AMD promises “extreme gaming laptops” in 2023 with the new Dragon Range CPU

A funny thing happened in 2020: AMD won the gaming laptop for the first time ever. until the Asus Zephyrus G14, we’ve never seen a laptop with an AMD CPU and AMD GPU circling the competition. Since then, we have not seen this “AMD laptop” again and again means cheap. But now AMD is setting its sights higher than mid-range gaming machines – it just revealed that it’s building a new CPU aimed at “pinning gaming performance” with the “highest core, thread and cache ever”.

The new CPU lineup is codenamed “Dragon Range,” and they’ll only live at 55W TDP and beyond – enough power to “largely exist in the range where gaming laptops are plugged in most of the time,” AMD says Head of Technical Marketing Robert Hallock.

Slide: AMD

The slide above shows that they target laptops at least 20mm (0.78in) thick, while the 35-45W “Phoenix” range targets machines thinner than that brand. Both are Part of the same AMD Ryzen 7000 seriesbased on the same Zen 4 architecture, and sadly it seems both won’t be out until 2023 – Zen 4 will start life as the desktop-exclusive “Raphael” later this year, according to the chart.

AMD says Dragon Range will adopt the “HS” suffix for CPUs – just like the Ryzen 9 4900HS that wowed us at 35W in this Asus Zephyrus 2020 – but indicated we’re not taking the higher TDP as a sign should I will completely abandon energy efficiency in favor of performance. They’re considered “remarkably more energy efficient than other laptops in this competing time frame,” Hallock says.

AMD wouldn’t provide any further details today, and it’s not clear what the new CPUs could necessarily bring to the table for gaming laptops to need, considering that graphics chips, not CPUs, are generally where most of the gaming momentum is generated these days. Still, CPU speed matters, especially if you’re trying to use a high refresh rate monitor (the can soon go up to 500Hz) with lower resolution frames – and the kind of gamer who buys an “extreme gaming laptop” might even be interested in a small advantage in FPS.

According to Hallock, the new chips are an opportunity the company could pursue alongside thin-and-light gaming. “The performance-per-watt story you’ve heard from us will continue into the future,” he says.

AMD also told reporters today that starting next quarter, it will break gaming into its own financial segment, with revenue from semi-custom parts like PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam Deck chips that combine with Radeon graphics for desktops and laptops — all part a single gaming business. However, it sounds like Ryzen isn’t part of that segment, but more of a “client” segment: the company will explain more at an analysts’ day in June.