Post CES 2026 Coverage Reveals the Ryzen AI Series Processors
Although CES 2026 has come and gone, there are still more significant announcements I did not have a chance to cover. This brings me to AMD, which made headlines by officially unveiling its latest mobile and desktop processors: the Ryzen AI Series CPUs. The launch is a refresh of the successful Ryzen AI 300 Strix Point processors. The new 400 series (codename "Gorgon Point") builds on local AI performance, meeting Microsoft's requirements while delivering incremental gains in efficiency and speed.
The Core Specifications
The Ryzen AI 400 series retains its robust architecture as its predecessor but pushes the Silicon a little further. The CPU offers up to 12 Zen 5 cores, with boost clocks reaching 5.2 GHz. The integrated RDNA graphics are up to 16 Compute Units capable of handling 1080p gaming. The standout component in the processor is the XDNA 2 Neural Processing Unit that has been tuned to deliver up to 60 TOPS ( Trillion of Operations Per Second), which is approximately ( according to AMD) a 10-20% increase over the 300 series CPUs.
While the processor’s architecture is not a complete overhaul, the 60 TOPS increase is significant for system builders. It places AMD well ahead of the 40 TOPS required for Copilot+ certification, ensuring any laptop is equipped to handle future local AI tasks — from real-time language translation to on-device image generation — without relying on cloud-based servers.
According to AMD, the new series delivers 1.3x faster multitasking than Intel's Core (Lunar Lake) series while maintaining a significant lead in content-creation workflows.
The Processors Available Lineup
You will begin seeing Ryzen AI 400-branded stickers on laptops starting in January 2026, which is this month.
Top End: Ryzen AI 9HX 475 ( 12 cores, 60 TOPS NPU)
Mainstream Entry: Ryzen AI 7 and 5 ( cores and graphics are scaled down)
Desktop gets first dibs: interestingly, AMD, during their announcement, stated the processors will also power "socketed desktop", bringing mobile-class efficiency and NPU power to small form-factor desktop systems for the first time.
In Summary
I wouldn't consider the Ryzen AI 400 Series revolutionary; it's an incremental refinement. By tweaking clock speeds and boosting AI performance, AMD is strengthening its position against chip companies like Intel and Qualcomm, ensuring it remains the default choice for high-performance Windows AI laptops.
