Each year, major chip manufacturers like Intel, AMD, and Nvidia utilize CES to present new developments. However, not all announcements bring breakthrough innovations; some focus on incremental improvements. AMD's latest Ryzen CPU announcements typify such updates, with this year's releases primarily refining existing technologies rather than introducing groundbreaking changes.
The newly revealed Ryzen AI 400 series fits into this category, presenting slightly modified versions of the chips first launched in 2024 and 2025. Like their predecessors, these new processors are designed to provide modest enhancements without deviating significantly from established designs.
Subtle Enhancements to Existing Technology
The Ryzen AI 400-series chips have been fine-tuned to deliver modest improvements over their predecessors, the Ryzen AI 300 series. These chips promise modest boosts in CPU clock speeds, NPU (neural processing unit) efficiency, and supported RAM speeds. For instance, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 can achieve a peak boost clock speed of 5.2 GHz and supports LPDDR5x-8533 memory, compared to the 5.1 GHz and LPDDR5x-8000 support of the earlier Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Furthermore, the integrated NPU boasts a capability of 60 trillion operations per second (TOPS), a step up from the previous 50 TOPS.
Despite these updates, the internal architecture of the Ryzen AI 400 series remains consistent with the Ryzen AI 300 series. They continue to integrate high-performance Zen 5 CPU cores with smaller, more efficient Zen 5c cores. The chips also feature between 4 to 16 integrated GPU cores based on the RDNA 3 architecture and utilize a 4 nm TSMC manufacturing process.
This approach isn’t unprecedented for AMD. Previously, the company adopted a similar strategy with the Ryzen 8040-series laptop chips, offering slight speed enhancements over the 7040 series without substantial architectural changes. Therefore, consumers may find value in opting for Ryzen AI 300 systems if discounts are available, as the performance differences remain marginal.