The world of AI PCs welcomes another heavyweight contender! AMD has officially unveiled its Ryzen PRO series processors tailored for commercial AI desktops, comprising the Ryzen PRO 8040 series for laptops and mobile workstations, and the Ryzen PRO 8000 series for desktops and workstation setups.
Notably, the Ryzen PRO 8000 series marks the world's first commercial desktop AI platform, much like the Ryzen 8000 series released earlier this year, which pioneered the desktop AI platform globally.
Before delving into specific products, let's take a look at AMD's trends in the commercial market.
According to market research data, from 2019 to 2023, AMD achieved a remarkable 166% growth in the commercial endpoint market. Moreover, in the workstation segment, AMD saw an impressive threefold annual growth, emerging as the fastest-growing x86 processor brand.
Regarding the outlook for AI PCs, IDC's report paints a highly optimistic picture: by 2027, it's projected that 6 out of every 10 PCs shipped will be AI PCs, with a highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reaching up to 62%.
Simultaneously, 59% of enterprise customers are eager to embrace AI PCs. Furthermore, 94% of large enterprises and 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises believe that AI PCs can positively drive their businesses forward.
Thanks to its highly competitive rich product line and technology, as well as its active, comprehensive, and in-depth layout, AMD can be said to be the only enterprise in the industry that has achieved a full range of AI product portfolios.
From data centers to the edge, from servers to workstations, from embedded to client, from laptops to desktops... AMD's AI product portfolio has achieved full coverage.
Especially in the client space, the Ryzen 7040 series is the industry's first x86 processor to integrate an NPU neural network unit, also known as the Ryzen AI independent engine. The CPU+GPU+NPU trio has opened the door to AI PCs.
The newly released Ryzen PRO 8040/8000 series processors are built on the cutting-edge 4nm manufacturing process, featuring the Zen 4 CPU architecture, RDNA3 GPU architecture, and XDNA NPU architecture. This powerful combination, complemented by AMD PRO technologies, delivers top-notch security and manageability for commercial clients. Additionally, users can opt for the fastest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless connections.
In the realm of commercial PCs, AI holds significant promise, offering comprehensive improvements in collaboration, energy efficiency, productivity, and privacy security. It has the potential to even reshape business models, paving the way for endless possibilities.
Of course, alongside robust hardware, the software ecosystem is the key for AI PCs to thrive in commercial applications.
AMD has been actively expanding in this area, such as the first implementation of Windows 11 Studio Effects accelerated by NPU. This is highly beneficial for typical commercial scenarios like video conferencing, significantly enhancing meeting effectiveness and device efficiency while extending the battery life of business laptops.
By the end of 2024, AMD expects to have over 150 AI ISV (Independent Software Vendor) partners.
The list includes many familiar names, both foreign and domestic. Foreign partners include Adobe, BitDefender, CyberLink, Microsoft, Nero, Blender, SolidWorks, Ubisoft, Unity, Topaz Labs, Zoom, and Webex.
Domestic partners include NetEase Games, Zhongke Jiahe, Founder, G++, Wisdom Memory, Qingbo Intelligence, Tencent, Wuwen Xinqiong, Yanshan Technology, and more.
The Ryzen PRO 8040 series comprises eight different models, categorized into three sub-series: the high-performance 35-54W 8045HS, the 20-28W 8040HS, and the low-power 15-28W 8040U, which align closely with the consumer-grade Ryzen 8040 series.
Both the Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 series feature 8 cores and 16 threads, with 24MB cache (8MB L2 + 16MB L3). This includes the Ryzen 9 PRO 8945HS and the Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS/8840HS/8840U, boasting impressive boost frequencies of up to 5.2GHz.
On the other hand, the Ryzen 5 series offers 6 cores and 12 threads, with 22MB cache (6MB L2 + 16MB L3). Models in this series include the Ryzen 5 PRO 8645HS/8640HS/8640U/8540U, with maximum boost frequencies reaching up to 5.0GHz.
It's worth noting that even the entry-level Ryzen 5 PRO 8540U, despite lacking an NPU AI engine, maintains a competitive edge in baseline performance thanks to its robust CPU and GPU capabilities, without compromising on quality.
In terms of performance, the Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U compared to the previous generation Zen 3 architecture Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U, both at the same 15W thermal design power, can bring a comprehensive performance improvement in response speed, multitasking, productivity, content creation, and more, with a maximum increase of up to 26%.
The Ryzen PRO 8000 series desktop processors consist of eight models, divided into the high-performance 45-65W 8000G series and the low-power 35W 8000GE series. The former corresponds to the consumer-grade Ryzen 8000G series.
Among them, the Ryzen 7 series all feature 8 cores, 16 threads, and 24MB of cache, with a maximum frequency of up to 5.1GHz, including the Ryzen 7 PRO 8700G/8700GE.
The Ryzen 5 series all feature 6 cores, 12 threads, and 22MB of cache, with a maximum frequency of up to 5.0GHz, including the Ryzen 5 PRO 8600G/8500G/8600GE/8500GE.
The Ryzen 3 series all feature 4 cores, 8 threads, and 12MB of cache (4MB L2 + 8MB L3), with frequencies reaching up to 4.9GHz, including the Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G/8300GE.
Comparatively, the highest boost frequencies of the GE series are identical to those of the G series, with only slight reductions in base frequencies.
When comparing across generations, taking the Ryzen 7 PRO 8700G/5750G as an example reveals significant improvements in responsiveness, multitasking, graphics, productivity, content creation, and more. Particularly noteworthy is the 2.6-fold increase in graphics performance.
We've talked about AMD PRO technology many times before, which encompasses three main pillars: security, manageability, and business readiness. It offers multi-layered security features, simplifies deployment and management, and ensures high stability across the entire product line, providing peace of mind for enterprise users.
In terms of security, in addition to continuing many previous features, the Ryzen PRO 8000 series benefits from the Zen4 architecture bringing Shadow Stack, enhancing protection of user data from the ground up. Additionally, it integrates Microsoft's Pluton security technology deeply, providing comprehensive security protection from the chip to the cloud.
As for manageability, a major highlight is extending past cloud-based support further to desktops, which is crucial for all users, whether they are local, remote, or hybrid workers.
Regardless of being on the same network or not, IT administrators can provide timely IT support, including updating system patches, upgrading software, setting wake times, changing BIOS settings, remote access, remote device repair, and more. This simplifies the entire IT operation process, something that wasn't achievable before.
AMD has two key partners in wireless connectivity on the platform technology front. One is Qualcomm, jointly introducing the world's first batch of Wi-Fi 7 commercial PCs, such as Lenovo's ThinkPad T14.
Equipped with the Ryzen PRO 8040 series processor, it boosts Wi-Fi speeds by 60%, reduces latency by 50%, and improves energy efficiency by 50%. Bluetooth coverage also doubles, ensuring stable connections even when users move farther away from the computer while wearing Bluetooth headphones or other devices.
The other partner is MediaTek, assisting HP in creating the world's first batch of Wi-Fi 7 commercial PCs, including the Elite 805 G9 Mini PC, EliteBook 845 G11 laptop, and ZBook Firefly G11 A laptop.
This collaboration brings a 3x speed increase and 4x capacity increase, with single-user and multi-user latency improvements of 80% and 25%, respectively. Moreover, it has undergone over 90,000 stability tests to ensure optimization to a reliable level.
Lenovo and HP are the two key partners for AMD Ryzen PRO 8040/8000 series processors. Both companies are upgrading their product lines to the new platform, spanning across various forms such as laptops, mini PCs, desktops, and workstations, which are set to be released soon.
The birth of the AMD Ryzen PRO 8040/8000 series undoubtedly takes commercial PCs to new heights.
Thanks to the Zen4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU architectures, it leads in all aspects of benchmark performance. With the Ryzen AI engine, intelligent experiences flourish. Leveraging AMD PRO technology, both security and manageability rank world-class. With Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, users can enjoy the latest connectivity standards. And with extensive ecosystem collaboration, product and software scenarios are becoming increasingly enriched.
