4000 for laptops

AMD Ryzen 4000 processors support PCI-Express 3.0. This is because, in our view, there are not many scenarios in which a laptop is capable of properly utilizing the PCI-Express 4.0 interface Scott Stankard, Senior Product Manager, Customer Division, AMD

Although they announced during the event that APUs could communicate and work in unison with the dedicated graphics, in the end it will not be. As long as there is no load, the integrated graphics will be used and when there is load, the dedicated graphics will enter. And this despite the fact that they announced the SmartShift technology that would be integrated, at least, in the Ryzen 4000H.

Regarding the PCIe 4.0 interface, it does not offer anything relevant in notebook computers. This type of interface, instead of what you might expect, would cause more problems. As is well known, the chipset that offers support for PCIe 4.0 has a high consumption and generates temperature problems. Also AMD should add a dedicated cooling system to it, complicating the build.

Perhaps the most negative thing is that SmartShift will not be integrated, a technology that would have allowed to gain some performance in graphics.

Source: MD