Zotac is ready with the Magnus EA (2025) mini PC powered by AMD Ryzen AI Max "Strix Halo" line of processors. It was inevitable for "Strix Halo" to make its way into gaming-capable mini PCs, given its small PCB and cooling footprint for the kind of hardware chops on offer—up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores, and a powerful iGPU with up to 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units that makes it capable of 1440p AAA gaming; besides full Microsoft Copilot+ capability with a 50 TOPS-class NPU. The Magnus EA comes in a similar 140 mm-class 1U chassis as the 2025 Magnus One that's expected to be built on Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processors, which is noticeably thinner than the 2025 Magnus EN, which combines a Core Ultra 200H "Arrow Lake-H" processor with GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" mobile discrete GPUs. Zotac is expected to unveil the Magnus EA, the 2025 Magnus EN, and the 2025 Magnus One at Computex, later this month.

Vultr, the world's largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, today announced that it is one of the first cloud providers to offer the new AMD EPYC 4005 Series processors. The AMD EPYC 4005 Series processors will be available on the Vultr platform, enabling enterprise-class features and leading performance for businesses and hosted IT service providers. The AMD EPYC 4005 Series processors extend the broad AMD EPYC processor family, powering a new line of cost-effective systems designed for growing businesses and hosted IT services providers that demand performance, advanced technologies, energy efficiency, and affordability. Servers featuring the high-performance AMD EPYC 4005 Series CPUs with streamlined memory and I/O feature sets are designed to deliver compelling system price-to-performance metrics on key customer workloads. Meanwhile, the combination of up to 16 SMT-capable cores and DDR5 memory in the AMD EPYC 4005 Series processors enables smooth execution of business-critical workloads, while maintaining the thermal and power efficiency characteristics crucial for affordable compute environments.

"Vultr is committed to delivering the most advanced cloud infrastructure with unrivaled price-to-performance," said J.J. Kardwell, CEO of Vultr. "The AMD EPYC 4005 Series provides straightforward deployment, scalability, high clock speed, energy efficiency, and best-in-class performance. Whether you are a business striving to scale reliably or a developer crafting the next groundbreaking innovation, these solutions are designed to deliver exceptional value and meet demanding requirements now and in the future." Vultr's launch of systems featuring the AMD EPYC 4245P and AMD EPYC 4345P processors will expand the company's robust line of Bare Metal solutions. Vultr will also feature the AMD EPYC 4345P as part of its High Frequency Compute (HFC) offerings for organizations requiring the highest clock speeds and access to locally-attached NVMe storage.

Today, MSI announced a lineup of entry-level servers and server motherboards powered by AMD EPYC 4005 Series Processors. Featuring up to 16 cores based on the Zen 5 architecture, these platforms deliver the performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness that small businesses, new business owners, and system integrators need to build reliable infrastructure, all within limited IT budgets and space footprints.

"We see this launch as a way to make enterprise-grade compute more accessible to smaller organizations," said Danny Hsu, General Manager of MSI's Enterprise Platform Solutions. "By pairing AMD EPYC 4005 Series Processors with MSI's proven hardware design, we're delivering practical, scalable server solutions built for real-world business scenarios—from private cloud and storage to web hosting and office IT systems."

In the weeks leading up to Computex 2025, industry watchdogs have noticed an uptick of next-gen Ryzen Threadripper PRO processor inside info leaks. AMD leadership is expected to introduce "Shimada Peak" 9000WX CPUs during a May 21 on-stage presentation. Despite the company's continued delivery of "silent treatment," external partners and other associates have alluded to an imminent arrival of Zen 5-based workstation-grade processors—very likely positioned as natural successors to Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000WX (Zen 4) options. As of May 6, the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) website has produced another "official leak." The independent/non-profit body's recent publication of a dedicated "AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9000 WX-Series Processors" page was highlighted by VideoCardz. "Shimada Peak's" certification seems to pave the way for a looming launch; perhaps shortly after a rumored unveiling in Taipei, Taiwan. Processor technology observers reckon that a non-PRO 9000X series will arrive at a later date—so far, succeeding generation Threadripper leaks have not outlined an adjacent High-End Desktop (HEDT) line. Unfortunately, SATA-IO's latest repository update does not contain any additional supportive info.

Unlucky owners of AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors have encountered major problems that largely involve ASRock motherboards. Throughout early 2025, user feedback provided insight into numerous cases of "catastrophic CPU failures." Members of the official ASRock subreddit have kept track of these unfortunate incidents; now closing in on 200 documented "murdered" specimens. Industry watchdogs reckon that even more disagreements—involving the Zen 5-based 9000X3D series and ASRock B- and X- (AM5) boards—exist outside of this community-aggregated log. At the end of February, ASRock pushed out an important BIOS update—this fix did not resolve all problems. Over a month later, AMD weighed in with their findings—in response, ASRock released another update.

Evidently, Ryzen 7 9800X3D products continue to perish—Tech YES City's Bryan Bilowol has added Team Red's Ryzen 9 9950X model to the mix. The tech YouTuber was surprised by the death of his example; apparently caused by an ASRock X870 Steel Legend mainboard. Standard "Granite Ridge" processors—that lack 3D V-Cache—have received less attention, but observers believe that these non-X3D options are still vulnerable. Bilowol did not personally experience the moment of catastrophe—instead, a friend was borrowing an affected PC build. As demonstrated in a new Tech YES City video post-mortem, the completely dead CPU sported some worrying gray marks. Tech YES City has a fairly large audience, so ASRock leadership will likely be cursing after noticing another uptick in public scrutiny. Past reports have pointed out the manufacturer's belief that too much "misinformation" is being spread. Bilowol surmised that the company is keeping this issue: "under the radar—they seem to be hoping that the issue will just go away." Despite collaborating with ASRock for over a decade, Tech YES City will not pull any punches—await for more gory details in upcoming follow-up investigations.

Minisforum is working on a new MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) motherboard lineup featuring mobile versions of AMD Ryzen processors, one of them being the F1FGM model. The motherboard came in a compact microATX form factor built around the AMD X870M chipset and is equipped with the latest AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX processor rather than traditional socket-type processors. This CPU has a boost clock of up to 5.4 GHz and is based on the Zen 5 architecture offering 16 cores, 32 threads, and 64 MB of L3 cache. Interestingly, even if this processor is rated at 55 W by default, in this particular Minisforum implementation it can be pushed up to a whopping 160 W. To efficiently dissipate the substantial 160 W thermal output and considering that mobile CPUs don't have an IHS, the motherboard comes equipped with a pre-installed vapor chamber heat spreader. The VRM features a solid design with 13-phase 60 A SPS DrMOS. Minisforum has also included large heatsinks across the VRMs, M.2 Slots and PCH.

For expansion, the Minisforum F1FGM motherboard offers one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. Storage interfaces include one PCIe 5.0 compatible M.2 slot, three additional M.2 slots (one is rated at Gen 5 x4), two SATA 6 Gbps connections and two BIOS Debug LEDs. On the connectivity side it features two USB4 ports, one HDMI, one DisplayPort, five Gigabit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi 7 compatibility. The four 5 V ARGB LED control pin headers is a clear step towards DIY users and according to company representatives, the main competition for this motherboard will be ASUS ROG products. PCWatch reports that Minisforum intends to offer the F1FGM motherboard at a price point comparable to a standalone desktop CPU in the second half of this year.

Lenovo today unveiled a refreshed portfolio of ThinkPad devices engineered to meet the evolving needs of modern professionals—from content creators and engineers to knowledge workers and hybrid teams. The lineup includes powerful Copilot+ PCs, such as the ThinkPad P14s Gen 6 AMD and ThinkPad P16s Gen 4 AMD mobile workstations, alongside new ThinkPad L Series business laptops and expands its ThinkPad X1 Aura Editions, delivering the performance, manageability, and intelligence today's AI-powered workflows demand.

Together, these latest ThinkPad systems reflect Lenovo's commitment to delivering smarter, more adaptive solutions that support advanced workloads, sustainability goals, and flexible work models—whether users are building complex simulations or collaborating across teams.

Going back to May 2023, an industry inside report suggested that AMD was planning a new generation Ryzen Threadripper High-End Desktop (HEDT) processor series. At the time, "Shimada Peak" was linked to a possible 2025 launch. Over the ensuing years, shipping manifests have revealed the transfer of various 9000 SKUs between Team Red facilities—starting with a mysterious 96-core prototype. Industry observers have been seeking out newer evidence of AMD's next-gen flagship "Zen 5" Threadripper chip; likely going under a "9995WX" moniker.

Late last week, a fresh leak unearthed a likely sub-flagship SKU: the 9985WX. This alleged 64-core SKU was spotted—by Everest (aka Olrak29)—alongside 9955WX (16-core) and 9945WX (12-core) siblings, in a shipping manifest. As reported on TechPowerUp on March 21, the same source uncovered two other entry-level models: the 9975WX (32-core) and 9965WX (24-core) parts. Unfortunately, Team Red's rumored monstrous 96-core 9995WX processor was not listed within fresh batches of shipping documents. Industry watchdogs expect AMD to repeat its product layout from past generations; spanning from entry-tier 12-core offerings up to the aforementioned 96-core range-topper. The latest leak suggests utilization of the SP6 socket type, and 350 W TDPs (across all product identifiers).

Today, Chinese PC maker FEVM introduced the FA‑EX9 mini PC, powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 "Strix Halo" processor. This compact system measures just 192 × 190 × 55 mm (2 L volume) and packs 16 Zen 5 CPU cores alongside 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units (Radeon 8060S) and a dedicated XDNA 2 neural engine capable of 50 TOPS. FEVM configures the MAX+ 395 to run at up to 120 W sustained power, putting it in the same performance class as a Ryzen 9 9955HX paired with an RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Memory comes as 128 GB of LPDDR5X on a 256‑bit bus, with up to 96 GB usable as video memory for large‑model inference. Storage is handled by dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD slots, supporting up to 2 TB onboard and up to 16 TB total. The FA‑EX9 offers one HDMI 2.1 port, one DisplayPort 1.4, two USB4 Type‑C connectors for up to four 8K displays, and an OCuLink port for external GPU expansion. Inspiration for this mini PC seems to be NVIDIA's DGX Spark, which is Team Green's custom solution for local AI processing in an incredibly compact housing.

In comparison, NVIDIA's DGX Spark brings the GB10 Grace Blackwell superchip to a palm‑sized AI appliance. It combines a 20‑core Arm CPU cluster with a Blackwell GPU featuring next‑gen Tensor and RT cores, delivering up to 1,000 FP4 AI TOPS. The DGX Spark is built around 128 GB of unified LPDDR5X memory at 273 GB/s, up to 4 TB of self‑encrypting NVMe storage, four USB4 ports, one HDMI output, and a ConnectX‑7 SmartNIC providing 200 GbE networking for multi‑node clusters. Its chassis measures 150 × 150 × 50.5 mm (1.24 L volume) and draws approximately 170 W under load, with pricing starting at $2,999 for a 1 TB model or $3,999 for the 4 TB Founder's Edition, now available for preorder. While the FA‑EX9 balances general‑purpose computing, flexible GPU expansion, and high‑speed I/O for edge AI and creative professionals, the DGX Spark focuses on out‑of‑the‑box AI throughput and scale‑out clustering. The FA-EX9 is more of a general-purpose Swiss army knife, which can be used for anything from AI to gaming. Release date and pricing are still unknown.

Acer today announced the expansion of its mainstream Nitro gaming line with the launch of the new Acer Nitro AI laptops and the Nitro 20 desktop. The Nitro range brings a full-package gaming experience and great value for gamers and content creators, combining robust processing power, essential computing features, and more without breaking the bank. The addition of slim laptops and a compact Windows PC option also support users with limited space for their gaming set-ups.

The Nitro AI laptops are Copilot+ PCs, powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors and equipped with the game-changing NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs to make more powerful AI rendering capabilities more accessible. The Nitro 20 desktop also utilizes AI processors and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, focusing on better energy efficiency with a smaller footprint.

Over a year ago, hardcore overclocking fanatics celebrated MSI's resurrection of the much missed MPOWER motherboard product line. After a seven-year hiatus, the Taiwanese manufacturer revived this series—beginning with a brand-new Z790MPOWER option. Back then, an exclusive Wccftech news report put a spotlight on the (then) brand-new model's support of Intel Core 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen processors (on LGA 1700/1800). Returning to the present day, MSI seems to be prepping a new MPOWER motherboard model—leaked shots imply a return to an old school color theme (black/yellow, rather than metallic tones). Wccftech has uploaded two close-up teaser images, from a "brief glimpse" preview session. There is evidence of AI upscaling here—despite the presence of anomalies/aberrations, we can see MSI logo and MPOWER branding on attached heatsinks.

Wccftech believes that the proposed "MSI MPOWER AMD series" will be: "a strong and cost-effective design for overclockers. The previous Z790 MPOWER motherboard brought great OC capabilities in an affordable design, offering 8000 MT/s DDR5 support and the new design will be no exception...Starting with the details, the...motherboard will feature an AM5 socket and is likely to leverage the B850E chipset. The new MPOWER motherboard also comes with a microATX form factor." Like last year's edition, MSI has readied the board with two DDR5 DIMM slots—ideal for ardent memory overclocking enthusiasts. This twin-stick setup reportedly supports up to 128 GB capacities. An extra bit of real estate is freed up; thus granting room for an additional M.2 bay. Wccftech did not disclose every tidbit of insider info, but they have hinted about the board's prowess: "it's awesome that we are finally getting an MPOWER motherboard from MSI for AM5 builders. The MPOWER series is great for overclocking and this motherboard should be just as good. We also managed to get information regarding the OC capabilities which are going to rival some of the high-end AM5 offerings as far as memory tuning is concerned."

Today, AMD announced the new Google Cloud C4D and H4D virtual machines (VMs) are powered by 5th Gen AMD EPYC processors. The latest additions to Google Cloud's general-purpose and HPC-optimized VMs deliver leadership performance, scalability, and efficiency for demanding cloud workloads; for everything from data analytics and web serving to high-performance computing (HPC) and AI.

Google Cloud C4D instances deliver impressive performance, efficiency, and consistency for general-purpose computing workloads and AI inference. Based on Google Cloud's testing, leveraging the advancements of the AMD "Zen 5" architecture allowed C4D to deliver up to 80% higher throughput/vCPU compared to previous generations. H4D instances, optimized for HPC workloads, feature AMD EPYC CPUs with Cloud RDMA for efficient scaling of up to tens of thousands of cores.

Three months ago, AMD unveiled its Ryzen Z2 APU series at CES 2025—purpose made for deployment in next-gen handheld gaming PCs. The officially announced flagship—Ryzen Z2 Extreme "Strix Point," utilizing Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies—was previously alluded to by leakers in late 2024; albeit with some curious claims regarding an "odd 3+5 core configuration." Last week, Hoang Anh Phu (@AnhPhuH) presented an alleged expanded lineup of Ryzen Z2 processors—headlined by a mysterious "Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme" SKU.

PC hardware watchdogs believe that this speculative variant will eventually arrive with an enabled XDNA 2 NPU (a first for the series); likely readied to take on Intel's Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processor family. MSI's Core Ultra 7 258V-powered Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ handhelds launched not too long ago, boasting all sorts of Microsoft Copilot+ capabilities. Mid-way through March, an Xbox executive introduced "Copilot for Gaming." Team Red and manufacturing partners are likely jumping onto this "AI gaming" bandwagon with the aforementioned "AI Ryzen Z2 Extreme" chip, as well as Phu's fanciful "Ryzen Z2 A" model. The latter could be a spin-off of AMD's vanilla Ryzen Z2 "Hawk Point" design, with a "switched on" XDNA NPU.

Successors to AMD's current-generation lineup of Ryzen 8000G desktop APUs are reportedly in the pipeline—according to the latest HXL/9550pro predictive declaration, finalized units could arrive at retail later this year. They propose that an "AMD AM5 New APU" family could arrive alongside an unannounced MSI Unify-X enthusiast-grade motherboard design, within the final quarter of 2025. Press interpretations of this inside track information point to possible upcoming "Ryzen 9000G" processors, utilizing Team Red's Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies. This potent combination already exists, albeit in mobile form—namely within Team Red's stable of Ryzen AI "Strix Halo, Strix Point," and "Krackan Point" APUs.

Industry experts opine that AMD will most likely deploy high-end "Strix Point" silicon to desktop, or more fancifully: "Gorgon Point." The latter codename turned up via leaks last week. Around early 2024, we witnessed Team Red's transfer of "Phoenix"—from original mobile formats—to their AM5 desktop platform. TechPowerUp's W1zzard evaluated the Ryzen 5 8500G "Phoenix 2" APU last summer; this plucky budget-friendly model sports Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores. Theoretically a flagship "Ryzen 9000G" SKU could emerge with twelve processor cores (4x "Zen 5" + 8x "Zen 5c"), a Radeon 890M iGPU, and an XDNA 2 NPU.

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600 launched recently as a slightly more affordable variant of the popular Ryzen 5 9600X. Despite launching over a month ago, the 9600 still appears rather difficult to track down in retail stores. However, a recent PassMark benchmark has provided some insights as to the performance of the non-X variant of AMD's six-core Zen 5 budget CPU. Unsurprisingly, the Ryzen 5 9600X and the Ryzen 5 9600 are neck-and-neck, with the 9600X scraping past its non-X counterpart by a mere 2.2% in the CPU benchmark.

According to the PassMark result, the Ryzen 5 9600 scored 29,369, compared to the Ryzen 5 9600X's 30,016, while single-core scores were 4581 for the 9600X and 4433 points for the 9600, representing a 3.2% disparity between the two CPUs. The result is not surprising, since the only real difference between the 9600 and the 9600X is 200 MHz boost clock. All other specifications, including TDP, core count, cache amount and base clock speed, are identical. Both CPUs are also unlocked for overclocking, and both feature AMD Precision Boost 2. While the Ryzen 5 9600 isn't available just yet, it will seemingly be a good option for those who want to stretch their budget to the absolute maximum, since recent reports indicate that it will be around $20 cheaper than the Ryzen 5 9600X, coming in at around the $250-260 mark.

AMD presented its next generation mobile processor that succeeds its current Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" to its industry partners. This presentation allegedly got leaked to the web. The 2026 successor to "Strix Point" is codenamed "Gorgon Point," and offers a significant single-threaded performance uplift while interestingly retaining the CPU core and iGPU IP. The slides mention "Gorgon Point" as combining up to 12 CPU cores based on "Zen 5" or "Zen 5c," an iGPU based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, and an NPU based on XDNA 2—so for the most part the IP is unchanged. The CPU, iGPU, and NPU, get performance upgrades over the current "Strix Point" chip.

AMD accompanied the specs slides with first party performance numbers. The multithreaded CPU performance numbers are moderately higher, which seem to indicate that the CPU core configuration of 4x "Zen 5" + 8x "Zen 5c" seems to be carried over; but the single-threaded performance sees a significant increase. We're not sure what's driving this, but there are two theories. The more obvious one is a significant increase in clock speeds, helped by an updated power management; but the second more radical theory is that AMD updated the "Zen 5" P-cores to have full fat 512-bit FP capabilities, similar to the "Zen 5" cores in "Fire Range" and "Strix Halo" processors. If you recall, the "Zen 5" cores in "Strix Point" have their FPUs limited to dual-pumped 256-bit paths to execute AVX512 instructions, a design choice probably driven by power considerations. The NPU throughput has been moderately increased to deliver over 55 AI TOPS, AMD enabled the full NPU performance across all tiers of Ryzen AI SKUs based on this chip. In all, "Gorgon Point" is to "Strix Point" what "Hawk Point" was to "Phoenix Point."

We've known for a while now that AMD is preparing a comprehensive lineup of HEDT and workstation processors powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture under the Ryzen Threadripper 9000WX series, codenamed "Shimada Peak." Engineering samples of these chips are moving around for industry and regulatory validation, and so they're being sniffed out in shipping manifests by NBD. Among the models detected are entry-level SKUs, the Threadripper 9975WX and the Threadripper 9965WX. The 9975WX is a 32-core/64-thread part; while the 9965WX is 24-core/48-thread. Both chips feature regular "Zen 5" CCDs with 32 MB on-die L3 caches, each. As a WX-series SKU, the chips are expected to come with 8-channel DDR5 memory interfaces and 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes.

AMD's next-generation Zen 6-based "Medusa Point" mobile APUs will not feature RDNA 4 graphics as previously speculated, according to recent code discoveries in AMD GPUOpen Drivers on GitHub. The Device ID "GfxIp12" associated with RDNA 4 architecture has been reserved only for discrete GPUs, confirming that the current Radeon RX 9000 series will exclusively implement AMD's latest graphics architecture. Current technical documentation indicates AMD will instead extend RDNA 3.5 implementation beyond the Zen 5 portfolio while potentially positioning UDNA as the successor technology for integrated graphics.

The chiplet-based Medusa Point design will reportedly pair a single 12-core Zen 6 CCD manufactured on TSMC's 3 nm-class node with a mobile client I/O die likely built on N4P. This arrangement is significantly different from current monolithic mobile solutions. Earlier speculation indicates the Medusa Point platform may support 3D V-Cache variants, leveraging the same vertical stacking methodology employed in current Zen 5 implementations. The mobile processor's memory controllers and neural processing unit are expected to receive substantial updates. However, compatibility limitations with AMD's latest graphics features, like FSR 4 technology, remain a concern due to the absence of RDNA 4 silicon. The Zen 6-powered Medusa Point processor family is scheduled for release in 2026, targeting premium mobile computing applications with a performance profile that builds upon AMD's current Strix Halo positioning.

AMD's latest flagship APU, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 "Strix Halo," demonstrates some impressive performance advantages over Intel's "Lunar Lake" processors in large language model (LLM) inference workloads, according to recent benchmarks on AMD's blog. Featuring 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, and over 50 AI TOPS via its XDNA 2 NPU, the processor achieves up to 12.2x faster response times than Intel's Core Ultra 258V in specific LLM scenarios. Notably, Intel's Lunar Lake has four E-cores and four P-cores, which in total is half of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 CPU core count, but the performance difference is much more pronounced than the 2x core gap. The performance delta becomes even more notable with model complexity, particularly with 14-billion parameter models approaching the limit of what standard 32 GB laptops can handle.

In LM Studio benchmarks using an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 with 64 GB unified memory, the integrated Radeon 8060S GPU delivered 2.2x higher token throughput than Intel's Arc 140V across various model architectures. Time-to-first-token metrics revealed a 4x advantage in smaller models like Llama 3.2 3B Instruct, expanding to 9.1x with 7-8B parameter models such as DeepSeek R1 Distill variants. AMD's architecture particularly excels in multimodal vision tasks, where the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processed complex visual inputs up to 7x faster in IBM Granite Vision 3.2 3B and 6x faster in Google Gemma 3 12B compared to Intel's offering. The platform's support for AMD Variable Graphics Memory allows allocating up to 96 GB as VRAM from systems equipped with 128 GB unified memory, enabling the deployment of state-of-the-art models like Google Gemma 3 27B Vision. The processor's performance advantages extend to practical AI applications, including medical image analysis and coding assistance via higher-precision 6-bit quantization in the DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B model.

Advantech, a leading provider of edge computing and edge AI solutions, is pleased to announce their high-performance server and network appliances are now powered by the latest AMD EPYC Embedded 9005 Series processors. By leveraging these cutting-edge platforms, Advantech is driving edge computing and AI to new heights—making solutions ideal for 5G edge cloud, AI, machine learning, and enhanced data security.

"We are excited about the launch of Advantech's latest generation of innovative edge computing and AI solutions powered by AMD EPYC Embedded 9005 Series processors," said Amey Deosthali, Senior Director of embedded core markets at AMD. "Optimized for embedded markets, EPYC Embedded 9005 provides exceptional compute performance for edge AI applications while delivering enhanced IO capabilities, product longevity, and system resiliency."

AMD today launched the EPYC Embedded 9005 line of server processors in the embedded form-factor. These are non-socketed variants of the EPYC 9005 "Turin" server processors. The chips are intended for servers and other enterprise applications where processor replacements or upgradability are not a consideration. The EPYC Embedded 9005 "Turin" are otherwise every bit similar to the regular socketed EPYC 9005 series. These chips are based on a BGA version of the "Turin" chiplet-based processor, and powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture. Besides the BGA package, the EPYC Embedded 9005 series comes with a few features relevant to its form-factor and target use-cases.

To begin with, the EPYC Embedded 9005 "Turin" series comes with NTB (non-transparent bridging), a technology that enables high-performance data transfer between two processor packages across different memory domains. NTB doesn't use Infinity Fabric or even CXL, but a regular PCI-Express 5.0 x16 connection. It isn't intended to provide cache coherence, but to absorb faults across various memory domains. Next up, the series supports DRAM flush for enhanced power-loss mitigation. Upon detecting a power loss, the processor immediately dumps memory onto NVMe storage, before the machine turns off. On restart, the BIOS copies this memory dump from the NVMe SSD back to DRAM. Thirdly, the processors in the series support dual SPI flash interfaces, which enables system architects to embed lightweight operating systems directly onto a 64 MB SPI flash ROM, besides the primary SPI flash that stores the system BIOS. This lightweight OS can act like a bootloader for operating systems in other local storage devices.

Last Friday, AMD confirmed finalized price points for its upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D ($699) and 9900X3D ($599) gaming processors—both launching on March 12. Media outlets are very likely finalizing their evaluations of review silicon; official embargoes are due for lifting tomorrow (March 11). By Team Red decree, a drip feed of pre-launch information was restricted to teasers, a loose March launch window, and an unveiling of basic specifications (at CES 2025). A trickle of mid-January to early March leaks have painted an incomplete picture of performance expectations for the 3D V-Cache-equipped 16 and 12-core parts. A fresh NDA-busting disclosure has arrived online, courtesy of an alleged Ryzen 9 9950X3D sample's set of benchmark scores.

A pre-release candidate posted single and multi-thread ratings of 4739 and 69,701 (respectively), upon completion of PassMark tests. Based on this information, a comparison chart was assembled—pitching the Ryzen 9 9950X3D against its direct predecessor (7950X3D), a Zen 5 relative (9950X), and competition from Intel (Core Ultra 9 285K). AMD's brand-new 16-core flagship managed to outpace the previous-gen Ryzen 9 7950X3D by ~14% in single thread stakes, and roughly 11% in multithreaded scenarios. Test system build details and settings were not mentioned with this leak—we expect to absorb a more complete picture tomorrow, upon publication of widespread reviews. The sampled Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU surpassed its 9950X sibling by ~5% with its multi-thread result, both processors are just about equal in terms of single-core performance. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU posted the highest single-core result within the comparison—5078 points—exceeding the 9950X3D's tally by about 7%. The latter pulls ahead by ~3% in terms of recorded multi-thread performance. Keep an eye on TechPowerUp's review section; where W1zzard will be delivering his verdict(s) imminently.

Earlier today, AMD confirmed finalized price points and a launch date for its two incoming additions to the Ryzen 9000X3D processor lineup. The current Zen 5 processor population (with 3D V-Cache onboard) has a count of one—Team Red's reigning gaming champion: the eight-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D model. AMD's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Graphics was the first staffer to make an official announcement regarding definitive talking points. Jack Huynh stated (via a social media post): the world's best processor for gaming and content creation is almost here. Available starting March 12th. Ryzen 9 9950X3D—$699. Ryzen 9 9900X3D—$599. A huge thank you to our incredible community of gamers, creators, and innovators for your continued support. Together, we're shaping the future of gaming and content creation! Let's level up together!"

The sixteen-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D and twelve-core 9900X3D SKUs were officially unveiled at CES 2025, in early January. Since then, many leaks have emerged online—certain soothsayers were bang on with their predictions. Almost a month ago, speculative $699 and $599 price points were leaked. On two separate occasions, a—now confirmed—March 12 launch day was projected. AMD is expected to lift media embargoes on March 11; reviews of finalized silicon will finally reveal whether the two new players can beat their incumbent sibling in gaming performance benchmarks. As reported this afternoon, China's JD.com retail platform has opened its order book to customers—a limited quantity of Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D units were made available for a short period of time.

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors are reportedly due to launch mid-way through next week (March 12)—this "unofficial" release date was revealed by JD.com listings. Yesterday's report focused on the popular Chinese e-commerce platform's apparent leaking of Team Red's mid-March schedule. Last month, a local tipster—Golden Pig Upgrade—also alluded to a possible March 12 rollout of 16 and 12-core 3D V-Cache-equipped Zen 5 chips. In a surprise move, JD has started selling Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D units. Earlier today, ITHome spotted updated product pages—JD disclosed that it was prepping an earlier than expected sale: "limited time and limited quantity available at 20:00 (local time) on March 7."

Officially, AMD has only teased a loose March launch window for its latest Ryzen Niners. VideoCardz has kept track of the company's recent announcements, and opines that the Ryzen 9000X3D release strategy is strange one. Embargoes for reviewer and influencers are tipped for lifting on March 11, so JD's premature sale of Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D processors clashes with this schedule. JD's unusual 20:00 release time was highlighted by VideoCardz; they reckon that the 22:00 hour is a more appropriate kick-off time. It is possible that the limited quantity/short period sale was a mislabeled promotion for pre-orders—something could be lost in translation (see primary screenshot below), but similar events were reported in recent history.

AMD has confirmed pricing and launch for its newest Ryzen 9000X3D series processors, with the flagship 9950X3D priced at approximately 5599 RMB and the 9900X3D at 4599 RMB, according to preliminary Chinese store JD listings. Both processors will hit retail channels on March 12, with review embargoes reportedly lifting one day prior, as noted by VideoCardz. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D delivers 16 Zen 5 cores with boost frequencies reaching 5.7 GHz and operates within a 170 W TDP envelope. Its unique feature is 144 MB of combined cache memory (L2, L3, and stacked 3D V-Cache).

The 9900X3D scales back to 12 cores with 5.5 GHz peak frequencies and 140 MB total cache while reducing power consumption to 120 W TDP. These processors represent AMD's implementation of vertical cache stacking technology on its 12+ core Zen 5 setup, completing its Q1 2025 desktop portfolio expansion following earlier standard Ryzen 9000 series launches and the eight-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The 3D V-Cache technology could help with many workloads, with gaming performance expected to show the most significant gains and productivity expected to follow. We have to wait for official reviews to bring further conclusions, but we hope to hear official confirmation on availability soon.