AMD CEO: Pricier Ryzens will probably get more powerful NPUs

You’d expect that more expensive PC processors would feature faster clock speeds, more cache, more powerful integrated graphics. Future Ryzens will probably scale NPU TOPS, too.

“AI will be everywhere.” If there was a theme to Dr. Lisa Su’s post-keynote press conference, at the Computex 2024 show in Taipei, it was that. Su touched on the theme time and time again. And AI will be everywhere across AMD’s CPU lineup — but not necessarily with the same potency.

On stage, Su joked with Microsoft’s Windows and devices chief Pavan Davuluri that an NPU’s TOPS don’t come for free, echoing the old adage that whatever hardware a chipmaker builds, software will suck it up.

“That’s why I was sort of kidding with Pavan on stage,” Su said, in response to my question. “Nothing is for free, when you look at these products both from an overall power standpoint, as well as this overall cost standpoint.

“I think what we’re seeing is AI will truly be everywhere. Our expectation is that the current Copilot+ and (AMD Ryzen AI 300 Copilot+ PCs, or “Strix Point,”) at 50+ TOPS will start more at the higher end of the stack,” Su added. “But we would expect that you will see AI throughout our entire stack as we go forward.

“You’re going to see at the top end that we’re going to continue to scale the TOPS because we are big, big believers in the more local TOPS you have, the more capable your AI PCs are going to be,” Su concluded. “We believe people are going to value that and so it’s worth it, to put it on chip locally.”

Su didn’t describe how AMD will differentiate various Ryzens with NPU capabilities. But there’s a history here: In 2021, AMD mixed and matched parts from various Zen generations under the Ryzen 5000 name. AMD could conceivably do the same with future Ryzens, taking older NPUs and combining them with various CPUs and GPUs.

But that’s not to say we could see just an NPU, either. In response to another question about whether AMD could develop a neuromorphic chip like Intel’s Loihi, Su seemed open to the possibility. “I think as we go forward, we always look at some specific types of what’s called new acceleration technologies,” she said. “I think we could see some of these going forward.”

But could Ryzens get bigger, with more cores? Su demurred while answering a question about whether AMD would ever go beyond the current 16-core count. “There’s no physical reason that we couldn’t go more than 16 cores,” she said.

Su pointed out that software developers don’t always use all the core AMD already provides. “I think the key is just going at the pace that the software guys can utilize them,” she said.