AMD's throwing the considerably hefty Ryzen 9 9950X3D at gaming laptops and calling it a Ryzen 9 9955HX3D

HardwareProcessorsAMD’s throwing the considerably hefty Ryzen 9 9950X3D at gaming laptops and calling it a Ryzen 9 9955HX3DWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Future)

Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 gaming laptop

AMD isn’t pulling any punches in gaming laptops. The company’s latest plan announced over atCES 2025is to take its beefiest 16-core/32-thread processor, whack loads more cache on the top, and run it at a laptop-friendly TDP of 54 W.

It’s called theAMD Ryzen9 9955HX3D. It comes with a max boost clock of 5.4 GHz and 144 MB of L3 cache. It’s a little bit slower than the desktop version, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D also just announced at CES, but really only a little bit. That desktop chip runs at 5.7 GHz and 170 W.

This chip follows on from theRyzen 9 7945HX3D, which we were impressed with in testing but never saw much of again. It is available in a couple ofROG Strix Scar 17 laptops, as we tested, but little else. Here’s hoping that changes with this newer version and it’s more widely available.

Though a beefy laptop chip will face other constraints. Thermals are going to be a challenge, and we don’t yet know who will utilise this chip in a gaming laptop. It’s a pretty extreme number, and might be less popular than some of the more sensible options available from AMD, including the new 16-core 9955HX, new 12-core 9850HX, new Ryzen AI Max, or one of the many Ryzen AI 300-series.

(Image credit: AMD)

A table showing specifications for three new AMD mobile processors, led by the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D.

Speaking of the Ryzen AI 300-series, there are new Ryzen AI 7 and Ryzen AI 5 chips on the way. Here they are:

Those join the many Ryzen AI Max chips, including the top 16C/32T model with 40 (forty!) GPU compute units.

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With so many options to choose from, some including beefy GPUs, AMD must be expecting a big uptick in gaming laptops stuffed with its chips. The dominant combination has long been an Intel CPU with an Nvidia GPU, though we’ve seen more of AMD’s chips make it into the market in recent years. Not so much discrete GPUs, though, and AMD has nothing new to offer gaming laptops in this regard at CES.

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More about processorsIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 offAMD accuses Intel’s Arrow Lake of being a ‘horrible’ product and implies a lack of options for consumers has caused the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortageLatestFive new Steam games you probably missed (January 13, 2025)See more latest►

More about processors

If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 offAMD accuses Intel’s Arrow Lake of being a ‘horrible’ product and implies a lack of options for consumers has caused the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortage

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If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor

AMD accuses Intel’s Arrow Lake of being a ‘horrible’ product and implies a lack of options for consumers has caused the Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortage

LatestFive new Steam games you probably missed (January 13, 2025)See more latest►

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