AMD unveils new Ryzen Pro 8000 processors for AI PCs

[DragonSlayer101]

What just happened? AMD has unveiled its Ryzen Pro 8000 series processors for commercial desktops and the Ryzen Pro 8040 series processors for business laptops. Both lineups are designed for the so-called "AI PC" and offer improved AI processing capabilities compared to their predecessors. They will be available in a range of devices from leading PC vendors, including Lenovo and HP, starting in Q2 2024.

Built on the Zen 4 architecture, these are the first set of Pro chips from AMD to include built-in Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for AI workloads. They also come with integrated RDNA graphics.

According to AMD, the new Pro 8040 chips are the "most advanced x86 processors built for business laptops and mobile workstations," while the Pro 8000 series desktop processors are "engineered to deliver cutting-edge performance with low power consumption."

The NPU in the new processors is powered by AMD's XDNA engine, with the company claiming 16 TOPS of NPU performance and 39 TOPS of total system performance. Both figures are higher than Intel's latest flagship Core Ultra chip, which offers up to 11 TOPS of NPU performance and 34 TOPS of total system performance. However, it still falls short of the 45 TOPS of NPU performance that Microsoft requires for its AI PCs, something that Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake processors will bring to the table later this year.

The Ryzen Pro 8040 series is spearheaded by the Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS, which features eight cores, 16 threads, 24MB of cache, and integrated Radeon 780M graphics. It operates at speeds of up to 5.2GHz and has a TDP ranging from 35 to 54W.

The lineup consists of seven additional SKUs, which include the Ryzen 7 Pro 8845HS, Ryzen 7 Pro 8840HS, Ryzen 5 Pro 8645HS, Ryzen 5 Pro 8640HS, Ryzen 7 Pro 8840U, Ryzen 7 Pro 8640U, and Ryzen 5 Pro 8540U.

The desktop lineup also comprises eight SKUs, with the flagship being the Ryzen 7 Pro 8700G, an eight-core, 16-thread chip boasting 24MB of cache, up to 5.1GHz of boost speed, and a 45-65W TDP. Other SKUs in the lineup include the Ryzen 5 Pro 8600G, Ryzen 5 Pro 8500G, Ryzen 3 Pro 8300G, Ryzen 7 Pro 8700GE, Ryzen 5 Pro 8600GE, Ryzen 5 Pro 8500GE, and Ryzen 3 Pro 8300GE.

Following the release of the new processors, Microsoft announced that they will come equipped with the Pluton security chip, a feature found in all AMD CPUs since Ryzen 6000. This chip is expected to safeguard user credentials, identities, personal data, and encryption keys on Windows 11 PCs.

Redmond also claimed that the new processors will enable IT managers to deploy devices up to 41 percent faster, although they did not specify the comparison benchmark.

Permalink to story:

AMD unveils new Ryzen Pro 8000 processors for AI PCs

 

[The Talking Tech]

And yet AMD's stock keeps falling.....

 

[maxxcool7421]

Utterly useless crap I will never use. give me my 256mb on dice cache back and drop this crap.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I'd be interested in this in mobile... get rid of the integrated graphics and pair with a mobile 4090 - will it beat the 14900 laptops?

 

[yRaz]

Oh, wow, the AI PC. Don't we all just love products that nobody asked for?

 

[kiwigraeme]

Oh, wow, the AI PC. Don't we all just love products that nobody asked for?

You may be right, given Microsoft's requirement of 45 TOPS of NPU, they must have some "reasons" , but like ray tracing early on , you will be 100% right as no need to get one ASAP. As will be few in the wild, the use case is just developing. But in say 5 years probably very silly not to have it on a new build ( then again your choice won't matter , as you will get it no matter your want or desire )

 

[Theinsanegamer]

You may be right, given Microsoft's requirement of 45 TOPS of NPU, they must have some "reasons" , but like ray tracing early on , you will be 100% right as no need to get one ASAP. As will be few in the wild, the use case is just developing. But in say 5 years probably very silly not to have it on a new build ( then again your choice won't matter , as you will get it no matter your want or desire )

Even if they double the performance every year for 5 years, it will still be worthless. Modern AI uses entire datacenters of processing power.

It'll be great at scraping your data and sending you ads!

 

[daffy duck]

You may be right, given Microsoft's requirement of 45 TOPS of NPU, they must have some "reasons" , but like ray tracing early on , you will be 100% right as no need to get one ASAP. As will be few in the wild, the use case is just developing. But in say 5 years probably very silly not to have it on a new build ( then again your choice won't matter , as you will get it no matter your want or desire )

The BS requirement for 45 TOPS is so copilot can run locally without needing to send request into the cloud.

Now some software, but I struggling to think of more than Topaz AI apps, will benefit greatly from more powerful NPU, but for most people they'll see no benefit. Let's not forget copilot does nothing more than opening Bing and doing an AI search already does.

 

[kiwigraeme]

The BS requirement for 45 TOPS is so copilot can run locally without needing to send request into the cloud.

Now some software, but I struggling to think of more than Topaz AI apps, will benefit greatly from more powerful NPU, but for most people they'll see no benefit. Let's not forget copilot does nothing more than opening Bing and doing an AI search already does.

Haven't even tried Co Pilot , but yes would be a big usage . If you can spend $200 on Topaz for a yearly update package you are using your GPU. To fix and upscale a DVD to 1080p or 4K takes some grunt and still some knowledge.
Microsoft wants access to this , assume Youtube will want access to this, as could user more complex compression to ways to take lower resolutions to a higher one

 

[Willxx789]

I am learning AI and will be building a system just for AI and will probably wait for the desktop Ryzen 9 for AI purposes. I currently run AI on my regular desktop with a RTX 3060 with 12 GB of VRAM. I so far have not stressed my existing setup yet but like others much of the AI available is cloudbased.

It is still fairly difficult to select the best hardware for AI. There are the AMD processors with an NPU but I think a Xenon processor may be a better choice but do not have enough data to compare. I may focus on a GPU upgrade first to wait a bit for the better CPUs for AI are released. Still trying to justify a RTX 3090 but cannot justify even a used one for now. I may try and setup multiple 3060s to see if that buys me any better processing and see if I can use the VRAM on two GPUs first.

AI is no fad it is going to revolutionize our lives and our economies. I am blown away by it capabilities at this point an in 2 years we are suppose to get AGI which will be a world changing event.