- AMD’s CEO Lisa Su hints at more Ryzen AI Max APUs coming to desktop PCs
- Some of the APUs have been used in Framework Desktops
- It could be the start of discrete GPUs being subsided
While Nvidia and AMD’s new GPU lineups are at the forefront of PC gaming news, Team Red’s processors are on the verge of taking the spotlight: the Ryzen AI Max APUs have mostly been reserved for laptops, providing enough power to run demanding triple-A games, but that could change very soon.
In an interview with DeepSeek Exploded on Bilibili, AMD’s CEO Lisa Su hinted at more Ryzen AI Max processors making their way to the desktop space. We’ve seen the top-end processor (Ryzen AI 395+) in some mini-PCs and laptops, which provide exceptional performance results in games – and we could see the same results for even more desktop PCs.
Thanks to the Ryzen AI Max+ 395’s Radeon 8060S iGPU with 40 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores and 16 CPU cores with 32 threads, gaming works great above 1080p. It’s evident in ETA Prime‘s Framework Desktop PC tests on YouTube: a prime example is Cyberpunk 2077, with its frame rate hovering between 55 and 60fps with ultra graphics settings at 1440p.
It’s also worth noting that FSR 4 could be making its way to RDNA 3 – it’s currently reserved for RDNA 4 – and this could be incredibly beneficial to systems powered by the APUs.
The important thing is that all of this is possible without a discrete GPU, and with a desktop PC, this could work wonders for efficiency. While it won’t match high-end desktop GPUs, it still packs a punch and could be the start of something new – or perhaps, the beginning of the end for discrete GPUs.
If we can get stronger APUs sooner, it may be time up for some discrete GPUs
For a long time, discrete GPUs for both laptops and desktop PCs have been the one-way ticket to great gaming experiences. Now, that’s gradually beginning to change with APUs becoming more powerful: it’s evident with handheld gaming PCs like the Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and the recent MSI Claw 8 AI+ using Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V processor.
While the high-end Ryzen AI Max chips haven’t been used in handheld gaming PCs yet, they’re the ideal chips for mini-PC setups. Discrete GPUs (specifically desktop ones) provide fantastic performance across the board but use plenty of power – however, that won’t be the case with an AI Max+ 395.
Tech is moving faster than ever, and APUs are the perfect example. If we manage to get more powerful APUs in the foreseeable future, we might just see a slow fade away of mid-range discrete GPUs – and perhaps a strong rival to current consoles (if the prices for the PCs are reasonable, anyway).
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