Microsoft Surface PCs with Arm-based AMD chip could arrive in 2026

Microsoft is reportedly planning to ship new Surface PCs in 2026 that will be powered by AMD's upcoming Arm-based chip codenamed Sound Wave. The info comes from a reliable AMD leakster that goes by the name KeplerL2, who posted on NeoGaf that Sound Wave is "made for the 2026 [Microsoft] Surface lineup." (via Notebookcheck)

Not much other information is provided, suggesting KeplerL2 doesn't know too much about the devices themselves. However, we do know a little bit about the Sound Wave chip, which might give us a good idea as to the kind of device Microsoft would want Sound Wave to power.

Sound Wave is rumored to be an APU with 6 CPU cores, consisting of two performance cores and four efficiency cores, and an integrated GPU with four compute units built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture. The chip is reportedly designed for devices with a small 5-10W thermal envelope.

These specifications suggest a chip with significantly less performance than Qualcomm's current Snapdragon X Elite, making it an odd choice for a Surface. With that said, this could mean Microsoft is planning a low-powered Surface PC with Sound Wave, perhaps a good fit for a Surface Go or Surface Hub refresh.

In addition to AMD, NVIDIA is also rumored to be launching its own Arm-based Windows PC chip next year. Qualcomm is expected to debut its next-generation Snapdragon X2 this September, which I'm expecting will power the flagship Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8, which could debut this fall.

Ultimately, if this report proves accurate, Microsoft will be shipping a new Surface PC in 2026 with an AMD processor for the first time since the Surface Laptop 4. It'll be a while before we have a good idea as to which device(s) this is intended for, but given what we know so far, it's likely to be for a low-powered device.

The company just launched a new Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch, designed as cheaper alternatives to the flagship Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7. These devices are powered by Snapdragon X Plus, which is also likely more capable than this upcoming AMD Sound Wave chip, if the leaked specs are anything to go by.