A Familiar Core Beneath the Surface
New enterprise laptops featuring the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 470 are now arriving on store shelves, positioned as the successor to last year’s Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370. Like Intel’s vPro platform, AMD’s Pro-series processors are tailored for business machines that demand additional hardware-based security and manageability features. Early benchmark data, however, suggests that performance gains over the previous generation are marginal at best.
Nearly Identical Architectural DNA
On paper, the Zen 5 architecture underlying both chips reveals virtually no changes. The core count, cache configuration, and power target specifications remain identical between the two models. The only notable technical difference is a slightly higher target clock speed on the new Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 470. In practice, this makes the 470 functionally a rebranded version of its predecessor. Raw multi-threaded workloads tested on the Dell Pro 7 14 equipped with the new chip show an average improvement of only a few percentage points over the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 6 running the older Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370.
Persistent Thermal Throttling and Slower Graphics
Sustained performance under load continues to be a challenge. Running CineBench R15 in a continuous loop revealed an initial score of 3,274 points that quickly fell to 2,709 points—a performance deficit of roughly 17 percent after a brief stress period. This mirrors the behavior seen in the previous generation, indicating no meaningful progress in cooling or power delivery optimization for this particular chassis comparison.
Graphics output also trails expectations despite the processor using the same integrated Radeon 890M GPU found in the 2024 model. In 3DMark benchmarks, the Dell Pro configuration returned results approximately 20 percent slower than those recorded on the ThinkPad equipped with the Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370.
A Question of Value
Individual laptop implementations featuring the Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 470 will naturally produce slightly different results depending on thermal design and firmware tuning. Still, the near-parity in silicon means that buyers looking to economize during an era of rising component costs will likely find the experience on less expensive systems with the prior-generation Ryzen AI 9 HX Pro 370 to be essentially indistinguishable from the newest offerings.