AMD AI 400 Brings NPUs to Pro Desktops With Mid-Zen 5 Refresh

AMD has brought its Ryzen AI branding to desktop PCs for the first time with a new batch of Ryzen 400 AI CPUs based on its Zen 5 architecture. They use much of the same technologies as existing Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 CPUs, but are designed as replacements for the Ryzen 8000 series, and combine RDNA 3.5 GPU cores (up to eight of them) with AMD's XDNA 2 neural processing unit (NPU) for local AI processing, earning them the Copilot+ PC designation.

Although Intel's mainstream desktop CPUs have had NPUs for a while, AMD's haven't. Its mobile-first Ryzen CPUs did, though, and now it's brought that technology over to the desktop with its mid-Zen 5 refresh. Although consumer chips are shown on the slide, these chips don't seem destined for DIY gaming PCs, with AMD instead targeting professionals.

There are six new CPUs ...