AMD has launched the next version of its Ryzen AI Halo, a small desktop computer for people who build AI software. In a blog post dated 12 October 2026, AMD said the new machine runs on its Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 processor and comes with up to 192GB of unified memory [1]. AMD first trailed the machine in May [2]. This is the launch.
Why the memory matters
Most AI models need a lot of memory. In a normal PC, the main processor (the CPU) has its own memory, and the graphics card (the GPU), which does most AI work, has a separate, smaller pool called VRAM. A big model that doesn’t fit in the graphics card’s memory runs slowly or not at all.
“Unified memory” means the chips share one pool of memory. AMD says the CPU, GPU and NPU, a chip built for AI tasks, all draw on that pool, and that up to 160GB of it can be given to the GPU as VRAM [1]. That is far more than most consumer graphics cards have.
AMD says this lets the Halo run language models with 300 billion parameters or more at 4-bit quantization [1]. Parameters are the numbers a model learns during training, and as a rule, more of them means a more capable model. Quantization stores each of those numbers with less detail. At 4 bits, each one takes about a quarter of the space of the usual 16-bit format, so the model fits in much less memory, at the cost of a little accuracy. Guru3D notes that a 300-billion-parameter model at 4 bits still needs about 150GB just to store the parameters [3].
What’s inside
According to AMD, the platform has up to 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 GPU compute units and an NPU rated at up to 55 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) [1]. Guru3D reports that the memory is LPDDR5X-8533 with 273GB/s of bandwidth, up from 256GB/s on the first model, and that the machine has a 2TB SSD and 10Gb Ethernet [3].
Price and how to buy
AMD says developers can order it from Micro Center now. Windows versions, built with Microsoft’s Windows Project Zenith, are “coming soon” [1].
AMD’s post does not give a price. Guru3D reports that the Linux configuration costs $7,299.99 [3].
AMD’s performance claims
AMD compares the Halo with an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H system and with a MacBook Pro using Apple’s M5 Pro chip and 64GB of memory, and says the Halo gave higher throughput across a range of image, video, music and 3D AI tasks [1]. AMD also says some of those tasks would not run on the Apple machine at all. These are AMD’s own tests, run in September 2026, and they have not been independently checked.
From May to now
In May, AMD said the first Ryzen AI Halo, with the older Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and up to 128GB of memory, would be sold through Micro Center from June. It also promised a next-generation model in the third quarter of 2026 with up to 192GB of memory and 160GB of VRAM [2]. That model has now arrived, a couple of weeks into the fourth quarter.
What this means
- Big models can run on a desk. A machine this size can hold models that usually need data-centre hardware, which helps developers who want to keep their data on their own machine.
- It isn’t cheap. At the reported $7,299.99, it is a specialist workstation, not a consumer PC.
- Treat the benchmarks with care. The comparisons with Intel and Apple come from AMD alone.
Sources
- AMD (Warren Eng), “Meet the Next AMD Ryzen AI Halo”, 12 October 2026. https://www.amd.com/en/blogs/2026/meet-the-next-amd-ryzen-ai-halo.html
- AMD, “AMD Powers Next-Generation Agent Computers with New Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform and Ryzen AI Max PRO 400 Series Processors”, 20 May 2026. https://www.amd.com/en/blogs/2026/amd-powers-next-generation-agent-computers-with-new-ryzen-ai-hal.html
- Guru3D (Hilbert Hagedoorn), “AMD Launches Ryzen AI Halo Developer Platform with 192GB Unified Memory”, 13 October 2026. https://www.guru3d.com/story/amd-launches-ryzen-ai-halo-developer-platform-with-192gb-unified-memory/
