While you may have been under the impression that the Ryzen Strix APUs were being called the Ryzen AI 100 series, you are now mistaken. As confirmed in a leak, AMD has quietly changed the name of the Strix APUs to the Ryzen AI 300 series. So, why has AMD switched up the name and number convention? Well, it’s all because of Intel’s Core Ultra 200 chips.

AMD APU name changes

At first, AMD planned to call their new generation of APUs the Ryzen 8050/9050 series. Instead, they decided to focus on how these chips excel in AI-related tasks with a new name, Strix Point. While they considered using “Ryzen AI” for the branding, the first wave of these processors would’ve been part of the “100 series.” This means we might have seen names like Ryzen 9 AI HX 170 and Ryzen 7 AI 165.

Competition with Intel Core

However, this all changed when leaked documents showed the Strix Point APUs under the ‘300 series’ instead of the ‘100 series’. The 100 name would have seen these APUs disadvantaged against competitors like Intel’s Core Ultra 200 family which was going to feature Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs. While it may seem somewhat petty to change the name to a higher number, it is a strong marketing strategy that could make all the difference in the end.

This new lineup will include models like the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and the Ryzen AI 9 365. Leaks suggest the new “Ryzen AI 300” series also aligns with Strix Point being the third generation of APUs featuring their NPU technology, potentially reflecting not just marketing strategy but also a technical generation leap.

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Tom Valentine

Tom is a tech writer with a detailed view on ensuring the best buying advice, most useful information, and latest news makes its way into PC Guide's articles.