Why There Are No AMD Surface PCs
New Snapdragon and NVIDIA Devices
IT Home reported on September 29 that Microsoft recently unveiled the new 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop. Consequently, recent reports note the smaller Surface Pro and Surface Laptop get faster with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus processor. Furthermore, the highly anticipated Surface Laptop Ultra will officially launch this October. This premium machine utilizes the powerful NVIDIA RTX Spark graphics card.
The Absence of AMD Processors
However, this exciting hardware news highlights a surprising absence. Microsoft has not released an AMD-powered Surface device in over five years. In fact, their last AMD offering was the Surface Laptop 4 back in 2021.
Microsoft Explains Their Strategy
Brett Ostrum currently serves as Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Head of Surface. He recently addressed this exact topic during an exclusive interview. You can read the full context where the Microsoft Surface lead explains why there are no AMD Surface PCs.
Ostrum offered a very clear explanation. “We genuinely love collaborating with AMD,” he stated. “Our product portfolio remains somewhat limited. Therefore, we have to make our choices pretty wisely.” He strongly emphasized this point by reiterating his deep appreciation for working with the chipmaker.
A Strong Partnership Beyond Surface
Beyond the Surface lineup, AMD continues to serve as a crucial hardware partner for Microsoft. The company supplies the vital processors for the upcoming consoles. In fact, rumored specs put the Xbox Helix GPU 40 percent ahead of its main rival.
Gaming and Cloud Infrastructure
Additionally, AMD provides the silicon for the ROG Xbox co-branded handheld gaming devices. Finally, Microsoft routinely purchases massive quantities of AMD data center components. These massive server investments sustain their expansive cloud computing infrastructure.
