AMD’s budget Ryzen AI 5 330 processor will introduce a wave of ultra-affordable Copilot+ PCs with its mobile 50 TOPS NPU

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Last year, AMD unveiled its Ryzen AI 300 mobile processors at Computex in Taiwan, with more excitement than its latest Ryzen AI 5 330 chip has garnered. Typically, adding an entry-level option with minimal specifications wouldn’t be all that intriguing. However, this affordable APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) has a unique feature worth noting.

Each of the six Ryzen AI 300 Series mobile processors comes equipped with an onboard Neural Processing Unit, specifically designed for local artificial intelligence processing. This NPU is capable of performing 50 Tera Operations per Second, surpassing the minimum 40 TOPS requirement for Copilot+ PC certification.

As an observer, I find it intriguing that forthcoming AMD-powered Copilot+ PCs may offer prices comparable to or lower than devices equipped with Qualcomm’s ARM64-based Snapdragon X chip, typically found in around $600 laptops. Yet, there seems to be a mysterious absence of official information, which has sparked discussions among tech enthusiasts about the peculiar specifications that could influence the device’s naming strategy.

Ryzen Cores Threads Max. clock GPU
AI 9 HX 375 12 24 Up to 5.1 GHz Radeon 890M
AI 9 HX 370 12 24 Up to 5.1 GHz Radeon 890M
AI 9 365 10 20 Up to 5 GHz Radeon 880M
AI 7 350 8 16 Up to 5 GHz Radeon 860M
AI 5 340 6 12 Up to 4.8 GHz Radeon 840M
AI 5 330 4 8 Up to 4.5 GHz Radeon 820M

Previously, AMD’s Ryzen mobile processors like the “Phoenix” 7000 Series (such as Ryzen 3, 5, 7, and 9) had been categorized. Historically, the Ryzen 3 model was associated with a quad-core CPU. However, the recently unveiled Ryzen AI 5 330 is labeled as a Ryzen 5 chip, despite sharing the same characteristics.

In the case of the “Hawk Point” 8040 Series featuring 4-core CPUs (Zen 4) falling within the Ryzen 3 category, it’s quite unexpected to see a change for this upcoming budget Ryzen AI 300 Series processor. However, it’s yet to be confirmed whether this new processor will utilize a “Strix Point” or “Krackan Point” (Zen 5) CPU chiplet, according to Tom’s Hardware.

Regardless of the specific approach, it seems these mobile processors are intended for budget-friendly Copilot+ PCs. This aligns with my belief that AI-centric PCs will gradually replace traditional laptops as a norm, rather than a unique version. This shift could be seen as part of an anticipated “PC reset” in the industry, a change we’ve been anticipating since Qualcomm made their aggressive move into affordable AI PC market with the launch of Snapdragon X.

It seems that no devices with the Ryzen AI 5 330 CPU have been officially announced yet. However, it’s likely that well-known brands like Acer, Lenovo, HP, and others known for their wide range of entry-level laptops will unveil budget x86-64 (rather than ARM64) Copilot+ PCs within the coming months.

Of course, energy efficiency is expected to be the main focus in marketing for these hypothetical AI laptops. This is largely due to the limited capabilities of the built-in Radeon 820M GPU when it comes to heavy gaming, except perhaps for ultra-lightweight games.

Instead, it is anticipated that Microsoft’s innovative Copilot features such as Windows Recall, Click to Do, and AI Search will operate locally on AMD’s 50 TOPS NPU within a projected line of budget-friendly AI laptops. I’ll make sure to stay tuned for more details about these upcoming devices.

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2025-07-17 22:09