AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mobile SoC review: the Zen 5 CPU architecture, RDNA 3.5 graphics, and the XDNA 2 NPU make this AMD's most compelling laptop CPU to date
During the opening keynote delivered by AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su at Computex 2024, AMD finally lifted the lid on their highly-anticipated Zen 5 microarchitecture.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the evaluation-stage follow-up to AMD’s June introduction of the Ryzen AI 300 family, when the company named the HX 370 and a sibling chip with a 50 TOPS NPU as its first Strix Point mobile offerings. It turns the launch specification into a test of whether AMD’s CPU, graphics and AI blocks form a coherent laptop platform.
The HX 370 also extends the Zen 5 rollout beyond the desktop Ryzen 9000 announcement that brought the new CPU architecture to desktop CPUs. A prior overview had already framed Ryzen AI 300 as AMD’s laptop-focused AI PC family alongside the Ryzen 9000 desktop line.
First-order effects
- AMD gains a reviewed flagship mobile part whose appeal rests on the combined Zen 5 CPU, RDNA 3.5 graphics and XDNA 2 NPU, rather than on a CPU refresh alone.
- Laptop buyers and system makers evaluating Ryzen AI 300 now have an independent assessment of the HX 370 as the family reaches the market.
Second-order effects
- Rival laptop platforms face a broader comparison set: CPU performance, integrated graphics and dedicated AI capability must be weighed together in premium designs.
- For AMD, the commercial case for Zen 5 mobile becomes more tightly linked to the usefulness of its integrated NPU and graphics, not solely to the CPU architecture’s reception.
Third-order effects
- If this integrated approach gains OEM design wins, premium-laptop differentiation could increasingly move from individual CPU specifications toward the balance of heterogeneous compute blocks in a single SoC.
- The Zen 5 rollout across mobile and desktop suggests a product strategy in which a shared CPU architecture is adapted to distinct platform mixes; its durability will depend on whether AI-capable laptop workloads become a sustained buying criterion.
The trend: The HX 370 is one data point in the shift toward laptop processors designed as heterogeneous AI platforms, combining general-purpose, graphics and neural compute on one chip.