AMD unveiled its Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors, codenamed Strix Point, at Computex 2024. Powered by the Zen 5 architecture, these chips promise big things in both overall performance and artificial intelligence with up to 50 TOPS of neural processing power. However, AMD said that the Ryzen series will not support Windows 10.
AMD Ryzen AI 300 series will not support Windows 10
AMD’s emphasis on software support at the event did not go unnoticed. The company said that these new APU models will not support Windows 10. Earlier reports had indicated that Windows 10 compatibility could be an issue. AMD has now officially confirmed this cut.
The spec sheets for the two announced Ryzen AI 300 models, the HX 370 and 365, only support Windows 11, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu in the OS support section. In contrast, Windows 10 is among the official operating systems supported on the Ryzen 9000 desktop processors.
This means that PC makers will not be able to install Windows 10 on systems with the Ryzen AI 300 APU. Users will be forced to switch to Windows 11. But with Windows 11’s market share hovering around 20 percent, this may not appeal to all users.
On the other hand, Ryzen 9000 desktop processors will continue to be available with both Windows 10 and 11 operating systems. AMD’s reason for not providing Windows 10 support for AI-focused mobile processors is unclear.
The new Ryzen AI 300 series processors are built on AMD’s latest architectures. It supports high-performance AI processing with a neural processing unit (NPU) called XDNA2. The integrated graphics unit (iGPU) with RDNA 3.5 architecture comes with 16 processing units, which means a significant increase in graphics performance.