Zen 5: AMD allegedly cancels Windows 10 support early
Processors from AMD's next Ryzen family will no longer run under Windows 10. AMD would thus be pre-empting Microsoft's end of support.
Windows 11 is already pre-installed on new notebooks. The operating system is to become mandatory for new AMD processors if you don't want to use Linux.
(Image: c't)
AMD is reportedly no longer releasing Windows 10 drivers for its next generation of processors with Zen 5 technology. Within the Microsoft world, the processors would therefore only run with Windows 11.
This was reported by a Lenovo employee on the Chinese platform Weibo in relation to the Strix Point notebook processor family, the successor to the previous Ryzen 8040/8045 aka Hawk Point. The post was actually about the performance increase per clock cycle (IPC). The expiring Windows 10 support was mentioned in passing and is now making the rounds.
Apparently, AMD wants to focus on the AI capabilities of the integrated Ryzen AI unit in its Phoenix Point processors. Asus has already indicated that AMD is changing its naming scheme accordingly. The next top model will be called Ryzen AI 9 HX 170.
Microsoft's focus on Windows 11
AMD is relying heavily on Microsoft's Windows integration for the AI functions, which will only be available in Windows 11 with Copilot. For example, users will get an intelligent text search and an AI image generator. Windows 10 is therefore becoming less important for hardware manufacturers despite its continued widespread use.
In addition, Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in October 2025 anyway. AMD would therefore only be about a year ahead of the company.
With regard to the increased computing work per clock cycle of AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, the Lenovo employee wanted to dampen expectations. Previously, figures of up to 40 percent had been circulating, but these were likely to relate to individual computing operations and probably did not reflect everyday performance. More realistic would be 10 percent, and in the popular render benchmark Cinebench even a little more.
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