AMD’s Computex showcase this year was highly anticipated, with the potential for advancements in its mobile offerings. The company did not disappoint, unveiling its latest Zen 5 architecture, both for desktop and mobile applications. In the mobile arena, the Ryzen AI 300 series stands out as a significant step forward, signaling a complete rebrand for AMD, similar to Intel’s recent move to “Core Ultra.” This rebranding marks a renewed focus on artificial intelligence (AI). The new mobile CPUs under the Ryzen AI 300 series moniker are the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen AI 9 365. Both processors boast impressive specifications, representing a major upgrade from AMD’s previous mobile offerings. At the heart of these processors lies the XDNA 2 neural processing unit (NPU), which has witnessed a remarkable performance boost from 16 tera operations per second (TOPS) to 50 TOPS. This enhancement allows the chips to seamlessly execute tasks such as running generative AI models locally. Achieving 50 TOPS on the NPU is a significant milestone for AMD. It surpasses the minimum requirement of 40 TOPs for Copilot+ experiences like Recall and even eclipses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and potentially outperforms Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake. Beyond the NPU upgrade, AMD has also boosted GPU power with up to 16 compute units (CUs), comparable to a desktop RX 6500 XT. What do these improvements translate to in terms of performance? AMD promises a substantial leap in AI responsiveness. When tested against the Llama-2 7(B) large language model, the Ryzen 9 HX 370 proved to be up to five times faster than the Ryzen 9 8940HS. It also outperformed Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite in benchmarks, demonstrating an impressive 60% lead in the 3DMark Night Raid Graphics test, 30% in Cinebench 24 nT, and 10% in Procyon Office. Productivity also receives a boost, with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 showcasing a remarkable victory in Blender, surpassing the Apple M3 by 98% and the Intel Core Ultra 185H by 73%. AMD also shared some gaming benchmarks, again comparing to the Core Ultra 185H, with positive results across the board. The lowest lead was 128% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, while the most significant was 147% in Cyberpunk 2077. These new Ryzen AI chips will soon find their way into over 100 Windows Copilot+ laptops starting in July. AMD has partnered with leading manufacturers such as Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and MSI to bring these processors to a wide range of devices. The lineup includes not only workstations like the Asus Zenbook S and Asus Vivobook S but also more powerful Copilot+ PCs with discrete GPUs, such as the Asus ProArt P16. AMD even hinted at the upcoming processors’ presence in some of the best gaming laptops, including the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 and the MSI Stealth A16 AI+.
AMD’s Mobile Zen 5 Processors: Primed for Copilot+ and AI
