AMD’s New AI Laptop Chips Will Work With Copilot+
AMD CEO Lisa Su took the stage at Computex 2024 yesterday to unveil the company’s highly anticipated Zen 5 processors , which include both powerful new desktop processors and, surprisingly, the world’s first Copilot+ -enabled AI chips.
The processors will be released in July and will include models for both desktop and laptop computers. Desktop models will focus on further advances in more traditional tasks such as gaming, while laptop models will now compete more directly with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.
Overall, the new desktop models include the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X, Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X, while the new laptop models will start with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen AI 9 365. This means desktop PCs will have almost The full lineup of new chips will arrive this summer (though AMD is sure to release additional, more specialized processors later), but laptop users will have to wait for more affordable versions.
While manufacturers’ numbers should always be taken with a grain of salt, AMD promises its top-end Ryzen 9 9950X chip will be 56% faster in performance (in Blender) and 23% faster in games (in Horizon) . Zero Dawn ) compared to the competing Intel Core i9-14900K processor.
In a briefing to The Verge, AMD senior technical marketing manager Donnie Woligroski also said that Zen 5 overall will have “twice the AI performance of the previous generation.”
While it’s certainly possible to use artificial intelligence software like Photoshop on desktop PCs, the AI boost will probably be most noticeable in new laptops powered by AMD processors. In rebranding its Ryzen 9 laptop chips to Ryzen AI, the company is emphasizing a neural processor with 50 TOPS performance, up from 16 TOPS in the last generation. On paper, this should provide more calculations per second than the 38 TOPS unit in the Apple M4 chip or the 45 TOPS unit in the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chips.
The details are a bit technical, but they show that traditional x86 chips are just as ready to take on AI as Arm-based processors from the likes of Apple and Qualcomm. While the latter boast long battery life and recent performance increases, they may have application compatibility issues, and AMD promises that it can still rule when it comes to raw power.
This is also great news for those looking to upgrade to Copilot+ and don’t want to deal with emulating x86 software on Arm, as AMD’s press conference confirmed that its new AI chips will be used in Copilot+ laptops from partners like MSI, Asus , Lenovo and others. . It used to be that Qualcomm Arm chips controlled Microsoft’s new AI laptops.
Pricing for these chips has not yet been revealed, although PC builders can rest assured that they will all work with AMD’s existing AM5 socket, so there is no need to upgrade the motherboard just yet. Likewise, those with older generation AM4 sockets are also getting some extra support, with the updated Ryzen 9 5900XT and Ryzen 7 5800XT chips also launching this July.