AMD Q&A at CES 2026: We discuss Ryzen and extra

A day after AMD introduced the Ryzen AI 400 (Gorgon Level) processor for laptops, PCWorld and a handful of different reporters sat down with Rahul Tikoo, senior vice chairman and normal supervisor of the consumer enterprise at AMD, to ask about AMD’s consumer processors: its cell Ryzen processors, the Ryzen AI Max, desktop processors, and extra.

Beneath are excerpts of the interview, edited for house and readability.

Shopper performed a really minimal position in Lisa Su’s keynote final evening. What does that imply?

Tikoo: It was imagined to be a few 75-minute keynote, and consumer was about 15 of the 75 minutes, proper? So if that provides you a clue, it’s roughly 25% to 30% of the time, and consumer enterprise is roughly 30% of our income proper now, proper? I imply, so it’s an vital a part of our income profile, and it’s very, essential to us.

That is simply my characterization, however it seems that the Ryzen AI 400 is a modest improve to the Ryzen AI 300, which was an excellent chip. How do you see it?

I imply Qualcomm, kudos to them for persevering with to struggle the great struggle. However , Arm is an enormous problem on this market, simply due to the applying compatibility, I really feel actually good about our [Gorgon Point] portfolio. In fact, we haven’t had an opportunity to get our palms on the aggressive merchandise but, however every part that we heard yesterday didn’t shock us, as a result of, , we’ve got our personal market intelligence and what’s taking place and what the aggressive panorama seem like, and so we didn’t see any surprises there. Primarily based on that, what I might say is we’ve got a reasonably good head [of steam].

You had a sure variety of design wins heading into the Ryzen AI 300, and a variety of wins with the Ryzen AI 400. For those who can’t give us specifics, that are bigger?

It’s about the identical. What we’re going to see is about between the Ryzen AI 300 and 400 product, and the Ryzen Halo product, we’ve got roughly a bit of over 250 designs that can be out there. That’s all three chips. All three chips, yeah, roughly a bit of over 250 designs, give or take, that can be within the market by the center of this yr, proper? As a result of we simply have notebooks which can be popping out this month. Desktops will come out in early Q2. [The additional] Strix Halo can also be popping out this month. Professional is March. So let’s simply name it, the primary three-to-four months of the yr are going to be busy for us launching the portfolio.

You talked about the AI 400 desktop. It’s going to be a socketed AM5 half?

Yeah. It’s a socketed AM5 half. I feel the fascinating factor in regards to the desktop Gorgon half is that it’s going to be the primary Copilot+ half, so the primary half with a 60 TOPS NPU. We’ve been working with Microsoft and our companions on optimizing for desktop, as a result of you’ll be able to think about desktop has a distinct set of challenges, proper?

I feel we’ve got plenty of alternative in that house, and we weren’t there two years in the past. We weren’t taking part in as closely. We didn’t have sufficient of a portfolio final yr, we had a extremely affordable portfolio. This yr, we’re going to have even higher portfolio.

What we’re seeing is plenty of curiosity in cell on desktop, even small desktops and even in massive desktops, they’re really placing cell on as a result of the socket infrastructure is cheaper on cell.

Even conventional desktops?

Okay, yeah, even conventional desktops, we’re seeing cell on desktop now. It’s extra related within the smaller type elements, like, , you might have the one liter bins, the eight liter bins, the small type issue. In order that’s the place it’s extra related, proper? However we’ve seen all types of desktops use cell components.

There was a time a number of years again the place cell shifted into two classes, excessive efficiency and thin-and-light, proper? And it’s type of the identical inflection that you just see in desktops.

Let’s speak about what the costs of RAM and storage are doing, and the results they’ll have. What are your clients telling you about how they’re going to configure their techniques? Are they going to proceed on pushing upwards to 2TB SSDs or 16GB of RAM?

It relies upon available on the market phase. If you concentrate on creators, they need all of the capabilities they will get.

Let’s speak about a automobile firm. They’re designing a automobile. They’re operating wind tunnel simulations on a automobile. Are they going to sweat a 20% or 30% improve in value and say, effectively, , my seven-year analysis on the automobile goes to should be slower? No, they’re going to take a position.

Now, customers, however, you and I, , after we sit at house and we’re utilizing the laptop computer for primary web, net searching, or electronic mail, we’re going to have to select, proper? Do we actually want the best finish parts within the laptop computer, or not?

Now, we do know there’s a flooring. A flooring has been set the place folks like 1TB SSDs are the norm. No one buys something smaller, ? I imply, even telephones, no person tends to purchase something smaller than a sure capability, proper? So, I feel customers can have to select primarily based on that. However I do count on players will proceed to take a position. Creators will proceed to take a position.

There’s a rumor that AMD was going to launch a Ryzen X3DX2, which didn’t materialize. What’s happening there?

X3D dual-cache, proper? Keep tuned. Keep tuned.

I simply got here again from Intel, the place they deliberate to take a position closely into the hand-held house, which you’ve dominated. They declare that you just’re promoting “historic silicon.” What’s your technique going ahead within the handheld house?

We’re very dedicated to the hand-held [space]. I imply, we created the house, so it’s an area that we’re very dedicated to.

Right here’s the sweetness, although, of AMD and why we’ve got a a lot greater probability of success in that house: due to our console enterprise, or how we develop semi-custom silicon for the console enterprise. You possibly can’t simply use cell silicon and put it within the handheld. You possibly can, however the handheld or the consoles, they care about excessive graphics. They don’t care about as a lot compute, they usually don’t care in regards to the I/O.

So, should you’re placing a pocket book chip like Panther Lake in there, and also you’re not goal constructing it, you might have all this baggage that Panther Lake goes to hold round their chiplet structure. , the interconnects of the chiplet structure, the I/O that they’ve in there. I imply, it’s a Swiss military knife, and it’s good for sure issues.

We are able to try this, too. Actually, we try this within the handheld house in some segments. However when you concentrate on the core of the hand-held house, they need purpose-designed, purpose-built chips which have nice graphics expertise, nice software program like FSR, integration with recreation builders on Xbox, PlayStation, and so forth. We are able to have excessive battery life, good constancy of content material, excessive body charge, and we try this very effectively.

Intel believes their low-power E-cores give them a bonus, as they lengthen battery life. Does AMD have a response to that?

We haven’t seen any points there. I’ll inform you this, Intel does play video games generally, and it’s very fascinating.

We had a buyer. They mentioned the identical factor. They’re like, hey, I can get extra battery life with Lunar Lake towards the 300 sequence.

So, we’re like, okay, let’s do a fast experiment. And we did this within the lab. And really, Qualcomm did a video on this too, as a result of we didn’t wish to exit and do a video and every part. Qualcomm did a video on this: Lunar Lake has nice battery life when measured with MobileMark with the facility related. As quickly as you go in DC Mode, battery life climbs and efficiency drops. The Core i7 performs like a Core i3.

So, the E-cores are excellent for effectivity, very dangerous for efficiency. We stability the 2, and we’re already making these selections for our clients and saying, hey, you don’t have to fret about it.

Are you able to discuss in regards to the desktop X3D processor and the route that it’s going?

It’s a really essential a part of our portfolio. I imply, the channel market general. For those who have a look at IDC, the DIY market is about 30, 35 million models. And provides or take, we’re near 60 factors of share in that market, proper? We’re fairly excessive. After which as you have a look at X3D, which is the highest of that market, we’ve got over 80 factors of share in that market, and it’s pushed by the truth that there’s actually nothing else that comes even shut by way of efficiency.

After which with the brand new X3D half that we simply introduced, the brand new half to the stack that, with that enhance clock you see on it, it now separates us much more, proper? We was once about 20% higher now, or 27% higher, while you have a look at common recreation efficiency, and so we’re very dedicated to that house. That buyer base may be very demanding, as you’ll be able to think about, proper? They usually’re very vocal.

Do you might have something to say about AMD’s capacity to produce chips to its clients?

We’re utilizing the largest and the perfect provider on the planet, TSMC. And our Gorgon portfolio is predicated on 4 nanometer expertise and is a totally ramped, extremely yielding, very confirmed expertise. So, we don’t have the identical challenges our competitors has the place they’re mentioning a brand new expertise. We really feel excellent about it. No challenges.

Threadripper, X3D, and the Ryzen AI Max: these are all progressive although area of interest merchandise. Does AMD stay dedicated to all three?

We’re very dedicated to these areas. We’re very, very dedicated to these areas.

How do you see the Ryzen AI Max going ahead?

To begin with, we are going to proceed to put money into that house. That’s an vital house for us. Keep tuned. There can be extra bulletins in that house over the course of this yr.

Our focus has been in ramping builders and players round that product. , thin-and-light gaming is an area the place that product has performed effectively. Inventive customers is one other house that product has performed effectively, and now AI.