I thought it was a good move by AMD to brand its latest Zen 3 desktop CPUs as the Ryzen 5000 series. Going forward, this decision has the potential to make things less confusing by aligning mobile and desktop parts based on the same architecture under the same series label. However, if AMD chooses to include both Zen 3 and Zen 2 in its Ryzen 5000 mobile series, as has been rumored many times, all could go out the window.

If AMD goes that route, it will likely take a cue from Intel's Core generation labels. For example, Intel brands both its 14nm Comet Lake chips and its 10nm Ice Lake chips as 10th generation CPUs, including the Y-series, U-series, H-series, and S-series (desktop) designations and the Core i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake) and Core i7-10710U (Comet Lake), the average buyer is even more confused.

As for AMD, until now desktop and mobile chips have not been unified under the same series brand. This goes back to the original 14nm Zen architecture and AMD's first Ryzen processors:

AMD's notebook CPUs and APUs (integrated graphics chips), inexplicably, than desktop products based on the same version of Zen, series have been branded completely ahead of their counterparts. However, by naming the latest round of desktop CPUs the Ryzen 5000 series, it may finally be consistent, assuming that future Zen 3 mobile CPUs and APUs will also adopt the Ryzen 5000 brand name.

That would be great, but rumors persist that some of AMD's Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs will be based on Zen 2 (named Lucienne) and others on Zen 3 (named Cezanne). This latest indication comes from Twitter user ExecutableFix, who is relatively new to the leak and rumor scene. If this comes to pass, the Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 5 5600U, and Ryzen 3 5400U will be based on AMD's latest generation Zen 3 architecture, while the Ryzen 7 5700U, Ryzen 5 5500U, and Ryzen 3 5300U will be based on the previous generation Zen 2 architecture The Ryzen 3 5300U will be based on the previous generation Zen 2 architecture.

This would be a big deal if AMD takes this route, as it would make it a bit more difficult for potential buyers to compare their options. It is easy to understand that paying more for more cores and threads, higher clockspeeds, and more cache would be a good thing. However, AMD claims that Zen 3 will offer a significant 19% increase in IPC (instructions per clock) compared to Zen 2, so the difference between, say, a Ryzen 7 5800U (Zen 3) and a Ryzen 7 5700U (Zen 2) could be much larger than it appears at first glance from the specs at this point in time.

Keep in mind that this is merely a rumor at this point. However, this rumor has surfaced many times. For example, last month, Twitter user and software engineer Patrick Schur (also a newcomer to leaks and rumors) suggested the same thing in a tweet; Schur had previously revealed the core counts for the Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X before these CPUs were announced. He has revealed them, and they have at least a little credibility.

We will have to wait and see what happens. Rumor has it that AMD will announce its next mobile CPU in January 2021.