AMD this week introduced the 7th version of its ROCm (Radeon open compute) open-source software stack for accelerated computing that substantially improves the performance of AI inference on existing hardware compared to ROCm 6, as well as adds support for distributed workloads, and expands to Windows and Radeon GPUs. In addition, ROCm 7 adds support for FP4 and FP6 low-precision formats for the latest Instinct MI350X/MI355X processors.
The biggest change brought by ROCm 7 for client PCs is the extension of ROCm to Windows and Radeon GPUs, which allows the use of discrete and integrated GPUs for AI workloads, but only on Ryzen-based PCs. Starting in the second half of 2025, developers will be able to build and run AI programs on Ryzen desktops and laptops with Radeon GPUs, which could be a big deal for those who want to run higher-end AI LLMs locally.
