iGPUs have been getting ever closer to entry level and even mid-range GPUs.
In addition there's a interest in having a lot of memory for LLM acceleration. I expect both CPUs to get more LLM acceleration capabilities and desktop pc memory bandwidth to increase from its current rather slow dual channel 64bit DDR5-6000 status quo.
We're already hearing the first rumors for Medusa Halo coming in 2026 with 50% more bandwidth than Strix Halo.
The sentence "In addition there's a interest in having a lot of memory for LLM acceleration" was supposed to say "In addition there's a interest in having a lot of memory bandwidth for LLM acceleration" but it's too late to edit it now.
> iGPUs have been getting ever closer to entry level and even mid-range GPUs.
Not really closer. igpus got good enough to kill the low the discreet market basically entirely, but they haven't been "getting closer" to discreet cards. Both CPU SoCs and discreet GPUs have access to the same manufacturing nodes and memory technologies, and the simple physical reality is that they can just be bigger and use more power as a separate physical entity, along with memory better optimized for its workloads.
I think the market is very limited for high end iGPUs in practice with the compromises that occur with them.
On Desktop, upgradability is very popular and obviously the returns from the cooling on discrete GPUs are immense. With GPU dies costing so much, due to their size and dependency on TSMC, pushing the faster but hotter is probably a cost effecient compromise.
On Laptops with APUs, you currently ususally give up upgradeable memory - the fastest LPDDR is only soldered on (today), and the fastest solution would be on-die memory for bandwith gains that only really Apple is doing.
Marketing wise, low core count Laptops appear to be hard to sell. Gaming laptops seem to ship with more cores than the desktop you would build - the CPU appears out-specced.
I think this is because CPUs are cheaper, but that means a high-end APU would also need large CPU to compete. Now you've got a relatively unbalanced APU, with expensive hot CPU and relatively hot iGPU crammed in a small space - cooling is now tricky.
This is going to be compared with cheap RTX 4060 laptops - and generally look bad by comparison. I think what's changing now to narrow the gap is Handhelds, and questionable practices from Nvidia.
The Steam Deck kicked big OEMs into requesting AMD for large APUs.
Nvidia seems to have influence on OEM AMD Laptops - Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU for years now seem to ship first, in larger quantities, and get marketing push despite CPU arguably being worse.
Intel despite their issues seem to raising the iGPU bar too - their Desktop GPU investment seems to be paying off, and might be pressuring AMD to react.
I think it's less about upgradeability on desktop and more that companies will overcharge you with integrated products. Eg Apple and RAM or smartphones and storage.
If you want a good value for your money you need modularity and competition for the modules. If it's a one package deal the companies will charge so much that it curbs secondary markets that could be created, which could add value to the product.
Memory bandwidth. Besides LLMs, gaming on an iGPU will always be more expensive for the same performance as dedicated GPUs due to memory bandwidth.
Before someone tells me consoles using iGPUs, keep in mind that consoles use GDDR as its main system memory which has slow access times for the CPU. In a non-console, CPU performance is important. GDDR is also power hungry so they can't be used as the main system RAM in a laptop form.
It is the thermal envelope that defines pretty much everything nowadays. Without active management of it chips would die a heat death very fast. Which also means chips are designed with a certain chip external heat management in mind. The more heat you can get out of a system and away from a chip, the more powerful you can design these things. And game consoles do have active cooling, i.e. they sit between desktop PCs and thin laptops, probably sharing the thermal handling capacity with larger gaming laptops, if anything.
Just look at how a discrete GPU vs. an integrated GPU look like in terms of size, power, cooling, and other constraints like memory type and placement. That’s why both options still exist. If one size did it all, the other option would just die out.
In addition there's a interest in having a lot of memory for LLM acceleration. I expect both CPUs to get more LLM acceleration capabilities and desktop pc memory bandwidth to increase from its current rather slow dual channel 64bit DDR5-6000 status quo.
We're already hearing the first rumors for Medusa Halo coming in 2026 with 50% more bandwidth than Strix Halo.