AMD is readying a successor to its Ryzen 7045 series "Dragon Range" mobile processor for gaming notebooks and portable workstations. While we don't know its processor model naming yet, the chip is codenamed "Fire Range." We are learning that it will retain the FL1 package as "Dragon Range," which means it will be pin-compatible. This would significantly reduce development costs for notebook OEMs, as they can simply carry over their mainboard designs from their notebooks based on "Dragon Range."

"Fire Range" is essentially a mobile BGA version of the upcoming Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processor. The FL1 package measures 40 mm x 40 mm in size, and has substrate for two CCDs and a cIOD, just like the desktop chip. "Fire Range" hence features one or two 4 nm "Zen 5" CCDs, depending on the processor model, and the 6 nm client I/O die. Much like "Dragon Range," the "Fire Range" chip will lack support for LPDDR5, and rely on conventional PC DDR5 memory in the SO-DIMM or CAMM2 form-factors. Besides the CPU core count consisting exclusively of full-sized "Zen 5" cores, the main flex for "Fire Range" over "Strix Point" will be its 28-lane PCIe Gen 5 root-complex, which can wire out the fastest discrete mobile GPUs, as well as drive multiple M.2 NVMe slots with Gen 5 wiring, and other high-bandwidth devices, such as Thunderbolt 4, USB4, or Wi-Fi 7 controllers wired directly to the processor.

In a statement published today shortly after the release of a batch of new Zen 5 architecture details, AMD's computing and graphics SVP Jack Huynh released a statement regarding a delay to the release of the Ryzen 9000 processors based on Zen 5. Originally set to launch in just one week on July 31st, the processors have now been pushed back to a staggered release on August 8th and August 15th; one and two weeks after the initial launch window. AMD supposedly found some of the launch inventory processors did not go through proper testing procedures before being shipped out, and AMD is recalling those processors before any potential problems could have a chance to affect the first customers to buy the new chips.

The statement is as follows:

We appreciate the excitement around Ryzen 9000 series processors. During final checks, we found the initial production units that were shipped to our channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations. Out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user, we are working with our channel partners to replace the initial production units with fresh units. As a result, there will be a short delay in retail availability. The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors will now go on sale on August 8th and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X processors will go on-sale on August 15th. We pride ourselves in providing a high-quality experience for every Ryzen user, and we look forward to our fans having a great experience with the new Ryzen 9000 series.

Since its reveal last week, we got a slightly more technical deep-dive from AMD on its two upcoming processors—the "Strix Point" silicon powering its Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors; and the "Granite Ridge" chiplet MCM powering its Ryzen 9000 desktop processors. We present a closer look into the "Strix Point" SoC in this article. It turns out that "Strix Point" takes a significantly different approach to heterogeneous multicore than "Phoenix 2." AMD gave us a close look at how this works. AMD built the "Strix Point" monolithic silicon on the TSMC N4P foundry node, with a die-area of around 232 mm².

The "Strix Point" silicon sees the company's Infinity Fabric interconnect as its omnipresent ether. This is a point-to-point interconnect, unlike the ringbus on some Intel processors. The main compute machinery on the "Strix Point" SoC are its two CPU compute complexes (CCX), each with a 32b (read)/16b (write) per cycle data-path to the fabric. The concept of CCX makes a comeback with "Strix Point" after nearly two generations of "Zen." The first CCX contains the chip's four full-sized "Zen 5" CPU cores, which share a 16 MB L3 cache among themselves. The second CCX contains the chip's eight "Zen 5c" cores that share a smaller 8 MB L3 cache. Each of the 12 cores has a 1 MB dedicated L2 cache.

AMD in its architecture deep-dive Q&A session with the press, confirmed that the "Zen 5" and "Zen 5c" cores on the "Strix Point" silicon only feature 256-bit wide FPU data-paths, unlike the "Zen 5" cores in the "Granite Ridge" Ryzen 9000 desktop processors. "The Zen 5c used in Strix has a 256-bit data-path, and so does the Zen 5 used inside of Strix," said Mike Clark, AMD corporate fellow and chief architecture of the "Zen" CPU cores. "So there's no delta as you move back and forth [thread migration between the Zen 5 and Zen 5c complexes] in vector throughput," he added.

It doesn't seem like AMD disabled a physically available feature, but rather, the company developed a variant of both the "Zen 5" and "Zen 5c" cores that physically lack the 512-bit data-paths. "And you get the area advantage to be able to scale out a little bit more," Clark continued. This suggests that the "Zen 5" and "Zen 5c" cores on "Strix Point" are physically smaller than the ones on the 4 nm "Eldora" 8-core CCD that is featured in "Granite Ridge" and some of the key models of the upcoming 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" server processors.

AMD presented a closer look at the Radeon 890M iGPU powering the Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" mobile processor. The iGPU introduces the new RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, with several architecture-level improvements built around the existing RDNA 3 SIMD, to yield performance/Watt improvements that AMD could trade in to increase the SIMD muscle for its processors, and proportionately increase performance. The iGPU features one Shader Engine with 8 workgroup processors (WGPs), which amount to 16 CU (compute units), for a total of 1,024 stream processors, 32 AI accelerators, and 16 Ray accelerators. The iGPU also has 4 render backends+, for 16 ROPs. It is specced with a maximum engine clock of 2.90 GHz, which yields over 11 TFLOP/s of FP32 throughput, which is around 30% higher than the iGPU of "Phoenix" (12 CU, RDNA 3), at comparable power.

AMD goes into the finer points of how it yielded the performance/Watt gains. The company worked on the texture subsystem to double the texture sampler rate, and introduced point-sampling acceleration. The shader sub-system features interpolation and comparison rate doubling. The raster sub-system introduces sub-batching of batch raster operations, with a programmable bin order, for the hardware to be more efficient. Lastly, AMD worked on the iGPU's memory-management, to be more aware of LPDDR5 (which has a different physical layer or way of writing/fetching than GDDR6). The company worked on improving the memory compression technologies, to improve performance, and reduce the iGPU's memory footprint.

AMD "Granite Ridge" is codename for the four new Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors the company plans to launch on July 31, 2024. The processor is built in the Socket AM5 package, and is meant to be backwards compatible with AMD 600-series chipset motherboards, besides the new 800-series chipset ones that will launch alongside. "Granite Ridge" is a chiplet-based processor, much like the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael," Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," and Ryzen 3000 "Matisse." AMD is carrying over the 6 nm client I/O die over from "Raphael" in an effort to minimize development costs, much in the same way it carried over the 12 nm cIOD for "Vermeer" from "Matisse."

The SoC I/O features of "Granite Ridge" are contemporary, with its awesome 28-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root complex that allows a PCI-Express 5.0 x16, two CPU-attached M.2 Gen 5 slots, and a Gen 5 x4 chipset bus. There's also a basic integrated graphics solution based on the older RDNA 2 graphics architecture; which should make these processors fit for all use-cases that don't need discrete graphics. The iGPU even has multimedia accelerators, an audio coprocessor, a display controller, and USB 3.2 interfaces from the processor.

ASUS today announced an all-new range of servers, workstations and motherboards driven by the power of AMD EPYC 4004 CPUs - heralding next-level performance and density. The new offerings include: ASUS Pro ER100A B6, a compact, 1U rack server. ASUS ExpertCenter Pro ET500A B6, a power-efficient Zen 4 workstation, ASUS Pro WS 665-ACE, a resilient ATX workstation motherboard; and ASUS Pro WS 600M-CL, a compact, chipset-less mATX motherboard for workstation applications.

Engineered specifically for the dynamic needs of small businesses and hosted IT service providers, these business-grade platforms empower high-performance computing in diverse forms, from ready-to-roll workstations to powerful motherboards. Ideal for a variety of applications, from cloud services to dedicated hosting or content delivery, ASUS equipment with AMD EPYC 4004-series processors ensure that that evolving business operations are powered by the performance the modern world demands - and backed by the ASUS expertise enterprise expects.

AMD today announced that AMD President Victor Peng is retiring effective August 30, 2024. He will continue to serve on the AMD executive team in an advisory role and support the transition until his retirement date. "Victor re-joined AMD in 2022 following the acquisition of Xilinx and played an important role successfully integrating and scaling our embedded business and leading our cross-company AI strategy," said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "Under his leadership, AMD became the industry's #1 provider of FPGA and adaptive computing solutions. On behalf of the AMD Board, executive leadership team and the thousands of employees who have worked with him, I want to thank Victor for his outstanding leadership and wish him the best in his retirement."

Peng retires with over 40 years of experience defining and delivering leadership technologies across FPGAs, SoCs, GPUs and high-performance CPUs. He has served as president at AMD since February 2022 when he rejoined the company after the acquisition of Xilinx, where he spent 14 years, most recently serving as president, CEO and member of the board of directors.

AMD today released the first public version of FLM, or Frame Latency Meter, a utility that lets you measure the response time of games with mouse movements. The tool targets advanced gamers, power users, and game developers wanting to optimize whole-system latency or reducing input latency. It measures the time it takes for a mouse movement to translate into a new frame on the screen. Options are included to use frame capture codecs such as AMF (optimized for AMD GPUs) or DXGI (any brand of GPUs). The tool generates detailed latency and effective-framerate statistics that can be exported to CSVs for data analysis. A key difference between FLM and NVIDIA LDAT is that it doesn't rely on "muzzle flashes" on the screens to measure latency, which means your measurement data can span any amount of time without worrying about running out of ammo during your test session.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Frame Latency Meter (FLM) v1.0

Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO) today announced a collaboration with AMD to supply high-performance substrates for hyperscale data center compute applications. These substrates are made in SEMCO's key the technology hub in Busan and the newly built state of the art factory in Vietnam. Market research firm Prismark predicts that the semiconductor substrate market will grow at an average annual rate of about 7%, increasing from 15.2 trillion KRW in 2024 to 20 trillion KRW in 2028. SEMCO's substantial investment of 1.9 trillion KRW in the FCBGA factory underscores its commitment to advancing substrate technology and manufacturing capabilities to meet the highest industry standards and the future technology needs.

SEMCO's collaboration with AMD focuses on meeting the unique challenges of integrating multiple semiconductor chips (Chiplets) on a single large substrate. These high-performance substrates, essential for CPU/GPU applications, offer significantly larger surface areas and higher layer counts, providing the dense interconnections required for today's advanced data centers. Compared to standard computer substrates, data center substrates are ten times larger and feature three times more layers, ensuring efficient power delivery and lossless signal integrity between chips. Addressing these challenges, SEMCO's innovative manufacturing processes mitigate issues like warpage to ensure high yields during chip mounting.

It appears like 2024 will go down as the second consecutive year without any new GPU generation launch from either NVIDIA or AMD. Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks, says that the GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" generation won't see a debut before the 2025 International CES (January 2025). It was earlier expected that the company would launch at least its top two SKUs—the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080—toward the end of 2024, and ramp the series up from 2025. There is no explanation behind this "delay." Like everyone else, NVIDIA could be rationing its foundry allocation of the 3 nm wafers from TSMC for its high-margin "Blackwell" AI GPUs. The company now makes over five times the revenue from selling AI GPUs than it does from gaming GPUs, so this development should come as little surprise.

Things aren't any different with NVIDIA's rivals in this space, AMD and Intel. AMD's RDNA 4 graphics architecture and the Radeon RX series GPUs based on it, aren't expected to arrive before 2025. AMD is making several architectural upgrades with RDNA 4, particularly to its ray tracing hardware; and the company is expected to build these GPUs on a new foundry node. Meanwhile, Intel's Arc B-series gaming GPUs based on the Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture are expected to arrive in 2025, too, although these chips are rumored to be based on a more mature 4 nm-class foundry node.

AMD's upcoming "Strix Halo" mobile processor that features up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores and a powerful iGPU with 40 compute units, is beginning to surface in online benchmark databases. We've gone into the juicy technical bits about the processor in our older articles, but put simply, it is a powerful mobile processor meant to square off against the likes of the Apple M3 Pro and M3 Max. A chiplet-based processor, much like the upcoming "Granite Ridge" desktop processor and "Fire Range" mobile processor, "Strix Halo" features up to 16 full-sized "Zen 5" cores, as it uses up to two of the same "Eldora" CCDs as them; but wired to a large I/O die that contains the oversized iGPU, and an NPU, besides the memory controllers. The iGPU has 40 compute units (2,560 stream processors), and is based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, while the NPU is the same 50 TOPS-class unit carried over from "Strix Point."

A prototype HP laptop powered by a "Strix Halo" processor that uses a single 8-core "Zen 5" CCD, was spied on the web. This chip has eight full-sized "Zen 5" cores that share a 32 MB L3 cache. The iGPU on the I/O die has its own 32 MB Infinity Cache memory that cushions memory transfers. In our older reports, we speculated as to what the memory interface of "Strix Halo" would be. It turns out that the chip exclusively features a 256-bit wide LPDDR5X memory interface, which is double the bus width of "Strix Point." This is essentially what a "quad-channel DDR5" memory interface would be, and AMD is using a memory speed standard of at least LPDDR5X-8000. From the machine's point of view, this would be just a couple of hardwired LPDDR5X chips, or a pair of LPCAMM 2 modules. Back to the benchmarks, and we are shown a single-thread CPU score of 2099 to 2177 points, and a multithreaded score ranging between 5477 points to 13993 points. The laptop was tested with an unknown version and distribution of Linux. The CPU cores are shown boosting up to 5.35 GHz.

MINISFORUM is proud to announce the MS-A1, the world's smallest and most expandable AM5 platform Mini PC. Equipped with the latest AMD AM5 platform, the MS-A1 offers a replaceable CPU, ensuring a longer motherboard lifecycle and sustainable upgrades for future generations of CPUs. Integrated with the AMD Radeon 780M graphics card, the MS-A1 includes 12 GPU cores and a GPU frequency of up to 2900 MHz, effortlessly handling both graphical and gaming demands. Additionally, it incorporates a dedicated NPU unit with up to 16 TOPS of processing power, making it the first desktop processor to include a specialized AI neural processing unit (NPU).

At its highest configuration, the MS-A1 features the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G desktop processor, built on the Zen 4 architecture. This powerhouse boasts 8 cores and 16 threads, a maximum boost clock of 5.10 GHz, and a 65 W TDP, delivering unparalleled performance. The MS-A1 supports dual-channel DDR5 5200 MHz high-speed memory, with a capacity of up to 96 GB, enabling users to achieve fast and efficient multitasking. It also features four M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD slots, offering transfer speeds of up to 7000 MB/s. These extensive expansion slots allow for a maximum system capacity of up to 27 TB, catering to the vast storage needs of creative and multimedia professionals.

We've known since May that AMD is giving its next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture a significant upgrade with ray tracing performance, and had some clue since then, that the company is working on putting more of the ray tracing workflow through dedicated, fixed function hardware, unburdening the shader engine further. Kepler_L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks sheds light on some of the many new hardware features AMD is introducing with RDNA 4 to better accelerate ray tracing, which should give its GPUs a reduced performance cost of having ray tracing enabled. Kepler_L2 believes that these hardware features should also make it to the GPU of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5 Pro.

To begin with, the RDNA 4 ray accelerator introduces the new Double Ray Tracing Intersect Engine, which should at least mean a 100% ray intersection performance increase over RDNA 3, which in turn offered a 50% increase over that of RDNA 2. The new RT instance node transform instruction should improve the way the ray accelerators handle geometry. Some of the other features we have trouble describing include a 64-byte RT node, ray tracing tri-pair optimization, Change flags encoded in barycentrics to simplify detection of procedural nodes; improved BVH footprint (possibly memory footprint): and RT support for oriented bounding box and instance node intersection. AMD is expected to debut Radeon RX series gaming GPUs based on RDNA 4 in early 2025.

AMD today released the latest version of AMD Software Adrenalin drivers for its graphics cards and integrated graphics. Version 24.7.1 WHQL comes with optimization for "Zenless Zone Zero" and "Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess." The drivers add HYPR-Tune support for "Gray Zone Warfare," "Lords of the Fallen," "RoboCop: Rogue City," and "Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name." The drivers also add Radeon Anti-Lag 2 support for "Dota 2."

Among the issues fixed with this release include stutter noticed with Anti-Lag and FSR 3; stutter when playing Fortnite with DirectX 12 renderer, a texture corruption noticed when playing TEKKEN 8 with ray tracing or upscale enabled; display corruption noticed when playing Dying Light: Stay Human with Radeon Boost enabled, crash or corruption noticed with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy with ray tracing enabled; VSR or display color enhancements being disabled after driver update; inability to change display pixel format with certain language settings; black corruption being observed on scaled 3D models while using Origin or OriginPro; and a black display corruption noticed when seeking with PotPlayer.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 24.7.1 WHQL

Chinese tech company GMKtec is preparing to unveil a new Mini-PC powered by an AMD Ryzen processor, featuring an enhanced cooling system. The company's product lineup already includes a variety of AMD and Intel-based compact computers, with their K-series representing their most powerful offerings. Now, GMKtec teased a new addition to their lineup on Weibo, China's popular social media platform. The upcoming model will support a 70 W TDP and is likely to feature the Ryzen 9 8945HS processor, based on the "R9" mentioned in the post title. This distinction is important as the next-generation processors (Strix Point) use "Ryzen AI 9" branding.

A standout feature of this upcoming model is its vapor chamber cooling system, which is uncommon in the Mini-PC market. However, GMKtec hasn't mentioned the use of a secondary fan or other cooling features, which some competitors employ. The new Mini-PC will include an OCuLink connector for external device compatibility, including graphics cards. Other features include dual 2.5GbE networking, USB ports, HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 outputs. While full specifications are yet to be disclosed, more details are expected to be revealed in the near future. GMKtec has not announced a specific release date or price for this new Mini-PC.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today released Armoury Crate Special Edition 1.5 (ACSE 1.5)—a brand-new major update to this software—to coincide with the launch of the ROG Ally X gaming handheld. Featuring a massive 80 Wh battery, upgraded joysticks and face buttons, and redesigned handgrips, the ROG Ally X is an improvement in every way on the original ROG Ally.

ACSE is the control software behind the ROG Ally and ROG Ally X, and provides a centralized hub for game storage, access, and settings customization for gamers to play all of their games, no matter the launcher. ACSE 1.5 introduces a more console-like and easy-to-navigate UI, with more customization for how game titles are displayed and arranged, and revamped carousel and list views. Taken together, ACSE has seen a huge usability increase since its initial launch just over a year ago.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is excited to announce the Trident Z5 Royal Neo series DDR5 memory, designed for AMD AM5 platforms. Trident Z5 Royal Neo memory comes with AMD EXPO (Extended Profiles for Overclocking) technology, and will be available up to DDR5-8000 CL38-48-48-127 extreme speed memory specification in 32 GB (2x16GB) and 48 GB (2x24GB) kit capacities. With a mirrored finish in gold or silver, this new memory series is the ideal DDR5 memory solution for enthusiasts and overclockers to build a stylish, high-performance AMD PC system.

Luxury-Class DDR5 with AMD EXPO
Following the luxury-class Trident Z5 Royal design with CNC-cut aluminum heatspreader in mirrored-finish gold or silver colors and a crystalline light bar for magnificent RGB lighting, the Trident Z5 Royal Neo is designed for AMD AM5 platforms with AMD EXPO profile. Customizable RGB lighting is supported through the G.SKILL Trident Z Lighting Control software or third-party motherboard lighting software.

ASRock, the leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, today launched their first blower series graphics cards -- ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XTX Creator 24 GB and ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XT Creator 20 GB graphics cards.

ASRock Radeon RX 7900 Creator series graphics cards are powered by the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX7900 XT GPUs. Both of these two cards are supporting multi-GPU collaborative computing, and designed for multi-card parallel computing for better performance. Radeon RX 7900 Creator series graphics cards are featuring a VAPOR-CHAMBER heatsink, efficiency blower fan and 2-slot thickness. Furthermore, thanks to the single horizontal 12V-2x6 power connector, installing a couple of ASRock Radeon RX 7900 Creator series graphics cards becomes much easier due to fewer power cords.

Regulatory filings by PC OEM major Acer, with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), drop some of the first references to three upcoming performance-segment graphics card SKUs by AMD. These include the Radeon RX 7900, the Radeon RX 7800, and the Radeon RX 7700. Acer is an AMD Radeon add-in board partner under its Acer Predator brand, which makes graphics cards not just for Predator and Nitro gaming PCs, but also graphics cards for the retail channel.

At this point, there are no specs known for the three, not even their memory sizes. It would be interesting to see how AMD slots the three into its product stack, particularly the RX 7900. The company currently has three RX 7900 series SKUs—the flagship RX 7900 XTX, and the second-best RX 7900 XT, but then the SKU next to this is the RX 7900 GRE, which saw a worldwide launch. Then there are the RX 7800 and RX 7700, which are pretty straightforward to predict. The RX 7800 will slot in between the RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT, and will probably feature a 256-bit wide memory interface with 16 GB of memory, much like the RX 7800 XT; whereas the RX 7700 will be positioned below the RX 7700 XT. It wouldn't surprise us if AMD further cuts down the memory interface to 160-bit (10 GB).

Prices of AMD's current generation flagship desktop processor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, dropped earlier this week, to a record low $464.99 on Amazon and Newegg. The 16-core/32-thread Socket AM5 processor features 3D V-cache technology, and roughly matches the gaming performance of Intel Core i9-14900K, in our testing. It also offers a much stronger productivity and content creation performance than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D owing to its 16-core compute muscle. The $465 new price is exactly two-thirds the processor's launch price of $700. The chip was designed to topple the Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake." The price cuts are triggered by the impending launch of the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" processors based on the newer "Zen 5" microarchitecture.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, released the GIGABYTE exclusive groundbreaking AI TOP Utility. With reinvented workflows, user-friendly interface, and real-time progress monitoring, AI TOP Utility provides a reinventing touch of local AI model training and fine-tuning. It features a variety of groundbreaking technologies that can be easily adapted by beginners or experts, for most common open-source LLMs, in anyplace even on your desk.

GIGABYTE AI TOP is the all-round solution for local AI Model Fine-tuning. Running local AI training and fine-tuning on sensitive data can relatively provide greater privacy and security with maximum flexibility and real-time adjustment. Collocating with GIGABYTE AI TOP hardware and AI TOP Utility, the common constraints of GPU VRAM insufficiency when trying to execute AI fine-tuning locally can be addressed. By GIGABYTE AI TOP series motherboard, PSU, and SSD, as well as GIGABYTE graphics cards lineup covering NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series, AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series, Radeon Pro W7900 and W7800 series, the size of open-source LLM fine-tuning can now reach up to 236B and more.

TrendForce's latest industry report on AI servers reveals that high demand for advanced AI servers from major CSPs and brand clients is expected to continue in 2024. Meanwhile, TSMC, SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron's gradual production expansion has significantly eased shortages in 2Q24. Consequently, the lead time for NVIDIA's flagship H100 solution has decreased from the previous 40-50 weeks to less than 16 weeks.

TrendForce estimates that AI server shipments in the second quarter will increase by nearly 20% QoQ, and has revised the annual shipment forecast up to 1.67 million units—marking a 41.5% YoY growth.

The much-anticipated revolution in AI-powered personal computing seems to be off to a slower start than expected. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X CPUs, touted as game-changers in the AI PC market, have struggled to gain significant traction since their launch. Recent data from PassMark, a popular benchmarking software, reveals that Snapdragon X CPUs account for a mere 0.3% of submissions in the past 30 days. This is a massive contrast to the 99.7% share held by traditional x86 processors from Intel and AMD, which raises questions about the immediate future of ARM-based PCs. The underwhelming adoption comes despite bold predictions from industry leaders. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon had projected that ARM-based CPUs could capture up to 50% of the Windows PC market by 2029. Similarly, ARM's CEO anticipated a shift away from x86's long-standing dominance.

However, it turns out that these PCs are primarily bought for the battery life, not their AI capabilities. Of course, it's premature to declare Arm's Windows venture a failure. The AI PC market is still in its infancy, and upcoming mid-tier laptops featuring Snapdragon X Elite CPUs could boost adoption rates. A lot of time still needs to pass before the volume of these PCs reaches millions of units shipped by x86 makers. The true test will come with the launch of AMD's Ryzen AI 300 and Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs, providing a clearer picture of how ARM-based options compare in AI performance. As the AI PC landscape evolves, Qualcomm faces mounting pressure. NVIDIA's anticipated entry into the market and significant performance improvements in next-generation x86 processors from Intel and AMD pose a massive challenge. The coming months will be crucial in determining whether Snapdragon X CPUs can live up to their initial hype and carve out a significant place in the AI PC ecosystem.

MSI introduced the PRO B650-A WIFI, a feature-rich entry-mainstream Socket AM5 motherboard under its PRO series. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board features a 6-layer PCB, and includes heatsinks for all its M.2 slots, The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors and uses a 14+2+1 phase VRM solution that's capable of even the top 170 W TDP Ryzen 9 chips. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR5 DIMM slots, a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot, and two M.2 NVMe Gen 4 slots. The board's third M.2 Gen 4 slot is wired to the B650 FCH.

The MSI PRO B650-A WIFI offers a fairly premium onboard audio solution driven by a Realtek ALC4080 CODEC. USB connectivity includes a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 type-C port, three 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A, four 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1, and a few USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 ports by internal headers. Display outputs include HDMI and DisplayPort. Networking connectivity includes a 2.5 GbE interface driven by a Realtek 8125B controller, and an AMD/Mediatek sourced WLAN module with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Besides the three M.2 Gen 4 slots, you get four SATA 6 Gbps ports. The board supports USB BIOS Flashback. The company didn't reveal pricing.