Back in October, Microsoft announced and launched its Surface Laptop 3. There was a 15-inch variant of the device that was notable because it features an AMD APU processor instead of Microsoft’s usual processor partner Intel.
This was a Surface-specific AMD chipset with a 15W TDP and 11 Vega graphics units. At the time, AMD promised the first “Surface Edition” APU “Extreme Edition” (Accelerated Processing Unit) signaled the start of a long collaboration between it and Microsoft.
According to Windows Latest, the two companies could already be working on the next generation of APU process. Of course, that would make sense as chipmakers usually update their CPUs on a yearly basis.
It seems a 3DMark benchmark database recently showed what seems to be an unreleased AMD Ryzen 7 Extreme Edition APU that’s part of the Renoir family. Looking at the specs for the leaked processor, it has similar attributes to AMD’s current Ryzen 7 4800U.
Specs
For example, the clock speed is between 1.8 GHz and 4.2 GHz, although it has a higher operation speed. Certainly, the specs look like it could be geared towards a 2-in-1. That makes sense because Microsoft won’t update the Surface Laptop 3 this year but does have 2-in-1s like the Surface Go 2.
Microsoft announced the Surface Go 2 this month and there was no AMD version. However, it is still a good candidate and perhaps a special AMD variant will launch later in the year.
As for the Surface Laptop 3, customers complained earlier this year that some units have hardware defects.