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Head 2 Head: AMD’s chips have powered nearly all handheld gaming PCs over the past few years, but Intel has pledged to challenge the company in the emerging segment in 2026. Intel argues that its low-power CPU cores and machine-learning capabilities give it a competitive edge, while AMD counters by pointing to its long experience designing console-class hardware.

Intel executive Nish Neelalojanan accused AMD of using "ancient silicon" in its handheld gaming PC APUs during an interview at CES this week. He also argued that when Intel eventually introduces handheld APUs based on Panther Lake processors with Xe3 Arc integrated graphics, the company’s low-power E-cores will deliver superior battery life compared to AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 and 400 series processors.

The remarks followed Intel’s unveiling of its Core Ultra Series 3 laptop processors, codenamed Panther Lake. Intel claims that Panther Lake’s flagship integrated GPU, the Arc B390, significantly outperforms AMD’s Radeon 890M in thin-and-light laptops. However, it remains unclear whether the B390 – or a derivative – can achieve similar gains in the lower-wattage power envelopes typical of handheld devices.

Neelalojanan’s "ancient silicon" jab likely refers to the Radeon 890M’s RDNA 3.5 architecture, which lacks dedicated machine-learning acceleration. Machine learning is a key reason why Intel’s XeSS and Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technologies generally appear cleaner than AMD’s FSR 3. While AMD’s latest RDNA 4 architecture adds machine-learning support to enable the improved FSR 4, that technology is currently limited to the company’s newest desktop GPUs.

Responding to Neelalojanan’s comments, AMD’s Rahul Tikoo told PC World that Intel’s E-core efficiency comes at the expense of performance. "The Core i7 performs like a Core i3," he said.

Tikoo also highlighted AMD’s extensive experience designing chips with gaming-specific optimizations. Over the past two generations of PlayStation consoles and three generations of Xbox, AMD has delivered custom APUs tailored for gaming workloads. The company also designed the APU for Valve’s Steam Deck, and other recent handheld gaming PCs rely on AMD’s Z1 and Z2 processors, which are optimized for high-performance gaming.

While Intel has not yet revealed how its Panther Lake handheld APUs will differ from the CES demo parts, Tikoo predicts the company may simply repurpose netbook components without special tuning for compute or I/O performance. Intel has also not confirmed rumors that it is developing a response to AMD’s Strix Halo, a high-end iGPU that nearly reaches console-level performance.

Looking further ahead, Intel’s $5 billion partnership with Nvidia could eventually produce APUs that combine Core Ultra CPUs with RTX-class iGPU cores. Such chips would likely compete directly with AMD’s upcoming RDNA 5 architecture, which promises significant improvements in machine learning, ray tracing, and path-tracing performance.