According to a new report, AMD may streamline its mobile CPU brands by discontinuing the HS, H, and U designations for its 15-45W TDP (Thermal Design Power) chips.
Instead, the designation will be changed to the 'Ryzen AI' name starting with the next generation of Zen 5 Strix Point processors, according to Weibo (reported by igor's laboratory). There are several reasons why AMD could be making such a bold move for its mobile chip branding, the most important being to promote a better understanding of the tech giant's products.
Simplifying the old branding to 'Ryzen AI' makes it easier for consumers and partners to know a chip's classification, rather than having to memorize several unrelated letters. Ryzen AI also allows different performance levels to be covered in the 15-14W range. And the use of 'AI' in the new brand shows that AMD is committing to AI-powered APUs.
The report states that certain brands will remain the same. For example, the “successor to the Ryzen 7040 'Phoenix' (HS/H) series will be called 'Ryzen AI HX'.” It also clarifies that because the transition to this new branding may cause initial confusion, AMD will provide information and tools to allow for a clearer understanding and breakdown of how the new naming system will work.
Strix Point will mix things up
A shiny new name designation for the chips that will power the upcoming Strix Point isn't the only thing the new APUs have to look forward to, according to the rumors surrounding it. A sample of engineering had supposedly been benched via Blender, revealing a score of 270.92, meaning that a mobile CPU outperformed two desktop processors: the Ryzen 7 7700X and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
There was another rumor claiming some amazing specifications for an Asus laptop that would feature a Strix Point APU, specifically the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 which has 12 cores and 24 threads, an NPU running at 77 TOP (trillion operations per second), a boost clock of up to 5.1 GHz and 36 MB L3 cache.
But the move to AI could mean some users are left behind. Another rumor claims that the next APUs remove support for Windows 10. Even though the operating system is much more popular than Windows 11the latter is tailor-made for AI, while the much older Windows 10 would definitely have problems with components that use it.
It seems that if at least half of these rumors and reports turn out to be true, Strix Point will be an interesting turning point for AMD on both an aesthetic and performance level.
