AMD’S RYZEN AI 300
series chip appeared this summer to ride the wave of AI PCs, although Microsoft has only just got round to adding them to its CoPilot+ initiative. AMD started at the high-end, and the resulting laptops are expensive $1,000-plus affairs. To get at the bulk of the market, AMD needs something more affordable. Enter Kraken Point, an eight-core chip, with four full-fat Zen 5 cores, and four smaller Zen 5c ones. This means systems should dip well into three figures, where the mass market is. It’ll also be a competitor for Intel’s Lunar Lake and a candidate for handhelds (Steam Deck 2?).
AMD also has a pair of new tricks for its 300-series to boost gaming. Variable Graphics Memory enables you to allocate up to 75 percent of the memory to your integrated GPU. You’ll need at least 32GB to start with, as you still need to leave 16GB for the CPU. The results are variable—not everything will see a benefit, and some games will suffer. However, it will allow you to play titles that otherwise wouldn’t run at all due to memory requirements. The second new feature for the mobile chips is frame generation, or Fluid Motion Frames 2, to be exact, which makes the jump from discrete graphics cards. This needs 50fps to work effectively, which can be a tough ask for big titles on many laptops. Both the new features are available on AMD’s Adrenaline software now.