AMD is creeping into gaming territory at CES 2025. Here's why Intel should be worried

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced its next generation of processors at CES 2025, solidifying its push into PC gaming territory with the Ryzen 9000 series, AMD Ryzen Z2, and Ryzen 9000 mobile processors. One of the most anticipated gaming laptops of the year, the Razer Blade 16, dropped with the AMD Ryzen 9 AI, the first time the device has been released with a non-Intel chip. 

I sat down with AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Gaming Marketing, Frank Azor, to chat about the company's plans and vision for 2025. One of its key focuses? Scalability. "We want to design products that can scale. Products that are very power efficient but also performance capable. And to do it with one part, across a broad range."

Also: CES 2025: The 12 most impressive products so far

AMD's portfolio of chips is certainly capable. The newest gaming chip from AMD is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with 16 "Zen 5" processing cores and 144MB total cache. Its clock speed can be boosted up to 5.7 GHz, and AMD says it's overall 8% faster than its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which is already a beast. 

It's not just the Razer Blade 16 sporting a new AMD Ryzen; gaming laptop manufacturer MSI announced a new lineup of 18-inch laptops, many of which come with AMD processors, specifically the AMD Ryzen 9 in MSI's Raider A18 and the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in the Stealth A18. 

Also: MSI goes big at CES 2025 with its lineup of new 18-inch gaming laptops

Outside of the impressive high-end product announcements, though, AMD rounded out its portfolio with the Krackan Point APU lineup, a hybrid-core design that's a more accessible version of its Strix Point with up to four Zen 5 and four Zen 5c cores, and at anaccessible price point. "We're focused on where the market is," Azor said. "And 90% of gamers buy GPUs below that $1,000 mark."

That's great news for consumers, as there are tons of opportunities to make high-performing, reliable devices in a price range that gets in more consumers' hands. The first step is putting those chips into the devices that gamers actually use and trust, like the Razer Blade 16 and MSI's laptops. 

Also: Razer just announced its latest Blade 16 gaming laptop, and it's even thinner than before

The push into gaming territory inevitably takes market share from Intel, and in that sense is a win for AMD. This steady but consistent push also goes a long way toward projecting a focused, stable organizational strategy, particularly in comparison to leadership shuffles at Intel. 

According to Azor, however, this is nothing new. "This is a strategy that's been in place for over 10 years. Our entire organization is rallied around that strategy." 

In the end, though, it all comes down to performance. AMD says the Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 chipset, for example, has 2.2 times "faster AI performance" than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and better 3D rendering than Apple's M4 Pro. Bold claims, but with 16 processing cores, 32 threads, and 40 graphics cores, things are looking promising. 

Until we get our hands on these devices and run them through their paces later this year, specsheets are largely theoretical. But one thing is certain: gamers looking at new machines in 2025 will be seeing a lot more AMD.