AMD surprises with Ryzen AI Max Pro: a workstation on a chip

AMD launches a new category of processors with Ryzen AI Max. These chips combine CPU cores with an integrated GPU and an immense amount of shared memory.

AMD is stepping up its efforts with the launch of the Ryzen AI Max, Max+ and Max Pro. Under this banner we find powerful new mobile processors, supporting solid graphics performance.

Hello Halo

AMD previously classified its Ryzen AI 5 and 7 chips under the label Advancedwhile the Ryzen AI 9 chips fall under the category Premium. Ryzen AI Max is even more powerful, but since AMD has already started with the next level, there are no more terms to categorize this chip. The manufacturer therefore invents Halo: the superlative of Premium. Apparently.

In this category HaloAMD offers four new Max (+) Pro chips, three of which are available in a normal variant. The most powerful of these chips is the AMD Ryzen AI Max + Pro 395, with 16 cores, a maximum frequency of 5.1 GHz and 80 MB cache. Although the type number already makes it clear that this is the most powerful Max chip in the Halo segment, AMD can’t help but add a plus to its name. The other bullets are variations. Only the lighter AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro is not available as a regular non-Pro CPU. As a reminder, Pro refers to the management capabilities available on the chip, not its performance.

Max processors all share the same architecture. They combine Zen 5 computing cores with integrated GPUs, with the top model having 40hearts of RDNA 3.5 calculation (CU). So far, nothing new: all laptop chips today contain a CPU chip and a GPU chip. However, AMD is planning a new memory architecture for max-processors, with all chiplets accessing RAM through a 256GB/s interface. The GPU chip can claim up to 96 GB of this memory: much more than high-end discrete graphics cards.

This approach makes Ryzen AI Max processors fast. For graphics workloads, they outperform Qualcomm and Intel chips currently on the market, and in benchmark tests their performance is similar to or better than Apple’s M4 processors.

Perfect for LLM

Shared memory isn’t as fast as, say, the GDDR6X memory on a real graphics card, but AMD partly makes up for that with the huge amount of RAM available for the Max chips. A computer with 128 GB of RAM can, as shown, allocate 96 GB to the GPU chip, which is enough to load an LLM with 70 billion parameters.

For AI workloads, available memory is a very important factor. The on-chip graphics component performs 2.2 times better in AMD benchmark tests than a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 with 24 GB of RAM, and does so with an 87% lower TDP. .

AMD decided last year to put the term “AI” on all new products it launches. So it is worth mentioning here that Ryzen AI Max chips, like all other x86 processors, are equipped with an NPU. The latter has a performance of 50 TOPS, which is slightly higher than what AMD’s competition currently offers. Even at the start of 2025, it is not clear why we should fall asleep to this. Teams’ blurred backgrounds will probably be a little more effective, and those who want to use a reduced version of ChatGPT locally will be able to count on a little more performance.

New abilities

However, the CPU, GPU and memory interface are particularly important. With Ryzen AI Max, AMD provides a combination of capabilities on a single chip that has not been available for Windows laptops until now. This opens the door to new designs, and HP is the first to venture there. The manufacturer immediately announced the ZBook Ultra G1a at CES. It looks like a desktop laptop, but delivers workstation-like performance thanks to its Max processor.

Laptops equipped with the new AMD Ryzen AI Max (Pro) chips will hit the market in the first and second quarters of this year. The added value of the Max architecture will not be the same for each workload. For example, a Max chip won’t replace a gaming laptop. For professional uses, this CPU series is promising, although the variable TDP means you need to evaluate each laptop individually based on your needs and expectations .