AMD announced several new CPU models during its CES 2025 presentation today. The company also gave a brief glimpse of its upcoming desktop graphics as well as the next generation of FSR image upscaling.
Starting with the CPUs, AMD announced two new Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D are variants of the 9950X and 9900X, but with the company’s 3D V-Cache technology that delivers higher gaming performance through a significantly larger cache size.
Compared to the previous generation 7950X3D, AMD claims the 9950X3D delivers an average of 8% faster performance in games, while Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 is 20% faster than the 285K. Performance will be on par with the 9800X3D, so if you don’t need the extra cores of the 9950X3D for productivity tasks, it would be better to get the 9800X3D for gaming.
Following this, AMD also announced updates for its Ryzen Z series chips, which are found in handheld gaming PCs like the ASUS ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go. The new generation is led at the top by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which is based on the same ‘Strix Point’ architecture as AMD’s latest notebook chips. The Z2 Extreme will have 8 cores, which should be a combination of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores along with an updated RDNA 3.5 GPU with 16 graphics cores.
Take a step down to the Ryzen Z2 and you’ll be back in familiar territory as you’re getting what appears to be just a rebranded Ryzen Z1 Extreme. This means there are 8 Zen 4 cores along with 12 RDNA 3 graphics cores. Finally, there is a new model in the series called Ryzen Z2 Go, which features an older Zen 3+ CPU with only 4 cores and an RDNA 2 GPU with 12 graphics cores. It’s quite disappointing that there is such a big difference under the hood of these three chips that are otherwise under the same branding but this is nothing new for AMD’s mobile chip division.
Speaking of mobile chips, AMD also announced three new Ryzen 9000HX series processors for high-performance gaming notebooks. This includes the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, the only one in the series with 3D V-Cache. There is also the 9955HX without V-cache but the same 16-cores and finally the 9850HX with 12 cores.
The company also announced Ryzen AI Max, Ryzen AI Max PRO, Ryzen AI 300, Ryzen AI 300 PRO, and two new Ryzen 200, and a huge range of Ryzen 200 PRO series chips that are too numerous to describe here.
Ryzen mobile chips
AMD also briefly revealed its upcoming RDNA 4 based Radeon 9000 series graphics cards. The company has teased the Radeon 9070XT and Radeon 9070, which will be available in Q1 2025 from various board partners. These will compete directly with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti, which should be announced during Nvidia’s CES keynote today.
Radeon 9000 series
On a final note, AMD also revealed that the next-generation FSR4 technology will be powered by machine learning, like DLSS and XESS, and it has been developed specifically for the company’s RDNA 4 based graphics processors. Not much information is available at present.
