AMD Pushes the Limits of Performance with Zen 5 at Computex 2024

At Computex 2024, the world’s largest chip companies, including AMD, made a slew of announcements. The company used its Computex keynote to tout its AI capabilities from the data center to the consumer. For AMD, it was especially important to show that the company’s processors are still competitive in the era of AI on PCs.

So far, AMD has struggled to own the AI ​​PC the way Qualcomm and Intel have, which I think is a consequence of the company’s focus on AI in the data center. Intel’s AI PC story has been about scale, while Qualcomm’s has been about NPU and overall efficiency, factors that have been helped by Microsoft’s willingness to launch Copilot+ first on Qualcomm’s Arm-based processors.

AMD is still considered one of Microsoft’s main partners for Copilot+ PCs, but until Computex, AMD didn’t really have any processors to show off that would even qualify for Microsoft’s Copilot+ specifications. While AMD did announce the Ryzen AI 300 series at Computex, it also officially announced the Zen 5 processor family that powers it. I think AMD is currently focused on performance leadership across all categories, which includes data center CPUs and GPUs, consumer CPUs and GPUs, and AI.

AMD Ryzen AI 300 aims for maximum performance

AMD is calling the Ryzen AI 300 series its third generation of AI PC processors, following the Ryzen 7040 and 8040 series processors already on the market. AMD says the Ryzen AI 300 series is designed for Copilot+ experiences with its 50 TOPS NPU, which exceeds Microsoft’s 40 TOPS minimum requirement for Copilot+ PCs. The new NPU is the second generation of AMD’s XDNA architecture, inherited from its acquisition of Xilinx. AMD claims up to 5x the AI ​​compute and up to 2x the power efficiency of the first generation of XDNA. AMD also claims that this series has higher NPU performance than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series, but didn’t discuss efficiency comparisons.

There are two Ryzen AI 300 series components, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and the Ryzen AI 9 365. These two very similar components have minor spec differences, but the same TDPs in the 15-54 watt range. The HX 370 is a 12-core Zen 5 processor clocked at 5.1 GHz while the 365 is a 10-core Zen 5 processor clocked at 5 GHz. There is also a 2 MB difference in CPU cache and a slight difference in GPU performance. Both of these components are powered by AMD’s RDNA 3.5, which seems to be another half-step in AMD’s GPU architecture that it hasn’t traditionally acknowledged before.

In its on-stage comparisons at Computex, AMD took direct aim at processors from Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm, with a particular focus on Intel’s Core Ultra 185H, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, and Apple’s M3. Against Qualcomm, AMD claimed a 5% advantage in GeekBench’s single-threaded benchmarks, and up to a 60% advantage in graphics performance. Against Apple’s M3, it claimed 9% better productivity in Procyon and 98% better 3D rendering in Blender. Against Intel, AMD claimed 4% better productivity in Procyon, 47% better multitasking in Cinebench, and 73% better rendering in Blender. I think these improvements are powerful and help AMD continue to tell the performance story it seems to be promoting, but I worry that if it wants to compete with Snapdragon X Elite and Intel Lunar Lake, AMD will also need to tell an efficiency story with the Ryzen AI family, which has been sorely lacking so far.

AMD says it already has over 100 Ryzen AI 300 series PC models that will be available from most major OEMs starting this month. Dell is surprisingly absent from that list. I saw some of these systems in person at Computex and was particularly impressed with what AMD was able to achieve in partnership with ASUS on the Zenbook S 16, which is one of the most impressively thin and light laptops I’ve seen in years.

AMD Ryzen 9 9000 Series Aims for Desktop Superiority

With the new Ryzen 9 9000 series, AMD has committed to continuing to use the AM5 socket platform. This doesn’t mean that AMD won’t introduce a new X870 motherboard chipset for AM5, but it does mean that, first, gamers have a lot of flexibility in deciding which motherboards they use and, second, that upgrade paths aren’t tied to the socket. Additionally, AMD committed at Computex to releasing products with the AM5 socket through 2027. This doesn’t mean that we’ll continue to see flagship processors with the 9000 series, but that AMD will be releasing new processors for AM5 to keep it fresh and accessible to a wider audience. This move comes alongside PCIe 5 and DDR5 support, as well as improved PCIe 5 storage support on the X870/E.

The Ryzen 9000 series also follows the lead of the Ryzen AI 300 series by using Zen 5 CPU cores, which AMD claims deliver up to 2x better AI performance. Across a wide range of workloads, AMD is also claiming a 16% increase in geomean IPC, which is particularly impressive considering the company has been delivering double-digit IPC improvements with each generation. AMD’s new 9000 series ranges from six to 16 cores and offers four different well-configured products, with the Ryzen 9700X appearing to be the best performance-per-watt and the 9950X being the pinnacle of performance. That said, the company did not introduce an X3D SKU with 3D memory for improved caching for gaming, meaning those products will likely arrive later in the year. AMD was able to keep TDPs roughly the same as the previous 7000 series while increasing performance. Clock speeds are also roughly the same.

While AMD didn’t make many comparisons to its own Ryzen 7000 series, it did compare the Ryzen 9000 series to the Intel 14900K, where it claims 7% to 56% better performance for productivity and content creation. It also claims better gaming performance in some titles ranging from 4% in Borderlands 3 to 23% in Horizon Zero Dawn.

One of the benefits AMD is promoting with the new X870 motherboard family is USB4 support as standard on all models. This is an upgrade over USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) and brings a 4x improvement in bandwidth. Additionally, AMD is no longer distinguishing between the two tiers of motherboard chipsets when it comes to PCIe 5 SSD support, as it did between the X670 and X670E. I think this is a clear benefit to consumers and will translate into a better experience for gamers on a budget.

The X870 series will also support higher memory clock speeds thanks to AMD’s EXPO profiles, which is another way AMD is encouraging high-end gamers to make the switch. That said, the new Ryzen 9000 series will likely still be an upgrade for anyone using a high-end X670E motherboard that’s already capable of supporting a 170-watt TDP CPU. The motherboard will likely require a BIOS update first, but this is yet another way that AMD’s socket compatibility is enabling flexible upgrade paths for gamers.

In addition to the new Zen 5 processors, AMD is also introducing the Ryzen 9 5900XT and 5800XT for AM4 to cater to markets that are still firmly on AM4. These are typically developing markets like Latin America, where the cost profile of AM4 and DDR4 is much more attractive than forcing users to upgrade to AM5 and DDR5. These markets are also much less likely to benefit from the additional bandwidth of PCIe Gen 5, which is primarily targeted at high-end graphics cards and flagship NVMe SSDs. These processors will join the rest of the new Ryzen processors with availability in July.

More (and better?) to come

Looking at AMD launching all of these products, it’s pretty clear that AMD has so far continued to focus on the performance side of its product lineup with XDNA2 NPUs and Zen 5 CPUs, at the expense of efficiency. I think AMD will continue to maintain its performance leadership with the Ryzen 9000 series in desktops, but will have a more complex story to tell with the Ryzen AI 300 series. AMD may be able to claim performance leadership with the Ryzen AI 300 series, but when those roll out to laptops and compare to Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm, AMD will have to tell a much stronger power efficiency story.

So far, AMD’s claimed performance is pretty credible, but the question is, what is the cost of that performance in terms of battery life? Without good answers to these questions, some (potential) AMD customers may be left unsatisfied.

That said, AMD made a lot of advancements in gaming design at Computex. Gaming is one area where power efficiency is less of a concern, but that won’t help AMD compete with Intel and the Arm ecosystem more broadly. We’ll have to wait until Ryzen AI 300-based systems can be independently evaluated to get a better idea of ​​how AMD stacks up on efficiency.