AMD Collaborates with Microsoft to Design Processor for Xbox Next: Team Red Strengthens Partnership

Wow, okay, so here’s the deal. Microsoft kinda threw a curveball on Tuesday. They just decided to ramp up their bromance with AMD and not just for some Xbox stuff you can play on your couch. Nope, they’re dragging AMD into portable gear too. Yeah, wild, right?

This whole thing’s gonna stretch out over several years — like they’re basically married now or something — and they wanna keep churning out newfangled desktop and handheld doodads. Sarah Bond, who runs the Xbox show at Microsoft, was pretty jazzed about it. She was all like, “We’ve got this epic pact with AMD to cook up silicon for all the shiny gizmos, next-gen Xbox consoles, the kind in your living room and maybe even your sweaty palms.”

I mean, who knew they were quietly cooking up new Xbox consoles and, get this — Xbox portable gizmos. So, these gadgets will still be carrying AMD’s custom processors, which are supposed to be leagues better than the Scarlett SoC that’s in the Xbox Series X now. Backward compatibility is a thing, so they’re likely sticking with AMD’s Zen CPU cores and Radeon graphics. Classic move, right?

Sarah kept hyping it up — advancements in gaming silicon, next-level graphics, all that jazz. She said something about leveling up visual quality and getting more immersive gameplay. I mean, gaming nostalgia mixed with AI pizzazz is cool and all, but when can I play it? Microsoft is playing coy on release dates, but if history repeats, we might be unboxing these around the holiday 2026. I guess they might whip up something with Zen 6 CPUs and RDNA 5 GPUs, but that’s just tossing darts in the dark for now.

Oh, and here’s a juicy tidbit — portable Xboxes are happening. Though, let’s not pretend the handheld scene isn’t a bit niche nowadays. Still, it seems Microsoft’s got stars in their eyes after seeing Valve’s Steam Deck take off. They’re joining the club with their own personalized handheld console. Watch this space.

“In a nutshell,” Bond exclaimed, “It’s about playing your games wherever, like in the bathtub or on Mars. So, we’re sinking our teeth into consoles, handhelds, PC, and even cloud magic.” Weird detour, but what’s next? They’re dabbling in bouncing between platforms, maybe getting buddy-buddy with Windows to make it all smoother.

The vibe is freedom — Xbox games everywhere, no strings attached. Bond dropped a line about working with the Windows team to make sure Windows is number one for gaming. Anyway, keep an eye out for more from Tom’s Hardware if you wanna stay in the loop, I guess.