AMD adds Ryzen 7 9850X3D, new AI Max+ chips to boost PC punch

AMD is using CES 2026 as a launch vehicle to add several of its popular Ryzen AI Max+ and Ryzen 9000 X3D processors to its stack, but the real story might be the performance improvements AMD is claiming as part of its updated ROCm software instead.

AMD is adding two processors to its Ryzen AI Max+ series: the Ryzen AI Max+ 392, and the Ryzen AI Max+ 388. It is also tucking the Ryzen 7 9850X3D inside its matrix of Ryzen 9000 X3D gaming processors, hopefully adding a more affordable alternative. AMD did not disclose any of the prices of its new processors, however.

A year ago, AMD launched the Ryzen AI Max+ (Strix Halo) chip, a unique combination of a massive amount of level-3 SRAM cache for running LLM workloads locally, combined with a robust graphics engine for gaming and AI work, and an NPU to boot. Ryzen AI Max+ chips debuted in both laptops and tablets as well as mini PCs like the Framework Desktop, where the chip shone.

AMD might score more design wins with its Ryzen AI 300 series of laptop chips, but the Ryzen AI Max lineup attracted Acer, Asus, HP, and Lenovo, among others.

AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max+ chips offer more powerful alternatives, sticking with the processor’s 60 AI TOPS and offering the same 40 graphics CUs as the existing top-of-the-line Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

Note that AMD hasn’t disclosed prices on these new chips. The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D improves upon the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, however, which costs $479 from AMD directly. While the existing 9800X3D offers a max boost of just 5.2GHz, the 9850X3D bumps that up to 5.6GHz, which is more in line with the other Ryzen 9000 X3D processors at the top of AMD’s stack.

Although some believed that AMD might launch a Ryzen 9000 X3D2 at CES, with cache populating both CCDs, AMD doesn’t appear to have done so.

AMD said that it believes that the 9850X3D will outperform the competing Intel Core Ultra 9 285K by an average of about 27 percent across multiple games, ranging from Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (a 5 percent boost) on up to Baldur’s Gate 3 (a 60 percent increase.)

AMD’s Ryzen 9000 X3D processors have been critical to AMD’s continued market-share increases on the desktop, and a string of profitable quarters.

Under the hood, however, lies AMD’s ROCm software, the open-source software stack that developers can use to address AMD GPUs and CPUs. AMD has said previously that it neglected ROCm while its competitors used it to eke out performance gains. Now, AMD has made ROCm a priority, and it’s paid off: AMD released ROCm 6.4 in February 2024, and ROCm 7.1 this past October. Between the two, AMD measured up to a 5X improvement in AI image and video generation: 2.6X faster in SDXL, 5.2X faster in Flux S, and 5.4X faster in Wan 14b, executives said.

Users can easily add the updated ROCm support by downloading and updating AMD’s Adrenalin Edition software, the company said. ROCm now is integrated within the ComfyUI stack, and now supports the Ryzen AI 400 chip, AMD’s next-generation mobile processor that was also announced at CES 2026.