AMD claims Panther Lake has ‘too much baggage’ for handheld PC use — fights back after Intel jabs AMD for using ‘ancient silicon’ in its Z2 series APUs

AMD claims Panther Lake has 'too much baggage' for handheld PC use — fights back after Intel jabs AMD for using 'ancient silicon' in its Z2 series APUs

Intel's jab at AMD, calling its Z2 chips "ancient silicon," is truly comedic, given how only one of the models uses Zen 2 , but these little arguments demonstrate how truly competitive AMD and Intel are against each other in the CPU space right now. AMD is unfazed by Intel's new Panther Lake chips and has already stated that its outgoing Ryzen AI Max (Strix Halo) APUs already compete against Panther Lake with better (alleged) GPU performance. AMD even opted to update its Strix Halo lineup during CES to include a new 8-core and 12-core model that boasts the same 40CU RDNA3+ flagship iGPU that was exclusive to the flagship 16-core 395 model.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Aaron Klotz Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

dCasualGamer When the competitor responded immediately with a jab, it probably means there are some truth in the claim. Can't wait to see the real products Reply

TerryLaze AMD claims that its handheld-specific chip has a much higher chance of success in the handheld market. "You can’t just use mobile silicon and put it in the handheld. You can, but the handheld or the consoles, they care about high graphics. They don’t care about as much compute, and they don’t care about the I/O." "So, the E-cores are very good for efficiency, very bad for performance. We balance the two, and we’re already making those choices for our customers and saying, hey, you don’t have to worry about it.” So you don't need that much compute but if you use e-cores that give good battery life you don't get as much performance because you don't need that much compute???? Hey, just don't worry about it! Reply

Gururu The press has been somewhat kind to Intel. But AMD really fumbled CES 2026, so I am not sure why they can't just take the high road. AMD Failed UsAMD is In Danger Intel Pulls an NVIDIAIntel’s Best Product in YEARS – Panther Lake Announcement Reply

User of Computers "AMD claims that its handheld-specific chip has a much higher chance of success in the handheld market. "You can’t just use mobile silicon and put it in the handheld. You can, but the handheld or the consoles, they care about high graphics. They don’t care about as much compute, and they don’t care about the I/O."" Uh huh. Are we just going to pretend like every single AMD handheld chip was repurposed from some other application? from the reused Rembrandt die to the Strix bin to the Pheonix chip, the Z2 series is very much a series of cut down bins from previous (and current) generations. Intel isn't doing anything radical here by introducing a binned PTL SKU that focuses more on handhelds but isn't directly new silicon. Reply

User of Computers Gururu said: The press has been somewhat kind to Intel. But AMD really fumbled CES 2026, so I am not sure why they can't just take the high road. AMD Failed UsAMD is In Danger Intel Pulls an NVIDIAIntel’s Best Product in YEARS – Panther Lake Announcement to be fair, Intel was expected to at least talk about G31 so that was a disappointment from them. Reply

Gururu User of Computers said: to be fair, Intel was expected to at least talk about G31 so that was a disappointment from them. If you mean the B770, yes I scrubbed all CES coverage waiting for that and VERY disappointed. Reply

User of Computers "So, the E-cores are very good for efficiency, very bad for performance. We balance the two, and we’re already making those choices for our customers and saying, hey, you don’t have to worry about it." Dang, I guess the fact that Skymont nearly matches Zen 4 in SPECint in IPC got you a bit nervous? (https://old.chipsandcheese.com/2024/12/20/skymont-in-desktop-form-atom-unleashed/) Reply

User of Computers Gururu said: If you mean the B770, yes I scrubbed all CES coverage waiting for that and VERY disappointed. at this point I'd honestly just expect some token launch of a B70 Pro card instead of anything targeted at gamers. Reply

JamesJones44 I'm so surprised!! A competitor says their product is better than the competitors product! Reply

Gururu User of Computers said: at this point I'd honestly just expect some token launch of a B70 Pro card instead of anything targeted at gamers. That would upset my plans for acquiring a 5070 ti level card for under $400 this year 😛 Reply

Key considerations

  • Investor positioning can change fast
  • Volatility remains possible near catalysts
  • Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows

Reference reading

More on this site

Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.

Leave a Comment