AMD's Ryzen AI 300 Series Packs a 50 TOPS Neural Processor for On-Device Artificial Intelligence

AMD has announced its third-generation processors for artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced laptops, powered by its new Zen 5 architecture and with a 50 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU) using its XDNA 2 architecture on board: the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series.

"The AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processors push the limits on what’s possible," claims AMD's Jack Huynh of the company's latest launch, "featuring the fastest APU [Accelerator Processing Unit] performance, the world’s most powerful NPU with 50 TOPS [Tera-Operations Per Second], and the world's first block floating point NPU doubling the performance of 16-bit applications without sacrificing accuracy."

Designed primarily with the needs of Microsoft's Copilot+ system in mind, the AMD Ryzen AI 300 family is AMD's third-generation AI-enhanced processor design. Two models were announced at launch: the Ryzen AI 9 365, with 10 cores and 20 threads running at 5GHz boost and 2GHz base, Radeon 880M integrated graphics, and a 14-54W configurable thermal design profile (cTDP); and the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, with 12 cores and 24 threads running at 5.1GHz boost and 2GHz base, Radeon 890M graphics, and the same configurable TDP.

Microsoft's Copilot+ mandates a hefty coprocessor dedicated to artificial intelligence functionality being added to its Windows 11 operating system, and was previously available only on devices powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X Elite chips. Both new Ryzen AI chips exceed Microsoft's requirements thanks to the integrated 50 TOPS NPU coprocessor, three times faster than its second-generation predecessor and that is built on AMD's new XDNA 2 architecture — usable independently to the on-board graphics processor, built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture.

"We are in the midst of a massive AI platform shift, with the promise to transform how we live and work. That's why our deep partnership with AMD, which has spanned multiple computing platforms, from the PC to custom silicon for Xbox, and now to AI, is so important to us," claims Microsoft's chair and chief executive officer Satya Nadella. "We are excited to partner with AMD to deliver these new Ryzen AI powered Copilot+ PCs. We are very committed to our collaboration with AMD and we’ll continue to push AI progress forward together across the cloud and edge to bring new value to our joint customers."

The new mobile-centric Ryzen AI 300 series chips are joined by Ryzen 9000 series desktop parts, which include the range-topping Ryzen 9 9950X with 16 cores and 32 threads running at up to 5.7GHz boost and 4.3GHz base clocks with 80MB of cache — and implementing the same Zen 5 architecture, which AMD claims delivers a 16 per cent improvement in instructions-per-cycle (IPC) over its previous generation architecture.

The AMD Ryzen AI 300 series is available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) now, and will start appearing in consumer products soon. More information is available on the AMD website.