Computex 2024 Day Zero Wrap-Up: AI is everywhere, Ryzen 9000, Ryzen AI 300 Series, Qualcomm Snapdragon X for desktops

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It's that time of year again, meaning we're in full Computex mode. We have an entire crew of Tom's Hardware editors in Taipei covering the show from all angles, and everything covered can be found on our Computex 2024 hub for your convenience.

Computex 2024 Day Zero kicked off with a big bang, as we had keynotes from AMD, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. And if you thought that artificial intelligence was a big talking point at last year's show, you haven't seen anything yet. AI is "the" topic of discussion by almost every company at the show. From new chips with AI coprocessors from AMD and Qualcomm to Nvidia's push to embrace AI on consumer PC platforms, consumers will have a wealth of AI-infused platforms to choose from in the latter half of 2024.

AMD's Computex 2024 Keynote

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su brought out the big guns for the show, announcing next-generation Zen 5-based processors for consumer desktops and laptops. On the laptop side, the company's Strix Point-based Ryzen AI 300 Series chips are available with up to 12 cores and 24 threads and a max boost of 5.1 GHz (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370) while featuring a 50 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU). On the graphics side, the processors include an RDNA 3.5-based GPU.

For enthusiasts, the big news is the Ryzen 9000, which promises a 16 percent IPC lift over its predecessors. The flagship of the family is the Ryzen 9 9950X, which boasts 16 cores, 32 threads, 80MB of combined L2/L3 cache, base/boost clocks of 4.3 GHz and 5.7 GHz, respectively, and a TDP of 170 watts.

But that wasn't all; there's also a new Zen 5 Epyc processor, a cut-down Radeon Pro W7900 Dual Slot GPU, and a new MI325X AI accelerator.

Nvidia's Computex 2024 Keynote

Nvidia is also getting into the mix with Copilot+, but not in the same way as companies like AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel. Rather than relying on an NPU integrated into a processor, Nvidia will gain Copilot+ certification in a future Windows 11 update through its discrete GPUs.

The company also announced that there will be a new crop of GeForce RTX graphics cards labeled SFF-Ready (2.5 slots thick or smaller, with a length of less than 304mm and a height of less than 151 mm). There was also news surrounding Project G-Assist, which allows customers to use voice or text inputs to gain assistance from AI on how to complete a game.

Qualcomm's Computex 2024 Keynote

Qualcomm is coming off a big high two weeks ago when it officially launched its Snapdragon X Series of Arm processors for laptops, kicking off Microsoft's Copilot+ initiative for Windows 11. During his Computex keynote, Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon described his company's efforts with Snapdragon X as "one of the most significant transitions in Windows."

While most of what Amon discussed was previously mentioned last month at Microsoft's Copilot+ event in Redmond, Washington, the big news at Computex is that Qualcomm intends to bring its chips to PC desktops.

Qualcomm: Snapdragon coming to "all PC form factors," including desktops

Asus Laptops and ROG Ally X Hands-On

While we first learned details about the Asus ROG Ally X in May, we went hands-on with the device at Computex. It's a significant upgrade over its predecessor, doubling the battery capacity while tossing in a 1TB SSD and 24GB of LPDDR5-7500 RAM. There are also some chassis tweaks and new joysticks that are more durable.

Also on deck at Computex were new Zenbook S and TUF 14 laptops, along with a new Zephyrus G14 that adds a secondary e-paper display on its lid.

The Best of the Rest

Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.