AMD clocks in with higher CPU speeds, leaves architecture untouched
(2026/01/06)
- Reference: 1767670214
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/06/amd_ryzen_refresh/
- Source link:
AMD kicked off CES on Monday by unveiling a slew of desktop and mobile processors aimed at everyone from casual users and creative professionals to gamers and AI devs. But with few improvements, they're more "newish" than new.
As usual, AMD's marketing leaned into superlatives: all-day battery life; best-in-class CPU and GPU performance; and more AI TOPS than the average person could reasonably find use for.
OK, maybe they didn't say it quite like that, but AMD is going all in on the AI PC transition, predicting a crossover point in 2026.
[1]
However, apart from a new brand name here and a new SKU there, not much has actually changed under the hood for the House of Zen's CES lineup.
[2]
[3]
Take, for example, AMD's new Ryzen AI 400 series processors, which can be had with up to 12 cores capable of boosting to 5.2 GHz, an NPU good for 60 TOPS, and support for faster 8533 MT/s memory.
[4]
AMD Ryzen AI 400 SKUs
But if you look a bit closer, you'll quickly realize that apart from higher CPU, GPU, NPU, and memory clocks, the 400 series is essentially the same as the 300 series. They have the same Zen 5 cores, same XDNA 2 NPU architecture, and RDNA 3.5 GPU. Even the core counts remain unchanged. The chips just clock higher, so AMD is adding a "100" to the name.
With that said, higher clocks should translate into meaningful performance gains even if there are no juicy micro-architectural improvements to dig into.
Systems supporting these refreshed chips are slated to arrive later this quarter from the usual suspects.
AMD's beefiest iGPU comes to more SKUs
Alongside the new 400-series lineup, AMD also announced two new Ryzen AI Max+ SoCs, which you may recognize by its internal codename: Strix Halo.
Both slot in under AMD's top-spec AI Max+ 395, which we [5]looked at in detail last year and include the 12-core Max+ 392 and 8-core Max+ 388. What makes these special is that they feature the same 40 CU RDNA 3.5 GPU as found in its flagship part, which is capable of delivering 60 teraFLOPS of peak AI performance at BF16.
[6]
AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ Series SKUs - Click to enlarge
Sticking with the AI PC narrative, AMD is positioning the AI Max+ line, which you may have noticed isn't getting the 400-series rebrand just yet, as a small-form-factor workstation for multimedia professionals and local AI devs.
Compared to Nvidia's $3,999 DGX Spark, AMD says its Max+ 395 offers between 1.5x and 1.7x higher tokens per second per dollar in gpt-oss 20B and 120B. This doesn't actually tell us anything about how they compare, just that AMD's chips can be had for less and thus are a better value.
[7]
If you want to know how Strix Halo actually compares to DGX Spark, you can find our comparison, including the same HP Z2 Mini G1a used by AMD, [8]here . However, the TL;DR is that, in most GenAI workloads other than LLM inference, the Spark is 2-3x faster at BF16 than Strix Halo.
Then again, AMD isn't wrong about its chips being able to run Windows or Linux. And, on Windows, generative AI performance should improve a fair bit with version 7.2 of AMD's ROCm machine learning framework set to arrive on both Windows 11 and Linux in February.
The new Max+ SKUs will be available in Q1 from a slew of OEMs including HP, Lenovo, Framework, and Minisforum to name a few.
[9]AMD Strix Halo vs Nvidia DGX Spark: Which AI workstation comes out on top?
[10]AMD grabs more x86 share as Intel stumbles in entry-level chips
[11]The Steam Machine rises again as Valve readies 2026 hardware trifecta
[12]Panther Lake sets stage for Intel's 2 nm comeback, but many details still TBD
A freshly binned Ryzen
Finally, for gamers, AMD has a new desktop processor, but just like the Ryzen AI 400, "new" just means bumping up the frequency of an existing product.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is essentially a 9800X3D with a 400 MHz higher boost clock, which now tops out at 5.6 GHz. We're told the chip itself is otherwise identical with eight Zen 5 cores, 104 MB of cache, and a 120 W TDP.
[13]
According to AMD, the 9850X3D's higher clocks net it a 7 percent higher performance in gaming. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, we don't have pricing for the part.
On the bright side, we won't have to wait long to find out. Just like the majority of chips AMD is launching at CES, it's also arriving later in Q1. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/01/05/amd1.jpg
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/amd_ai_nvidia/
[6] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/01/05/amd2.jpg
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/25/amd_strix_halo_nvidia_spark/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/25/amd_strix_halo_nvidia_spark/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/mercury_amd_intel/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/valve_steam_kit/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/09/intel_panther_lake/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
As usual, AMD's marketing leaned into superlatives: all-day battery life; best-in-class CPU and GPU performance; and more AI TOPS than the average person could reasonably find use for.
OK, maybe they didn't say it quite like that, but AMD is going all in on the AI PC transition, predicting a crossover point in 2026.
[1]
However, apart from a new brand name here and a new SKU there, not much has actually changed under the hood for the House of Zen's CES lineup.
[2]
[3]
Take, for example, AMD's new Ryzen AI 400 series processors, which can be had with up to 12 cores capable of boosting to 5.2 GHz, an NPU good for 60 TOPS, and support for faster 8533 MT/s memory.
[4]
AMD Ryzen AI 400 SKUs
But if you look a bit closer, you'll quickly realize that apart from higher CPU, GPU, NPU, and memory clocks, the 400 series is essentially the same as the 300 series. They have the same Zen 5 cores, same XDNA 2 NPU architecture, and RDNA 3.5 GPU. Even the core counts remain unchanged. The chips just clock higher, so AMD is adding a "100" to the name.
With that said, higher clocks should translate into meaningful performance gains even if there are no juicy micro-architectural improvements to dig into.
Systems supporting these refreshed chips are slated to arrive later this quarter from the usual suspects.
AMD's beefiest iGPU comes to more SKUs
Alongside the new 400-series lineup, AMD also announced two new Ryzen AI Max+ SoCs, which you may recognize by its internal codename: Strix Halo.
Both slot in under AMD's top-spec AI Max+ 395, which we [5]looked at in detail last year and include the 12-core Max+ 392 and 8-core Max+ 388. What makes these special is that they feature the same 40 CU RDNA 3.5 GPU as found in its flagship part, which is capable of delivering 60 teraFLOPS of peak AI performance at BF16.
[6]
AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ Series SKUs - Click to enlarge
Sticking with the AI PC narrative, AMD is positioning the AI Max+ line, which you may have noticed isn't getting the 400-series rebrand just yet, as a small-form-factor workstation for multimedia professionals and local AI devs.
Compared to Nvidia's $3,999 DGX Spark, AMD says its Max+ 395 offers between 1.5x and 1.7x higher tokens per second per dollar in gpt-oss 20B and 120B. This doesn't actually tell us anything about how they compare, just that AMD's chips can be had for less and thus are a better value.
[7]
If you want to know how Strix Halo actually compares to DGX Spark, you can find our comparison, including the same HP Z2 Mini G1a used by AMD, [8]here . However, the TL;DR is that, in most GenAI workloads other than LLM inference, the Spark is 2-3x faster at BF16 than Strix Halo.
Then again, AMD isn't wrong about its chips being able to run Windows or Linux. And, on Windows, generative AI performance should improve a fair bit with version 7.2 of AMD's ROCm machine learning framework set to arrive on both Windows 11 and Linux in February.
The new Max+ SKUs will be available in Q1 from a slew of OEMs including HP, Lenovo, Framework, and Minisforum to name a few.
[9]AMD Strix Halo vs Nvidia DGX Spark: Which AI workstation comes out on top?
[10]AMD grabs more x86 share as Intel stumbles in entry-level chips
[11]The Steam Machine rises again as Valve readies 2026 hardware trifecta
[12]Panther Lake sets stage for Intel's 2 nm comeback, but many details still TBD
A freshly binned Ryzen
Finally, for gamers, AMD has a new desktop processor, but just like the Ryzen AI 400, "new" just means bumping up the frequency of an existing product.
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is essentially a 9800X3D with a 400 MHz higher boost clock, which now tops out at 5.6 GHz. We're told the chip itself is otherwise identical with eight Zen 5 cores, 104 MB of cache, and a 120 W TDP.
[13]
According to AMD, the 9850X3D's higher clocks net it a 7 percent higher performance in gaming. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, we don't have pricing for the part.
On the bright side, we won't have to wait long to find out. Just like the majority of chips AMD is launching at CES, it's also arriving later in Q1. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/01/05/amd1.jpg
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/amd_ai_nvidia/
[6] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/01/05/amd2.jpg
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/25/amd_strix_halo_nvidia_spark/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/25/amd_strix_halo_nvidia_spark/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/mercury_amd_intel/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/valve_steam_kit/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/09/intel_panther_lake/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aVyW7SxKUgfwiUgmI0yDhAAAAlY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/