AMD launches Ryzen AI 400 desktop processors with up to 50 TOPS NPU and Copilot+ support

[Redaktion]

The AMD Ryzen AI 400 Series, announced at MWC 2026, are officailly the world's first desktop chips designed to support Microsoft Copilot+ PC experiences. Like AMD's recent Ryzen AI mobile platforms, this one also features Zen 5 CPU cores, AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics, and an XDNA 2 NPU.


https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-launches-Ryzen-AI-400-desktop-processors-with-up-to-50-TOPS-NPU-and-Copilot-support.1239340.0.html

[Prassel]

So it shows that AMD, like Intel, is "allergic" to desktop APUs ...

Their goodwill for desktop APUs only goes as far as approximately GTX 1050 Ti graphics power. Sad. APUs could completely remove the need for any dGPU if you keep your expectations in gaming at low settings (but not necessarily ugly settings). Add to that the possibility to easily upgrade the chip by swapping in and out the socketed chip - would have been great. Imo as a custom ITX build better than a NUC (because of standard coolers, standard PSUs, etc)

But "they" don't want that. Both AMD and Intel. They don't want that flexibility for customers. Obviously.

[captainobvious]

Very true, neither company is interested in selling top iGPU to customers.
Coincidentally, neither am I interested in buying their monster graphics cards with hundreds of watt power consumption just to play the latest "Silly man-animal of fluid gender" FPS game.

[Now you understand]

For those who still don't know: Ryzen AI 400 is just a rename of Ryzen AI 300.

So it shows that AMD, like Intel, is "allergic" to desktop APUs ...

Their goodwill for desktop APUs only goes as far as approximately GTX 1050 Ti graphics power.

Very true, neither company is interested in selling top iGPU to customers.

Strix Halo' iGPU has access to 256 GB/s memory due to its 256-bit RAM access and its performance is approx on the level of a 4060 Laptop. 256 GB/s equals to quad-channel (4 * 64-bit per RAM channel) in the desktop. In desktop (if we define the word "desktop" as anything that looks like a (big) desktop tower), only the (entry level) Threadripper platform offers quad-channel.

So, there's simply not enough bandwidth.

PS: Panther Lake's Arc B390 iGPU is connected to 128-bit (dual-channel) memory running at LPDDR5X-9600 MT/s, but it has bad 1% FPS lows (YT/Just Josh: ExpertBook Ultra Panther Lake youtu.be/jduWl1J_4lQ?t=630). I wonder what is up with that and if it's caused by the LPDDR5X' high latency when running it at 9600 MT/s. Now I wonder if Strix Halo also has bad 1% FPS lows issue.

[Now you understand]

Here is another with bad 1% FPS lows in Panther Lake's Arc B390: youtu.be/A_jHa0d1aFA?t=319 (YT/Just Josh: "Intel's New Integrated GPU vs 10 Popular Games (Shockingly Playable)")

..we wouldn't recommend it. The 1% lows and .1% lows are just too rough.

[Prassel]

Strix Halo iGPU ... not enough bandwidth.

Uhm ... "Halo" is not the point. It wouldn't fit on a default socket anyways.


I'm talking about the smaller chips, like the socketed 8000G-series, which has up to 12 CUs for the iGPU.

And now the "successor" comes as the socketed 450G-series, which gets 8 CUs only... and even though the same small chip in laptops has 16 CUs (Radeon 890m).

[NVL-S]

Prassel,

Probably not the answer you're looking for but in the entire history of desktop APUs, I can only think of maybe once or twice where graphics performance was a priority and taken seriously.

I think this was Intel's Crystal Well (22nm Haswell processor) and later 14 nm Broadwell with on-package 128MB eDRAM L4 Cache.

You need faster ram but socketed ram is always slower which is why the focus is on laptops because soldered there is more popular there.

[Ryzen AI PRO 400 lineup]

Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 475
Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 470
Ryzen AI 9 PRO 465
Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450
Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440
Ryzen AI 5 PRO 435

"In addition to the desktop launch, AMD also announced the Ryzen AI PRO 400 Series mobile processors designed for enterprise-class mobile workstations like laptops and tablets. The company mentions that the top-of-the-line Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 470, with its 50 TOPS AI power, delivers 30% faster multithreaded performance compared to the competition, along with all-day battery life."