AMD’s incoming Ryzen AI 300 processors (Strix Point) for laptops have dropped support for Windows 10, as buzz on the rumor mill previously indicated might happen.
Tom’s Hardware let us know that AMD has canned Windows 10 with its new Zen 5-toting laptop chips, after stumbling upon the official Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 specs page.
On that page, the CPU (well, technically it’s an APU – a fancy name for an all-in-one chip with processor, integrated GPU, and NPU) only lists Windows 11 versions (and Linux) under the officially supported operating systems.
There’s no mention of Windows 10, which means these Strix Point processors will not be built to cater for the older operating system, and won’t have any driver support. You will only be able to use Windows 11, in theory anyway – though we should note that it’ll technically be possible to use Windows 10 as-is, unsupported. However, that will entail risks and potential wonkiness, instability and who-knows-what issues, frankly.
Analysis: Windows 11 goes hand-in-hand with AI
While this might sound a bit shocking to begin with – in terms of Windows 10 having some official life left in it yet (not far off a year and a half’s worth, in fact) – it’s not really much of a surprise at all.
Not when we consider that Ryzen AI 300 processors are only going to be in new laptops, namely AI PCs – now renamed Copilot+ PCs of course – and those new devices will inevitably have Windows 11 on-board anyway. (Remember, there’s a big drive for AI capabilities in Windows 11, and features like Recall – which Microsoft just changed considerably following a backlash).
Does it not matter at all that these Ryzen APUs won’t support Windows 10, then? Well, it still does for some users who might want to take their new Windows 11 laptop and downgrade it to Windows 10. But who would do that with support for Windows 10 running out later next year? Perhaps someone who really hates Windows 11, or loves Windows 10 so much that they intend to pay for extended support after October 2025.
A niche audience – yes, indeed – but still, it’s a small segment of laptop buyers who are going to be left out in the cold by these new Strix Point APUs. At the same time, to be fair to AMD, building in support for an OS which is on its way out represents a considerable amount of effort, for not much return really.
Doubtless dropping Windows 10 support is a useful corner to cut – with those resources then left open to be allocated to other things. And as mentioned, these laptop chips are really all about AI – with a much more powerful NPU on-board than the previous Ryzen generation – and that means Windows 11, not 10. (Even if Copilot is in the latter OS, far from all its functionality will be, or other AI features Microsoft is bringing in which are exclusive to Windows 11).
The at-a-glance takeaway here, though – Windows 10 dumped a year and a half ahead of time – is unlikely to score any points for AMD among those diehards who are refusing to upgrade to Windows 11 (and there are plenty of those folks).
