Wow, this new AMD Ryzen laptop CPU can run Crysis even without a cooler

(Image credit: AMD)

I have to admit, it would never occur to me to disassemble a laptop, rip the cooling solution from the CPU, and then attempt to not only boot into Windows, but run through a set of benchmarks, including Crysis. But the internet is vast, and it did occur to someone else, who recorded the endeavor. And guess what? The CPU involved, an AMD Ryzen 7 4300U, survived the ordeal.

The Ryzen 3 4300U is one of AMD's newest laptop CPUs (technically APUs, with included graphics processing), codenamed Renoir. It pairs four cores based on AMD's latest-generation Zen 2 architecture with five Radeon Vega GPU cores. Zen 2 is the same architecture powering AMD's Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs.

Laptops built around AMD's Ryzen 4000 series mobile CPUs are just now starting to land at retail. We've reviewed a couple of them already, including Dell's G5 15 SE and Asus's TUF A15. And in both cases, we left the cooling solution attached.

YouTuber FritzchensFritz, a talented photographer who maintains a Flickr account brimming with various silicon photos, had other plans for his laptop with a Ryzen 3 4300 inside. Take a look:

"This little test shows how good the overheating protection for AMDs new Ryzen Renoir APU performs. The little tool 'Renoir Mobile Tuning' helps to set the original temperature limit down to 90C. Thermal resolution is 384x288. The 120mm fan runs at 5V and produces a low and constant airflow," FritzchensFritz explains.

A thermal imaging camera captures the heat emanating from the CPU while running the various benchmarks, and remarkably, there's hardly any red to speak of throughout the testing. Of course, a large reason why is because the chip is throttling to prevent damage.

Still, seeing a CPU without any cooling run through Crysis, 3DMark's Time Spy test, and Cinebench R15 without going up in flames (figuratively) is impressive. Or as one person put it on Twitter, "This is bananas."

Thanks, Guru3D

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).