AM5, Ryzen 9000 & AI: AMD opens up on the future of gaming CPUs

AMD Product and Business Development Manager Martijn Boonstra lifts the lid on what’s in store for AM5 and the Ryzen 9000 series.

AMD is set to launch its Ryzen 9000 series processors in August, following a short delay. Now, I’ve had the chance to sit down with AMD Product and Business Development Manager Martijn Boonstra on all things AM5, and where AMD is headed in the future.

“I think the second half of this year looks to be a great time to upgrade,” Boonstra states, harkening back to when AMD’s Zen 2 chips were dominating the midrange in 2020. But, five years on, does AMD still have it in them to deliver performance?

The case of the missing X3D chips

One area that AMD has innovated in, and something that has caught the attention of players worldwide, is the stacked 3D V-cache. Debuting in 2022 with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the expanded cache of the chip allows for higher gaming performance. This is because your PC will have to fetch less data from your RAM or SSD on the fly, allowing for boosted performance, and higher framerates.

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“I was surprised when our engineers first started showing these prototypes with the 5800, actually, at the time using eight cores and seeing the performance uplift in games was very, very exciting,” Boonstra commented.

Since these chips with expanded L3 caches are so great for gaming, I asked why Zen 5 and Ryzen 9000 were not launching straight out of the gate with a 3D V-cache chip: “Our commitment to advancing the X3D technology remains steadfast in that sense. I cannot comment on any unannounced product, or sort of timelines, or anything like that. But, rest assured this is definitely on our radar,” he concluded.

So, before throwing your speedy 7800X3D out, it might be best to wait for Ryzen 9000 benchmarks to see if AMD’s next-gen chips can beat their current gaming champion.

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According to Boonstra, AMD’s engineers could be working on more CPU innovations: “I keep talking to the engineers as well, sometimes trying to feel them out if they’re working on something new or something that may come in five years, because sometimes these guys start, let’s say, eight years in advance for products [until they] become actual mass produced.”

But, sadly, he didn’t comment on anything specific, so while AMD tinkers away, we’ll just have to wait and twiddle our thumbs until the next big thing comes along.

Should players really care about AI optimization?

Look at AMD, Intel, Nvidia, or pretty much anyone out there right now, and you’ll see lots of AI branding across a range of products, and while some products, like DLSS or FSR have a direct impact on players, does the rest really matter?

“Even if [gamers] may not directly utilize advanced AI workloads today, they will still feel that there’s acceleration going on, or freeing up resources at the same time, because AI can take over certain tasks, freeing up resources from the CPU or the graphics card, for example, especially interesting when you’re gaming.”

Boonstra continued to give examples similar to the Nvidia ACE tech demo.

“[You can] enjoy your games more with visual fidelity increasing with smart technologies or AI-generated content while you’re playing your game. Giving you a one-off immersive experience that does not feel repetitive, right?”

However, while it’s easy to develop the tools that utilize AI, the industry is already responding, with SAG-AFTRA striking against the use of AI for voiceovers, and game developers themselves skeptical of the creativity it can bring to the table.

Earlier this year, I spoke to Oliver Clarke-Smith, designer of AAA Sony hit Until Dawn on the potential impact of AI in gaming: “An AI-driven interactive drama would give you amazing possibilities which is an intoxicating idea – but it’d have none of the charm, so what’s the point?”

AI is just so early in its utility that silicon manufacturers like AMD just want to be sure that their chips are up to the task, should the need arise. But, that future is still potentially years away.

The rise of small form factor handhelds

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the Steam Deck, ROG Ally X, and other gaming handhelds have now become commonplace. Barring a few exceptions like the MSI Claw, the majority of them are using AMD chips.

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While the 680M offered a decent amount of performance, the next-gen 780M has been used in dozens of parts, including the Z1 and Z1 extreme, in addition to the sea of Chinese handhelds from the likes of Ayaneo.

Boonstra said: “You’ll find Radeon 780M to be the world’s fastest integrated graphics, delivering heaps of performance increase over the previous generation Radeon built-in graphics, and any basically any built-in graphics out there right now.”

AMD’s next-gen iGPUs are set to perform on par with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 under certain workloads, and this impressive jump in performance will likely be some of the bedrock that an eventual Steam Deck 2 is built upon, whenever Valve decides it’s the right time to release a new console.

Boonstra concluded: “For the handheld market, there’s a reason AMD technology is chosen by these world’s largest companies.”