AMD’s next mobile chipset promises to provide faster 3D rendering than Apple’s M4 Pro

AMD made a bold statement at CES 2025 by unveiling the “world’s best” processors in their respective categories: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Ryzen AI 300 series. All hyperbole aside, these chipsets could blow away users if preliminary test results are to be believed.

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Starting with the former, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the company’s latest gaming processor. It has 16 “Zen 5” processor cores and 144 MB total cache for top-class performance. Users can increase its clock speed up to a whopping 5.7 GHz. AMD states that the 9950X3D is on average 8% faster than the older Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which is already a “monster of a processor”.

Outside of gaming, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D also excels in content creation, reportedly being 13% faster than the 7950X3D when rendering, editing and decompressing large files. AMD’s hardware is due to launch in the first quarter of 2025 alongside the Ryzen 9 990X3D. This second model has similar specifications, but with 12 processor cores, 140 MB of total cache and a maximum clock speed of 5.5 GHz. Pricing for both has yet to be announced.

For laptops, the company has the “Fire Range” HX3D series of mobile processors. This consists of the Ryzen 9 9850HX at the low end, the mid-range Ryzen 9955HX and the Ryzen 9 9955XH3D. The last entry is the most powerful of the trio, with an almost identical spec spread to the 9950X3D, although its maximum clock speed tops out at 5.4Ghz and requires less power. The fire lane will be rolled out within the first half of 2025.

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The Ryzen AI 300 series is more for work laptops, opting for longevity over sheer power. According to the test results, the Ryzen AI 7 350 consists of eight processor cores and 16 CPU threads with a maximum clock boost of up to 5.0 GHz. Interestingly, the Ryzen AI 7 Pro has identical specifications to the base model.

We’d love to know what differences the supposedly “stronger” version offers. Right now, AMD is keeping things under wraps. The base AI 300 series will launch in Q1 2025, while the Pro models will roll out in Q2 2025.

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AMD also unveiled the Ryzen AI Max line of processors, which will power high-end laptops and mini-workstations. The company says the flagship Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 chipset offers 2.2x “faster AI performance” than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and better 3D rendering than Apple’s M4 Pro.

To mirror what we said earlier, these are bold claims. Granted, it may be possible. Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 has 16 processor cores, 32 threads and 40 graphics cores. Of course, we’ll have to wait until the AI ​​Max series launches in Q2 2025 to know for sure.