AMD’s upcoming Zen 5-based Fire Range CPUs have finally broken cover, and we learned an interesting detail about the upcoming CPUs designed for gaming laptops. The CPUs are said to use the same FL1 packaging as Ryzen 7040HX CPUs, known as Dragon Range, according to a reputable leaker on the Weibo forums.
Pin-to-pin compatibility has been a big deal for AMD, not only for wider adoption in desktops, but also for easier upgrades in laptops. Although this is just a rumor, it certainly fits within AMD’s strategy for
Don’t get Fire Range CPUs confused with the crop of Ryzen AI 300 CPUs that are launching in a matter of days. Although both use the Zen 5 architecture, Fire Range are higher-powered chips specifically targeting
The timeline is less critical for AMD and more critical for laptop makers. If Fire Range is pin-to-pin compatible, laptop builders will be able to drop in a new Fire Range CPU without any changes to the internal design. Nvidia’s RTX 50-series GPUs likely won’t be a drop-in replacement, forcing laptop builders to redesign the internals of their machines.
It’s a bit of awkward timing, but that’s not to say we won’t eventually see Fire Range CPUs inside
Right now, it’s unclear if Nvidia will launch its RTX 50-series GPUs at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. We know they’re on the way, however. Desktop always arrives first for Nvidia, so unless it’s massively changing its launch strategy, we don’t suspect mobile RTX 50-series GPUs to show up until a few months after the first desktop cards are here.