AMD's Strix Point APU is a super little chip that's great in laptops and handheld PCs such as the new Razer Blade 16 and OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Pro. Actually, it would be pretty nifty in a mini PC for the desktop, wouldn't it? Hopefully we'll find out later this year as AMD is reportedly plotting a Q4 2025 roll-out for the desktop version of Strix Point.
According to Benchlife, AMD will brand Strix Point for desktops as the "Ryzen 9000G", though we suspect AMD will insert "AI" in there somewhere. Perhaps Ryzen AI 9000G?
Either way, it's be the same Strix Point silicon that's been so successful in portable PCs. It gives you up to 12 Zen 5-spec CPU cores, with a mix of four full Zen 5 cores and eight more compact Zen 5c cores. On the graphics side, Strix Point packs 16 RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units while an AI-accelerating NPU is rated at 55 TOPS.
The chip is expected to be packaged for the AM5 socket, so should slot into a fairly wide range of existing AMD compatible motherboards. The example here is the existing AMD Ryzen 8000G series, featuring the Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G, which are both based on the last-gen Phoenix APU.
They offer, up to eight Zen 4 CPU cores and 12 RDNA 3-spec graphics units, plus a 16 TOPs NPU. The Ryzen 8000 chips also drop into the AM5 socket.
In theory, you might expect the desktop iteration of Strix Point to clock a little higher than in laptop and handheld applications. By rights you should actually be able to pair the new Strix Point desktop APUs with a discrete GPU, but if it's pure performance you're after, a dedicated desktop CPU-plus-GPU combo will still be by far the best bet.
Instead, it's as a chip for a teeny tiny mini PC, maybe something like the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01S we spotted last week, where Strix Point on the desktop makes most sense. It's not the stuff of a gaming powerhouse. More a strong all-rounder in a very compact form factor.
Indeed, the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM01S will indeed be offered with Strix Point, but using the chip in its mobile packaging branded as the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (as shown in the image at the top). Mobile chips tend to go for more money than equivalent desktops, so a desktop Strix Point will probably make for a more cost-effective mini PC.
Obviously as a rumour rather than official launch, there's no word as yet on pricing and precise availability. But loop back later in the year and we'll hopefully have full details.
