AMD is gearing up to launch its RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series, but if you’re a Red Team faithful hoping for new Radeon GPUs in gaming laptops, you might be waiting a while. The company officially announced the first desktop GPUs in the lineup—the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT—at CES 2025, but conspicuously absent from the announcements was any mobile hardware. Now, thanks to a persistent interviewer, we finally have some clarity on AMD’s mobile GPU strategy, such that it is.
The RDNA 4 desktop GPUs had a bit of an unusual rollout. While AMD briefed press on the new cards during CES, they were completely absent from the main keynote presentation. Instead, AMD has since confirmed that the GPUs will get a dedicated launch event sometime before their March release. While this separate event should give the new Radeon cards their own stage on which to shine, the lack of mobile announcements has only fueled speculation about what’s going on with AMD’s gaming laptop efforts.
Indeed, there’s been complete radio silence on mobile RDNA 4-based Radeon GPUs—no announcements, no leaks, not even a hint of what to expect. That changed slightly in a recent interview with Notebookcheck, where AMD’s Ben Conrad, Director of Product Management for Premium Mobile Client, finally addressed the elephant in the room. When asked about RDNA 4 in laptops, Conrad stated:
“Our current graphics strategy is focused on the desktop market with RDNA 4. So, I think you’ll see those types of products first in the future. Certainly, RDNA 4 and future graphics technologies will make it into mobile, whether they be on APUs or future products.”
That doesn’t sound like mobile Radeon RX 9000 GPUs are coming anytime soon, and it raises questions about whether AMD’s next-gen discrete laptop graphics will even exist. If history is any guide, the situation isn’t promising. The Radeon RX 7000 series barely made it into gaming laptops despite AMD launching a reasonable range of mobile SKUs from the entry-level RX 7600S to the high-end Radeon RX 7900M. Ultimately, laptop vendors seemed to favor Nvidia’s more power-efficient GeForce GPUs.
With Notebookcheck confirming that AMD’s graphics focus remains on desktop for now, it’s unclear if—or when—we’ll see RDNA 4 powering gaming laptops. For now, AMD’s best bet in the mobile space seems to be leaning on APUs with integrated graphics, including the powerful Ryzen AI MAX “Strix Halo” processors.