In the grand theater of technological revelations at CES, AMD emerged as a significant player, delivering a surprising twist this year. The spotlight fell on new CPUs tailored for the enduring AM4 socket, showcasing AMD’s commitment with an impressive seven years of active support. According to Woligroski, the decision to introduce the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and three accompanying chips for AM4 was strongly influenced by the vast existing installation base. While the AM5 solution gears up for the future, the AM4 platform remains steadfastly supported, at least for the foreseeable future. Speculation looms regarding the eventual end of this support journey, with whispers suggesting it might coincide with the moment when the cost dynamics of older DDR4 memory surpass that of DDR5.
Turning the lens towards the AM5 socket, the domain of AMD’s latest and most advanced consumer desktop chips, market forces imposed a delay in the launch of combined APU designs. Ryzen 7000 CPUs faced this setback, but the promise of DDR5 brought forth a new era of graphics excellence. The Ryzen 8000 series, armed with RDNA 3 integration, unlocks even greater graphics performance. The flagship chip, Ryzen 7 8700 G, enjoys access to a Radeon 780M graphics core.
However, the narrative extends beyond graphics to include Neural Processing Units (NPUs), integrated into select AMD laptop and desktop chips. Why invest in what seems to be an emerging AI use case? Woligroski explains the classic dilemma in PC hardware – the chicken or the egg scenario – emphasizing that without building the hardware, developers cannot effectively cultivate and evolve the capabilities of NPUs.