Single Core
Top 100
AMD Ryzen 7 260
AMD Ryzen 7 260: a 2023 chip at 2026 prices
In October 2025, the Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10 with a Ryzen 7 260 and an RTX 5060 cost $949. Today the same laptop sells at Best Buy for $1,499.99, which is 58% more. The processor didn't change over that year, and it wasn't new in 2025 either: it is the third name for a die AMD has been making since 2023.
In the SiliconCat rating, the Ryzen 7 260 ranks 81st among mobile CPUs. Here's what's inside, what it competes with in 2026, and at what price it's still worth buying.
What's inside: three names, one die
AMD announced the Ryzen 7 260 at CES on January 6, 2025, and it went on sale in February. Notebookcheck puts it plainly: the chip is identical to the Ryzen 7 8845HS, and therefore to the Ryzen 7 7840HS, which differed only in its slower NPU.
| Name | Announced | Lineup | NPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 7 7840HS | 2023 | Ryzen 7040, Phoenix | 10 TOPS |
| Ryzen 7 8845HS | December 2023 | Ryzen 8040, Hawk Point | 16 TOPS |
| Ryzen 7 260 | January 2025 | Ryzen 200, Hawk Point | 16 TOPS |
All three share 8 Zen 4 cores and 16 threads, 3.8-5.1 GHz clocks, 8 MB of L2 and 16 MB of L3 cache, Radeon 780M graphics (12 CUs, up to 2700 MHz), TSMC's 4 nm process and a 35-54 W power range.
Why rename it? AMD reserved the Ryzen AI brand for Zen 5 Strix Point with its powerful NPU, and the older Hawk Point got the "plain" Ryzen 200 series.
The only formal difference is the package. According to TechPowerUp, citing a Lenovo manager, the entire Ryzen 200 series ships only in the FP8 package. This has no effect on performance.
The chip also has a frugal sibling. According to Notebookcheck, the Ryzen 7 250 is a renamed Ryzen 7 8840U with a 28 W TDP. In benchmarks the two are nearly equal: in our database the 250 is even slightly ahead in Geekbench 7 Single Core (2287 vs. 2216). That's margin of error, not a difference between chips.
The integrated Radeon 780M with 12 RDNA 3 compute units is one of the strongest of its generation, but in a gaming laptop it merely drives the display on battery while the GeForce sleeps. The 16 TOPS NPU, by Notebookcheck's assessment, falls short of Copilot+. And the "up to 421 AI TOPS" on Acer Nitro spec sheets refers to the RTX 5050's tensor cores, not the processor.
Performance: 2023 level
All results below come from the SiliconCat database, so they match the processor pages. The closest rival, the Core Ultra 7 255H, beats the Ryzen 7 260 in Geekbench 6 by 12% single-core and 17% multi-core.
| Processor | GB6 Single | GB6 Multi | PassMark Multi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Ultra 7 255H | 2810 | 14,907 | 28,867 |
| Core i7-13650HX | 2508 | 12,905 | 31,878 |
| Ryzen 7 260 | 2519 | 12,776 | 31,958 |
| Ryzen 7 8845HS | 2216 | 12,161 | 29,702 |
In our database the 8845HS trails by 12% in Geekbench 6 single-core even though it's the same die; that reflects the set of laptops tested. In PassMark the two are nearly equal.
Against the Core Ultra 7 255H, the picture depends on the test. In PassMark the Ryzen 7 260 leads by 11% (31,958 vs. 28,867): eight full cores with SMT handle integer math and compression well. Intel wins at rendering: in Cinebench R23 the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 with a Ryzen 7 260 scores 15,864, while the 255H averages 20,316 in our database, 28% higher.
Pricing and competition
The Ryzen 7 260 is almost always paired with an RTX 5050 or 5060. So its real rivals aren't other thin-laptop processors but gaming models with HX chips.
| Laptop | Processor | GPU | RAM / SSD | Price, October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro V 16 AI | Ryzen 7 260 | RTX 5050 | 16 GB / 512 GB | $919.99 (Walmart, marketplace) |
| Acer Nitro V 16 AI | Ryzen 7 260 | RTX 5050 | 32 GB / 1 TB | $1,189 (Walmart, marketplace) |
| MSI Katana 15 | Core i7-14650HX | RTX 5070 | 16 GB / 1 TB | $1,299 (Walmart) |
| ASUS ROG Strix G16 | Ryzen 9 9955HX | RTX 5060 | 16 GB / 1 TB | $1,399 (Walmart) |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10, OLED | Ryzen 7 260 | RTX 5060 | 16 GB / 512 GB | $1,499.99 (Best Buy) |
| HP Omen Slim 16 | Core Ultra 7 255H | RTX 5060 | 32 GB / 1 TB | $1,889 (Best Buy, marketplace) |
Marketplace listings often come with upgraded memory, so they cost more than buying from the manufacturer. As for why memory rather than the processor sets laptop prices in 2026, we covered that in our Ryzen 7 8845HS vs. Core i7-13650HX comparison.
The spread of results is telling. In LaptopMedia's tests, the 2025 TUF Gaming A16 scored lowest (786 points in Cinebench 2024) and the Lenovo Legion 5 (15″, Gen 10) highest at 999. A 27% gap on the same processor comes down to cooling and the power limit the manufacturer sets (35-54 W).
The takeaway is simple. Below $1,200, the Ryzen 7 260 is the cheapest way into a gaming laptop with an RTX 50-series GPU. From $1,300 up, the same money buys HX models: the Core i7-14650HX scores 13,881 in Geekbench 7 Multi in our database versus 10,355 for the Ryzen 7 260, and the Katana also gets an RTX 5070. As of October 2026, Best Buy no longer sells the cheap 16 GB configurations with the Core Ultra 7 255H and 255HX new.
Verdict: buy under $1,200, look at HX above that
The Ryzen 7 260 is an honest 2023-class processor. At 1080p the graphics card will be the bottleneck, and it has plenty of headroom for office work, coding and 1080p video editing. The problem isn't the chip; it's the price of the laptops around it.
Three buying rules:
- Under $1,000 with an RTX 5050, like the Nitro V 16 AI, is a good deal.
- From $1,300, look at HX laptops first: the Katana 15 and ROG Strix G16 cost less than the Ryzen 7 260 Legion 5 and are faster.
- The Ryzen 7 260, 8845HS and 250 are the same silicon family. If a laptop with the old name or the 250 is cheaper, buy it.
Basic
Label Name
AMD
Platform
Laptop
Launch Date
February 2025
Model Name
?
The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.
Ryzen 7 260
Code Name
Hawk Point
Generation
Zen 4
OS Support
Windows 11 - 64-Bit Edition, Windows 10 - 64-Bit Edition, RHEL x86 64-Bit, Ubuntu x86 64-Bit
CPU Specifications
Total Cores
?
Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).
8
Total Threads
?
Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.
16
Basic Frequency
3.8 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency
?
Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.
Up to 5.1 GHz
L2 Cache
8 MB
L3 Cache
16 MB
CPU Socket
?
The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.
FP8, FP7r2, FP7
Unlocked for Overclocking
?
AMD`s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when overclocking is enabled via AMD hardware and/or software. GD-26.
No
Technology
?
Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.
TSMC 4nm FinFET
TDP
45W
Max. Operating Temperature
?
Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.
100°C
PCI Express Version
?
PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.
PCIe® 4.0
Memory Specifications
Memory Type
?
Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.
DDR5 (FP8), LPDDR5X (FP8), LPDDR5X (FP7), DDR5 (FP7r2)
Max Memory Size
?
Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.
256 GB
Memory Channels
?
The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.
2
Maximum Memory Speed
4x2R DDR5-5600
ECC Memory Support
No
GPU Specifications
Integrated Graphics Model
?
An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.
Graphics Core Count
12
Graphics Frequency
?
Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.
2700 MHz
Miscellaneous
Official Website
Geekbench 6
Single Core
2519
Multi Core
12776
Performance
Multi Core
Passmark CPU
Single Core
3759
Multi Core
31958
Performance
Integer Math
Multi Core
107.4
GOps/Sec
Floating Point Math
Multi Core
66.2
GOps/Sec
Find Prime Numbers
Multi Core
101
M Primes/Sec
Random String Sorting
Multi Core
47.1
M Strings/Sec
Data Encryption
Multi Core
23.3
GB/Sec
Data Compression
Multi Core
390
MB/Sec
Physics
Multi Core
1512
Frames/Sec
Extended Instructions
Multi Core
29.1
B Matrices/Sec
Single Thread
Multi Core
3.8
GOps/Sec
Show more
Geekbench 7
Single Core
2216
Multi Core
10355
Compared to Other CPU
44%
63%
90%
Better then 44% CPU over the past year
Better then 63% CPU over the past 3 years
Better then 90% CPU
SiliconCat Rating
81
Ranks 81 among Laptop/Mobile CPU on our website
297
Ranks 297 among all CPU on our website
Geekbench 6 Single Core
Geekbench 6 Multi Core
Geekbench 7 Single Core
Geekbench 7 Multi Core
Passmark CPU Single Core
Passmark CPU Multi Core
