AMD's Ryzen AI Max Chips: Inspired by Apple Silicon's Success

AMD Indirectly Credits Apple For Its Ryzen AI Max Chips, Stating The Company Has Proven Users Prioritize Performance Over Whether Chips Are Integrated Or Discrete

Since 2020, Apple Silicon has paved the way for open competition in the industry, and so far, AMD has managed to come close to the Cupertino giant. On the flip side, Intel has been left behind not only by Apple but also by AMD. AMD is following Apple's route to combine the CPU, GPU, and unified memory, similar to what it does with its M series of chips. While AMD has not credited Apple for the approach, it did state that the chip would not have existed without the Cupertino-based company. We have previously covered that the new Ryzen AI Max chips offer up to 16 CPU cores and 50 GPU cores, coupled with a whopping 128GB of unified memory. In comparison, according to AMD, the chip can render 3D graphics more than twice the speed of the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V. However, it denied that the idea of compiling the CPU, GPU, and memory came from Apple, claiming that they had been working on it way before the iPhone maker. Engadget explains how AMD did and did not credit Apple in its piece, stating: You might think AMD was taking a bit of inspiration from Apple Silicon, with its powerful CPU cores, graphics and unified memory. But according to VP Joe Macri, AMD was building towards this long before Apple. "We were building APUs [chips combining CPUs and Radeon graphics] while Apple was using discrete GPUs. They were using our discrete GPUs. So I don't credit Apple with coming up with the idea." On the other hand, Apple's influence was quite strong, which allowed AMD to develop its new chip following the same approach as the M-lineup of chips. Macri gives Apple credit for proving that you don't need discrete graphics to sell people on powerful computers. "Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, it's gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it's bad graphics," he said. Apple's transition to its custom silicon proves that users can be satisfied with an all-in-one solution instead of offering the CPU, GPU, and memory separately. By the end of the day, the end user is only concerned about the performance of the machine rather than individual components, and this specific point potentially moved AMD and allowed it to follow Apple's footsteps to develop the new Ryzen AI Max chips. With the success of Apple Silicon, Macri was finally able to get approval to spend a "mind boggling" amount of money developing the Ryzen AI Max. "I always knew, because we were building APUs, and I'd been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build a system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power," he said. AMD also compared its latest chip to Apple's M4 and M4 Pro but left out the M4 Max for obvious reasons. Apple has been using the same circuitry since 2020 with the release of its M1 chip. The company has completed its transition to its custom silicon and has left Intel for good for its entire Mac lineup. AMD Ryzen AI Max laptops will be available starting in the first half of this year, and we will keep you posted on the latest, so stick around.

AMD does and doesn't credit Apple for its powerful new Ryzan AI Max chips

You have to feel sorry for Intel at this point. Not only has Apple left its CPUs in the dust, but AMD's new Ryzan AI Max chips claim to do the same to Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 288V. The new chips take the same approach as Apple Silicon in combining CPU, GPU, and unified memory. AMD doesn't credit Apple with the idea, but does admit the chip wouldn't exist without the Cupertino company ... Engadget reports that the new chips are available with up to 16 CPU cores, 50 graphics cores, and 128GB unified memory. The result, claims AMD, is that it will render 3D graphics more than two-and-a-half times faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V. AMD denies following in Apple's footsteps. You might think AMD was taking a bit of inspiration from Apple Silicon, with its powerful CPU cores, graphics and unified memory. But according to VP Joe Macri, AMD was building towards this long before Apple. "We were building APUs [chips combining CPUs and Radeon graphics] while Apple was using discrete GPUs. They were using our discrete GPUs. So I don't credit Apple with coming up with the idea." However, Macri does admit that this latest chip might never have been developed in the first place without Apple's influence. Macri gives Apple credit for proving that you don't need discrete graphics to sell people on powerful computers. "Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, it's gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it's bad graphics," he said. Apple proved that buyers don't care about integrated versus discrete, they only care about the performance. That enabled him to win the corporate politics battle needed to get the go-ahead for the development of the Ryzan AI Max. With the success of Apple Silicon, Macri was finally able to get approval to spend a "mind boggling" amount of money developing the Ryzen AI Max. "I always knew, because we were building APUs, and I'd been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build a system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power," he said. The first chance to buy a laptop with the new chip will come in the first half of this year, with the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 and ZBook Ultra G1a (seriously, what is going on with PC naming this year?!) among the machines set to be powered by it.

Apple Silicon's success helped AMD make Ryzen AI Max chips

AMD's latest Ryzen AI Max chips probably wouldn't have existed without Apple, an AMD executive has admitted, thanks to the popularity of Apple Silicon. At CES, AMD introduced Ryzen AI Max chips, an upgraded version of its Ryzen AI architecture with up to 16 CPU cores and up to 40 AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units, and a neural processing unit with up to 50 trillion operations per second. The chips, offering tons of performance in various ways in one focused component, has considerable echoes to the way Apple Silicon works. During the launch, AMD VP Joe Macri hinted that Apple Silicon helped with getting the product made and out the door, reports Engadget. "Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics,, it's gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it's bad graphics," Macri offered. He continued "What Apple showed was consumers don't care what's inside the box. They actually care about what the box looks like. They care about the screen, the keyboard, the mouse. They care about what it does." With Apple having a massive success on its hands with Apple Silicon, it allowed Macri to convince upper management to spend a "mind boggling" amount of resources to develop the Ryzen AI Max. "I always knew, because we were building APUs, and I'd been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build," Macri enthused. "A system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power." While Macri was complementary about Apple Silicon's success and how it helped convince others that Ryzen AI Max chips were a real possibility, he stops short of giving full credit to Apple. He insists that AMD was working towards this scenario well ahead of Apple. "We were building APUs while Apple was using discrete GPUs," he crows, referring to chips that combined a CPU with Radeon graphics. "They [Apple] were using our discrete GPUs. So I don't credit Apple with coming up with the idea," he continued. Before implementing Apple Silicon, Apple did extensively use AMD Radeon GPUs as discrete graphics options in its MacBook Pro lines. Apple may have had an interest in creating its own APU at the time AMD was working on the concept. In July 2012, former AMD chip architect John Bruno, who previously contributed to AMD's Trinity APU was spotted on LinkedIn as having become a "System Architect at Apple." At one point, Apple apparently considered using the original AMD Fusion APU in the Apple TV in 2010, before eventually using its A4 processor.

AMD VP explains why the Ryzen AI Max likely wouldn't exist without Apple

At CES 2025, AMD's Joe Macri praised Apple for proving that people would buy powerful computers without discrete GPUs. AMD's Ryzen AI Max chips came as a huge surprise at CES 2025. They're basically super-powered versions of the company's Ryzen AI hardware with up to 16 CPU cores and 50 RDNA 3.5 graphics cores, alongside a pool of as much as 128GB integrated RAM. AMD claims the Ryzen AI Max chips will deliver up to 2.6 times faster 3D rendering than Intel's Core Ultra 9 288V, as well as 1.4 times better graphics performance. Squint a bit, and you might think AMD was taking a bit of inspiration from Apple Silicon, with its powerful CPU cores, graphics and unified memory. But according to VP Joe Macri, AMD was building towards this long before Apple. "We were building APUs [chips combining CPUs and Radeon graphics] while Apple was using discrete GPUs. They were using our discrete GPUs. So I don't credit Apple with coming up with the idea." AMD also had experience stuffing gobs of memory into its Instinct data center GPUs. Still, Macri gives Apple credit for proving that you don't need discrete graphics to sell people on powerful computers. "Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, it's gotta be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it's bad graphics," he said. "What Apple showed was consumers don't care what's inside the box. They actually care what the what the box looks like. They care about the screen, the keyboard, the mouse. They care about what it does." With the success of Apple Silicon, Macri was finally able to get approval to spend a "mind boggling" amount of money developing the Ryzen AI Max. "I always knew, because we were building APUs, and I'd been pushing for this big APU forever, that I could build, a system that was smaller, faster, and I could give much higher performance at the same power," he said. I briefly saw the Ryzen AI Max in action while testing the latest ASUS ROG Flow Z13 at AMD's CES booth. I was able to play Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart in 1080p at well above 60fps, with tons of graphical flourishes. It was tough to tell on such a small tablet screen, but the overall performance looked on par with a base PlayStation 5 (albeit at a slightly lower resolution). AMD claims the Ryzen AI Max is also comparable to Apple's 14-core M4 Pro chip (which it also beats out in the Vray benchmark). Ryzen AI Max systems will roll out in the first and second quarter of the year, including the aforementioned ROG Flow Z13 as well as HP's ZBook Ultra G1a.

AMD's New Ryzen AI Max CPUs Are Built for MacBook Pro Competitors

Apple's M Pro and M Max chips used in modern MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro computers have proved difficult to beat, especially in the laptop space. Now, AMD wants to change that with the new Ryzen AI Max chips. AMD has announced its new Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI Max PRO Series processors. They are powerful chips that are meant to deliver, according to AMD's own words, a "workstation-like" experience in a thin and light laptop. This could help kick off a new wave of MacBook Pro competitors, which have featured bigger, more powerful CPUs ever since Apple made the switch to ARM-based Apple Silicon. There are some fundamental differences, such as the fact that AMD's offering is x86-based while Apple uses the ARM architecture, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. ✕ Remove Ads As for the specs, the Ryzen AI Max series features up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores and 40 AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units -- we didn't see RDNA 4 graphics cards show up during the keynote, so the massive integrated GPU here is the closest thing to a graphics card AMD announced today. We also have an integrated AMD XDNA 2 Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which boasts up to 50 TOPS of AI processing power. This dedicated NPU is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling faster performance in AI-enabled applications and supporting larger AI models. Systems equipped with the Ryzen AI Max processors will also benefit from up to 128GB of unified memory, with 96GB available for graphics. Systems powered by the Ryzen AI Max and Ryzen AI Max PRO Series processors are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2025, and we're definitely excited to see what kind of laptops arrive with this hardware. Even if you're solidly in the Apple camp, more competition could push Mac computers to continue improving. ✕ Remove Ads Source: AMD

AMD Compared Its Flagship Ryzen AI Max Chip To Apple's M4 And M4 Pro, But Left Out The M4 Max, Which Would Have Easily Outperformed Its Chip In Relevant Benchmarks

AMD introduced the new Ryzen AI Max chip today for laptops, which brings enormous performance gains to the table compared to the previous generation. The company compared the new Ryzen AI Max chip with Apple's M4 line in various benchmarks, but it failed to compare it to the company's top-of-the-line variant. Apple introduced the M4 Max variant of the chip with the launch of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, which brought major improvements in computational and graphical output. AMD compared its new Ryzen AI Max chip to Apple's standard M4 and M4 Pro chips but left out the M4 Max from the benchmarks. If you are not familiar, the Ryzen AI Max is a 16-core chip with a significant focus on graphical performance and AI. The chip is also being marketed as the perfect top-tier option for content creators and gamers who need raw power. To show off what the new chip is capable of, AMD compared it to Apple's M4 and M4 Pro chips in the new MacBook Pro models. The weird bit in this entire presentation is that the company compared its 16-core chip to Apple's M4 Pro chip, which has a 14-core CPU. AMD also claimed that their flagship chip has an 86 percent advantage in a v-ray workload. Here's how Paul Alcorn from Tom's Guide describes it. AMD also included numerous rendering benchmarks of its 16-core flagship against the 12-core Apple MacBook M4 Pro, claiming an up to 86% advantage in a v-ray workload. Naturally, the 14-core M4 Pro, also included in the benchmarks, is more competitive, but AMD still holds a stout lead in the Blender, Corona, and v-ray selection of benchmarks. However, the Ryzen AI Max+ isn't as performant in the multi-threaded Cinebench 2024 test, beating the 12-core M4 Pro by a scant 2%, and trailing the 14-core M4 Pro by 3%. One important thing missing from the entire comparison is Apple's flagship M4 Max chip. We can safely presume that the M4 Pro is quite competitive against the Ryzen AI Max chip, and it only has up to 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores. The M4 chip, on the flip side, features a 12-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. The M4 Max has the highest number of CPU and GPU cores in the new MacBook line, and there is a reason why AMD did not compare its flagship chip to it. With the 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU, the M4 Max would have easily surpassed the benchmarks against the Ryzen AI Max. This is because AMD's chip struggles to beat the M4 Pro, and the M4 Max would easily beat it in any relevant benchmark. Since the company did not want to look bad in front of the audience, it compared its flagship chip to Apple's mid-ranger. Note that the Ryzen AI Max performs significantly better in some tests against Apple's chips, and the real-world difference remains to be seen. AMD's Ryzen AI Max chip is undoubtedly a powerhouse and a major step up from its previous chips, but we are comparing apples to oranges in this regard (pun, yes!). Even though the comparison is not fair, Apple has yet to release its M4 Ultra chip later this year, which would blow the competition out of the water. Furthermore, the company's 2nm chips are also on the way, which would further improve on the performance and efficiency front. Do you think AMD made a fair comparison of its new Ryzen AI Max chip against the M4 and M4 Pro chips?

AMD says its new chip beats Apple's M4, but here's what it's not telling you - 9to5Mac

AMD introduced a powerful new laptop chip today, the Ryzen AI Max. The company compared its new chip to Apple's M4 line in several benchmarks, but there's a very important detail it left out. The new Ryzen AI Max from AMD is a 16-core laptop chip with a heavy emphasis on AI and graphics performance. It's being marketed as an ultra-powerful option for creators, gamers, and more. Naturally, AMD wanted to show off its new chip by comparing it to another option commonly favored by creators: Apple's M4 MacBook Pro. The problem is, it left a key M4 configuration out of the test. Paul Alcorn writes at Tom's Guide: AMD also included numerous rendering benchmarks of its 16-core flagship against the 12-core Apple MacBook M4 Pro, claiming an up to 86% advantage in a v-ray workload. Naturally, the 14-core M4 Pro, also included in the benchmarks, is more competitive, but AMD still holds a stout lead in the Blender, Corona, and v-ray selection of benchmarks. However, the Ryzen AI Max+ isn't as performant in the multi-threaded Cinebench 2024 test, beating the 12-core M4 Pro by a scant 2%, and trailing the 14-core M4 Pro by 3%. During AMD's presentation, one presenter touted the Ryzen AI Max's performance as 'winning easily against the 12-core [M4], and trading blows with the 14-core [M4 Pro].' Apple's 12-core M4 only offers a 10-core GPU. With the 14-core M4 Pro, you can get up to a 20-core GPU. Only with the 16-core M4 Max can you get a 40-core GPU. So I suspect that the M4 Max, based on the Ryzen's struggles against the M4 Pro, would handily beat AMD's chip in any relevant benchmark. But of course, AMD doesn't want you to know that. Instead, it's comparing different classes of chip and claiming victory. What do you make of AMD's comparisons? Do you think they're fair? Let us know in the comments.