CPU refresh: AMD's Ryzen AI 400 are partially worse
AMD's reissued processors have partially lower clock speeds with fewer performance cores. Ryzen 7 9850X3D gets more clock speed.
(Image: AMD)
AMD is refreshing its processor portfolio for notebooks for CES. The Ryzen AI 400 may get new names, but behind them are only reissues of the previous Ryzen AI 300. Particularly annoying: Not all 400 models are better than the previous 300 types.
Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is coming for desktop PCs with a significant clock speed increase: it will reach up to 5.6 GHz ex works, which is 400 MHz more than the previous Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The remaining specifications remain unchanged: eight Zen 5 cores share 96 MB of Level 3 cache, and the Thermal Design Power (TDP) is 120 watts. The model is expected to reach the market in the first quarter of 2026; the price is currently unknown.
(Image:Â AMD)
Refresh instead of new technology
The Ryzen AI 400 use the same chips as the Ryzen AI 300. The top models have slightly higher clock speeds and can handle faster memory. The twelve-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 475, for example, reaches up to 5.2 instead of 5.1 GHz. Notebook manufacturers can pair it with LPDDR5X-8533 memory instead of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM.
The biggest speed boost is received by the integrated AI unit (Neural Processing Unit, NPU). Thanks to higher clock speeds, it reaches up to 60 instead of 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in the simple INT8 data format. However, strong selection is apparently necessary, as only the Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 achieves the 60 TOPS.
(Image:Â AMD)
Deterioration in the mid-range
With the ten-core Ryzen 9 465, it's only enough for faster memory. The CPU cores remain at a maximum of 5.0 GHz, and the NPU at 50 TOPS. The situation looks even worse for the Ryzen AI 7 445. While there is no direct predecessor, even the Ryzen AI 5 340 with a lower number was better equipped. The newcomer has two fast Zen 5 cores and four slower, area-optimized Zen 5c cores. The Ryzen AI 5 340 still had three of each. At the same time, the maximum clock frequency drops from 4.8 to 4.6 GHz. So buyers are better off with an older model.
AMD is thus contradicting its own naming logic from the introduction of the Ryzen AI 300 a year ago. At that time, the company argued that the 300 stood for the third generation of integrated NPUs. However, there is no fourth generation yet.
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Further Max models
With the larger Ryzen AI Max 300, AMD is taking a different approach: there are two new models, the Ryzen AI Max+ 392 with twelve CPU cores and the Ryzen AI Max+ with eight cores. Like the 16-core top model Ryzen AI Max+ 395, they access the full graphics unit with 2560 shaders. In the previously stripped-down variants, the GPU was limited to 2048 shaders.
(Image:Â AMD)
The first notebooks and possibly mini-PCs with the more or less new mobile processors are expected to appear in the course of the first quarter of 2026. However, notebook manufacturers have already indicated that a large wave is expected in the second quarter.
heise medien is an official media partner of CES 2026.
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