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AMD's CES 2025 keynote unveiled the Ryzen 9000HX series codenamed “Fire Range”, the successor to the 7000HX “Dragon Range”. Effectively, a BGA-packaged version of a “Granite Ridge” chip, Fire Range CPUs combine one or two “Zen 5” CCDs with a client I/O die. While it lacks an integrated NPU and sports a basic iGPU, its focus is clear: enthusiast gaming laptops and mobile workstations.
The 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes provide ample bandwidth for the discrete GPUs it's designed to complement. The Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is the headlining model in the series, the sole model featuring 3D V-Cache. This chip has the potential to claim the crown of the fastest mobile CPU for gaming, potentially even outpacing Intel's Arrow Lake-HX, especially if the desktop 9800X3D's performance relative to the Core Ultra 9 285K is anything to go by.
Dream Machines (via VideoCardz) has already announced its intention to bring laptops powered by the 9955HX3D to market, with an estimated arrival window of late March or early April 2025. Reports suggest AMD has secured various contracts with several major laptop OEMs, pointing towards a potentially successful market run for these new Fire Range chips, unlike its predecessors.
However, this top-tier performance will come at a cost. Dream Machines listings of these upcoming laptops start at €2,530 (~£2100) for configurations pairing the 9955HX3D with an RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, while the flagship RTX 5090 Laptop GPU variant is predicted to command a price tag closer to €3,860 (~£3200). These laptops will have 16-inch 300 Hz displays, 16 GB of DDR5-5200/5600 memory, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD.
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KitGuru says: Would you consider getting a high-end gaming laptop? If so, would you go for one with an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D CPU or something less capable (and potentially cheaper) would be enough?
