Major AMD leak promises a bright future for laptops, with a range of new products coming in 2025
AMD’s entire CES 2025 lineup has reportedly been leaked, promising a huge range of new hardware, including the new range of next-gen RDNA 4 GPUs.
The leak comes from ‘zhangzhonghao’ in a Chinese forum on Chiphellwhich suggests AMD will unveil: laptop CPUs, desktop CPUs, desktop GPUs, portable gaming chips and more – phew! AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su previously confirmed that RDNA 4 GPUs will hit the market in early 2025 (as revealed to PCWorld), which adds some validity to this new leak. Here’s everything the leaker thinks will be on display at next year’s CES:
- Ryzen AI Kraken Point (laptop APUs)
- Ryzen AI Max 300/Strix Halo (laptop APUs)
- Ryzen HX Fire Range/X3D (laptop APUs)
- Ryzen Z2/Z2G/Z2 Extreme (handheld APUs)
- RDNA 4 (desktop GPUs)
- Ryzen 9950X3D/9900X3D (desktop CPUs)
If none of this means much to you, don’t worry: below I’ll break down the details behind each product family. If true, this powerful lineup could put AMD as the frontrunner at CES 2025, despite Nvidia’s inevitable RTX 5000 series announcement likely overshadowing Team Red’s new GPUs. While AMD could continue to lag behind Nvidia in the desktop GPU market, it doesn’t seem to be all doom and gloom in other hardware departments.
Ryzen AI ‘Kraken Point’ – a new rival to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite
One of the new Ryzen APUs launching in 2025 is AMD’s Kraken Point, which will reportedly appear in new AI laptops. Olrak_29 on X claims that the APU will take advantage of the RDNA 3.5 architecturewith 8 units of account.
If it shows up at CES 2025, it will be another reason for AMD fans to be excited, especially because of the launch of new laptops. RDNA 2 has proven to be a success for devices like the Steam Deck, so the jump to the new architecture could be very beneficial for thin and light gaming laptops as AMD reportedly aims to deliver better performance and power efficiency.
Ryzen AI Max 300 / ‘Strix Halo’ – more power for AI laptops
In addition to AMD’s Kraken Point, there is the Ryzen AI Max 300 chip family (codenamed Strix Halo). It already was Spotted as ‘Ryzen AI Max’ by ‘9550pro’ on X in a recent update to the AMD chipset driver – this name was previously rumored to replace the codename Strix Halo.
Golden Pig Upgrade, a reliable AMD leaker, claims the strongest APU will include 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 computing unitswhich could make it one of AMD’s best gaming APUs, while obviously also offering competitive AI performance on the device. The leak suggests that there will be three variants of the Strix Halo; Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (16 cores), Ryzen AI Max 390 (12 cores) and Ryzen AI Max 385 (8 cores).
CES 2025 seems to have reached the perfect stage for the reveal, so previous reports of an early 2025 release are likely true. The AI Max 300 chips will not be available for purchase immediately, but will ship in AI laptops as a more powerful alternative to the existing Ryzen AI 300 chips.
Ryzen HX ‘Fire Range’ / ‘Fire Range X3D’ – new CPUs for gaming laptops
AMD’s ‘Dragon Range’ 7000HX series laptop APU successor, codenamed ‘Fire Range’, would be a jump from Zen 4 to Zen 5 – Golden Pig Upgrade returns to claim so the new mobile APU will still use FL1 packaging. This could indicate that laptops using Fire Range will hardly need any design changes, as they can use the same FL1 motherboard connection as the previous predecessor.
The Dragon Range lineup includes chips like the powerful Ryzen 9 7945HX for gaming laptops, and Fire Range will be a direct follow-up to this – the leak also notably mentions ‘Fire Range Gen 3D V-Cache feature to take laptop gaming performance to new heights.
Ryzen Z2 / Z2G / Z2 Extreme – more handheld gaming goodness
Gaming handhelds are about to receive some of their biggest upgrades yet if the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip specs leak is legit. Golden Pig Upgrade reposted on Chinese social media site Bilibili regarding the new portable APUs, stating that the Ryzen Z2 Extreme will feature 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores and 8 Zen 5 CPU cores – in other words, a generational step forward for both the CPU and integrated GPU, along with a increase in the number of cores for the integrated RDNA graphics (the Z1 extreme only had 12 RDNA 3 cores).
It will also reportedly come with two other variants: the Z2 (with RDNA 3) and Z2G (with RDNA 2), possibly indicating more competition and diversity within the portable gaming PC market. As previously mentioned, RDNA 3.5 is rumored to be built with greater power efficiency and gaming performance in mind – this would be a significant boost for Asus’ next-gen ROG Ally and Lenovo’s Legion Go successors.
RDNA 4 – AMD’s next-gen graphics are on their way
It’s no secret that AMD is turning its attention away from high-end graphics cards, with confirmation that the focus will now shift to mid-range and budget cards. This isn’t a surprise either, as Nvidia clearly still dominates the GPU market and is expected to continue this trend with the RTX 5000 series.
As for RDNA 4, the focus will likely be on FSR 4 – newly powered by AI – along with possible improvements to ray tracing performance, which has historically been a weakness for AMD’s GPUs compared to Nvidia’s. It’s important to take this with a grain of salt, as there’s still a lot to reveal about the new GPU architecture.
Ryzen 9 9950X3D / 9900X3D – the new king among gaming CPUs?
With the Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU about to launch amid a barrage of leaks, all eyes will be on the next wave of desktop processors to be seen at CES 2025. The 8-core processor will reportedly launch with ‘Next-Gen 3D’. V-Cache’, which will likely also be present in the leaked Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D. The 9950X3D has the potential to be the best CPU for desktop PC gamers, although price will obviously be the main issue here.
TechPowerUp revealed a report from Benchlife.info which claims that the 9950X3D could use a total of 208 MB of L3 cache, along with the 9900X3D using 204 MB – a monstrous amount of cache memory that, if true, would put to rest the rumors of the next generation 3D V-Cache that started with the upcoming 9800X3D would further strengthen. With the launch of the new CPU just around the corner, this gives us confidence that AMD’s Ryzen 9 processors will follow suit…