Microsoft rumored to move from Intel to AMD with Surface PCs

Microsoft already taps semi-custom silicon from AMD for its current-gen Xbox consoles, and its next-gen Project Scarlett consoles that will soon expand the Xbox family in 2020... but what about AMD silicon inside of Surface products? That seems like it could happen, soon.

According to the latest rumors, Microsoft is working on a new AMD-powered Surface laptop that would drop the proprietary Surface Connect with the much more open USB-C port. Inside of the new Surface laptop is reportedly an AMD Picasso SoC on the 12nm node which will see Microsoft reduce its dependency on Intel for CPUs inside of its Surface products. The AMD Picasso SoC would feature Zen+ CPU cores (not Zen 2, and not 7nm) with Vega GPU cores.

On top of that, Microsoft is also reportedly working with Qualcomm on custom ARM-based silicon for codename Excalibur, a new Surface Pro that the silicon sounds like the Snapdragon 8cx, and some. Expect full 5G connectivity, and so much more on Excalibur. We'll keep you up to date on the new AMD silicon inside of the new Surface laptop as it happens.