AMD RX 9000 series will focus on desktop GPUs first — RDNA 4 mobility offerings to follow later

AMD has confirmed that its RDNA 4 architecture will initially be focused on desktop GPUs, with mobile offerings planned for later in a review with Notebookcheck. At CES, AMD debuted RDNA 4, but with an impending keynote from Nvidia, it remained hesitant to share more details. After a long tussle with premature ads and existing retailer inventory, AMD finally slated the Radeon RX 9000 series for launch in March.

“Our current graphics strategy is focused on the desktop market with RDNA 4. So, I think you’ll see those types of products first in the future. Certainly, RDNA 4 and future graphics technologies will make it into mobile, whether they be on APUs or future products,” Ben Conrad, Director of Product Management for Premium Mobile Client at AMD, told Notebookcheck.

RDNA 4 introduces several changes, such as optimized Compute Units, better AI, faster raytracing performance, and so on, though AMD has remained tight-lipped about the specifics. On mobile, AMD packages its Radeon offerings into APUs such as Strix Point and Krackan Point or dedicated GPUs (dGPUs) for laptops, including the Radeon RX 7000S/7000M families. The latter is seen chiefly in external GPUs or mini-PCs, as most of the dedicated laptop GPU market is occupied by offerings from Nvidia.

When asked about RDNA 4 laptops, bringing into focus the shortage of Radeon dGPU-powered laptops we mentioned above, AMD’s Ben Conrad explicitly stated that RDNA 4 will focus on desktop GPUs first. There isn’t a specific timeline for when we could see an APU equipped with RDNA 4, though you shouldn’t expect a considerable delay since Intel’s Panther Lake, powered by Celestial (Xe3), is said to arrive this year. The Battlemage-powered Lunar Lake already reigns supreme in the APU landscape, so AMD will eventually need to deliver a response.

Sadly, AMD never ported RDNA 3.5 to its mobile dGPU lineup. As such, the gap between AMD’s existing options and the soon-to-be-in-vogue RTX 50 series could be considerable in terms of performance and supply. On the contrary, AMD’s Strix Halo, with the integrated Radeon 8060S at its heart, is said to beat the RTX 4070 laptop GPU. Maybe AMD doesn’t need to go the dGPU route, as a potential Strix Halo successor with RDNA 4 and FSR 4 could compete with Blackwell.