AMD brings AI to business desktops with Ryzen Pro chips

From PC World: AMD today launched its most recent generation of business processors for business PCs, the Ryzen Pro 8000 series, for both desktop and laptops. For now, AMD will be the only CPU vendor offering AI-powered NPUs in business desktop PCs.

AMD’s launch arrives on the heels of Intel’s 14th-gen vPro platform, which also offers desktop and mobile parts. The difference is that Intel launched its vPro refresh based upon the “Raptor Lake Refresh” architecture, which lacks AI; AMD’s Ryzen Pro 8000 series is relatively consistent across both its mobile and desktop offerings. However, not every new Ryzen Pro 8000 mobile or desktop chip includes AI support.

If you’ve been following our coverage of AMD’s Ryzen 8000 mobile CPUs and AMD’s corresponding Ryzen 8000 desktop processors, AMD’s latest chip lineups shouldn’t be surprising. AMD’s latest Ryzen Pro 8000 processors pretty much overlap its consumer offerings, with the Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS (8 cores, 16 threads, boosting from 4.0GHz to 5.2GHz) on down. AMD’s Ryzen Pro 8000 desktop processors are similar, with the Ryzen 8700G (8 cores, 16 threads, boosting from 4.2GHz to 5.1GHz) at the top of the stack. All of the new processors are 4nm parts, based on AMD’s Zen 4 architecture.

What’s new? Some of AMD’s Ryzen Pro 8000 desktop chips now offer Ryzen AI, a competitive advantage that AMD is pushing hard. (AMD’s existing Ryzen 8000 desktop lineup supports Ryzen AI.) The Ryzen Pro lineup now also offers “E” versions, which reduce the available power envelope from between 45- and 65W to a flat 35W cTDP. AMD is also touting its advantages in AI and power in the mobile space. AMD’s desktop chips now include the Pluton security coprocessor, too, the first time that AMD has added it to a desktop part; cloud-based remote manageability features are also present.

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