The AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series “Strix Point” line of processors that debuted last summer pack a lot of performance into a mobile processor by combining up to 12 CPU cores based on Zen 5 architecture with up to 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units.

AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max 300 Series “Strix Halo” go even further. These new chips feature up to 16 CPU cores and up to 40 GPU compute units. AMD says the integrated GPUs on these chips can offer performance that matches or exceeds some discrete GPUs, and a laptop with a Strix Halo processor and 128GB of RAM can dedicated as much as 96GB of that memory to graphics.

One disadvantage that these new chips have is that they’re more power hungry. Strix Point processors can be configured for TDPs ranging from 15 to 54 watts, but Strix Halo processors have a cTDP range of 45 to 120 watts.

So these chips are designed specifically for high-performance computers including gaming laptops, mobile workstations, and mini workstation-class PCs like the Asus ROG Flow Z13 2-in-1 gaming tablet, the HP ZBook Ultra G1a mobile workstation-class laptop, and the HP Z2 Mini G1a mini PC.

Strix Halo processors  are expected to hit the streets in the first half of 2025, with three Ryzen AI Max 300 chips and four Ryzen AI Max 300 PRO models:

All of the Strix Halo chips feature support for LPDDR5x-8000 memory, a new memory interface with support for up to 256GB/s of bandwidth, and a Ryzen AI NPU based on AMD XDNA 2 architecture that delivers up to 50 TOPS of peak AI performance.

AMD will also continue to sell Strix Point processors for the foreseeable future, so we’ll likely continue to see laptops and mini PCs with those chips as well.

Meanwhile, AMD knows that some customers will still want gaming laptops and mobile workstations with discrete graphics. So the company is launching a new line of “Fire Range” processors that combine high-performance CPUs with less impressive integrated graphics.

These chips feature up to 16 Zen 5 CPU cores with speeds up to 5.4 GHz and up to 144MB of cache. But since they’re designed to be paired with a discrete GPU, the chips have RDNA 2 integrated graphics and a 54 watt TDP.