The Sunnyvale and MediaTek giant had been working on a project that was shaping up to be very important for AMD for some time, and until now, the company led by Lisa Su had no choice but to turn to third-party solutions to integrate Wi-Fi 6E into your laptops.
It may not seem like it a priori, but this it was a double problem, and very important, since, on the one hand, it implied that AMD had to invest in third-party components, that is, the cost of those solutions was “out of the house”, and on the other hand it went to the hands of its main rival in the x86 market, Intel, who holds a significant market share thanks to its Wi-Fi 6E network solutions, such as the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211, for example, which is one of its most recent products.
The alliance between AMD and MediaTek arose out of the interest of the former in breaking that dependence on Intel’s network solutions, and also because of the need to have a partner that had the necessary resources to be able to develop an alternative “of its own” that was competitive in every way. There is no doubt that the Sunnyvale firm hit the mark, since thanks to this alliance with MediaTek it has been able to develop the AMD RZ616 Wi-Fi 6E and AMD RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E, both compatible with the format M.2 2230.
The key specifications of both modules are listed on the official AMD website, and yes, they are up to the task. The AMD RZ616 offers Wi-Fi 6E 2 × 2, works with 160 Hz channels and can reach the 2.4 Gbps, while the AMD RZ608 works with 80 Hz channels and only reaches the 1.2 Gbps.
If we compare its features with everything that Intel has on the market right now, we will realize that both modules are, without a doubt, very competitive, in fact the AMD RZ616 has the same peak performance than the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211.
These AMD modules use the MediaTek Filogic 330P chipset, and will be used in both the company’s upcoming notebooks and those OEM desktops that come with AMD processors. The company that Lisa Su runs will no longer have to use Intel’s Wi-Fi 6E network solutions, killing two birds with one stone as, as we anticipated, it will be able to ‘sweep home’ and no longer give money to his great rival.
Saeid Moshkelani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AMD’s Customer Business Unit, commented:
“Having fast and reliable wireless connectivity is crucial, especially as consumer demands for speed, bandwidth and performance increase due to the rise of video calling, streaming and gaming. We believe that combining powerful AMD Ryzen processors with MediaTek’s leading advanced connectivity technologies will deliver amazing computing experience in all aspects”.
