Microsoft says that it maintains a good working relationship with AMD despite that it continues to work with many others, but not Team Red, for its Surface brand mobile PCs. Given that both Intel and Qualcomm currently provide processors for Surface devices, and there’s something in the works with NVIDIA, it is peculiar that Surface customers are not presented with another option. Essentially, AMD is the only major processor manufacturer, other than competitor Apple, to be left out of the room when it comes to having an offering in the lineup, but this wasn’t always so.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, AMD was included, albeit for a brief time, with the Surface Laptop 3 in 2019 and then also the Laptop 4, but then not seen again in Surface devices after. Interestingly enough, AMD does maintain a working relationship with Microsoft by producing processors for Xbox consoles, which includes future next-gen products. AMD and Microsoft recently renewed their agreements to work together for Xbox devices, although there’s still no word on when the next batch will arrive. Meanwhile, Windows Central Insider has reached out to Microsoft regarding its decision not to use AMD with its Surface lineups and was told that, basically, it comes down to limited resources and that things are still good between the two companies.
“We love working with AMD. We have a limited portfolio, and so we have to make our choices pretty wisely in terms of what we’re doing and where we’re doing,” Ostrum told me, before proclaiming “I love working with AMD.”
– Brett Ostrum, Surface Corporate Vice President
While this response may seem clear, it does leave one to wonder if there could be more at play than is being said. Perhaps AMD is unable to procure enough foundry time to produce enough processors for Microsoft. Maybe the two cannot reach agreeable terms to offer a competitive product at a price Microsoft wants to adhere to. It could also be as simple as is stated, and Microsoft is limited by what it can currently offer, but then what if it doesn’t want to flood the market with too many choices or oversaturated branding? Well, no matter, there you have it on why we no longer see an AMD logo on Surface devices.
Discussion (5 replies)
Join Discussion →makes no sense why the Surface guys hate AMD
stuff was so bad that when xbox initially decided on doing a first party handheld they gave the job to the surface division, who — naturally — chose an arm processor. luckily the whole thing was scrapped / shelved in favor of third party OEM stuff such as Rog Ally X
Idk, is AMD finally great at laptops? For so many years, specs read great but implementation: always below competition
"Limited Resources"
As in AMD limited the amount of monetary resources they were willing to provide to Microsoft to do such a thing?
Somehow, billions in profit, means limited resources, uh- huh uh- huh yep yep.
and hard as f to get in reality. I still remember several years ago pre-ordering an ASUS with an RTX 4090 mobile laptop six months in advance which had the equivalent of a mobile 9950 CPU and a month after it was supposed to launch ASUS cancelled it. As quick as I was to want to blame them it turns out the AMD version never launched at all.
Then last year when the 5090 mobile finally made its way to the U.S. the AMD X3D mobile processor was nowhere to be found even though it'd been listed on store pages in Asia for six months prior. I'm happy with the Intel chip mine came with but I would've preferred AMDs offering.