Some new information about the upcoming AMD Zen 5 architecture has come to light. The spilled information is probably the biggest leak about architecture. Among those shared are several next-generation APU families that AMD will release next year. Their performance targets are also mentioned, which are ambitious statements for APUs.Going into detail, it looks like AMD will most likely be talking about their next-generation Ryzen APU families for laptops at CES 2024. The first family expected to hit the shelves will be Hawk Point, followed by Strix Point and Fire Range APUs. Next year we will see Zen 5 architecture on the desktop platform, while the mobile side will be a mix of Zen 5 and Zen 4.
AMD Ryzen Hawk Point APU
AMD Hawk Point APUs will be the first products to hit the shelves, and according to rumors, they appear to be a refresh to existing Phoenix chips based on a slightly modified 4nm design. While still having the same Zen 4 cores, these APUs will house the updated RDNA 3.5 GPU and XDNA cores. Currently, the original Phoenix APUs have not yet been released, but they will launch later this month as the Ryzen 7040 series. They will probably be refurbished under the AMD Ryzen 8040 series next year as well.AMD Ryzen Fire Range APU
On the high-end side, AMD’s Ryzen 7045 “Dragon Range” APUs will be replaced by “Fire Range” APUs, which are expected to have 16 Zen 5-cores. While the core count will remain the same as current generation products, the new chips will offer a significant increase in overall performance and even higher efficiency thanks to the upgraded architecture. We will most likely refer to these APUs as the Ryzen 8055 series (Ryzen 8000 APU series) in the second half of 2024.AMD Ryzen Strix Point APU
The most interesting claims with future APUs revolve around Strix Point APUs. According to rumors, Strix Point APUs will come in two types, monolithic (traditional) and chiplet design. Both will use 4nm Zen 5 CPUs and RDNA 3.5 GPUs. We will most likely see these APUs as the Ryzen 8050 series (Ryzen 8000 APU series).Traditionally, Strix Point APUs with monolithic designs will be like existing APUs, but AMD will increase the number of cores from 8 to 12 for monolithic designs for the first time in many years. This will be made possible by a hybrid design approach that includes 4 standard Zen 5 and 8 Zen 5C cores in a 4+8 (4/8 + 8/16) package, with a total of 24 threads. It is stated that the APU, which is said to have 24 MB of L3 combined cache, is 35 percent faster than Phoenix at the same power (50W) in Cinebench R23 benchmarks. On the GPU side of Strix Point Mono, there will be 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs in 8 WGP. There is no Infinity Cache built into this GPU, but the performance is said to be on par with the RTX 3050 Max-Q GPU. This family is expected to come out in the second or third quarter of 2024.
- 12-core hybrid design (Zen 5 + Zen 5C)
- 32MB shared L3 cache
- 35 percent faster CPU than Phoenix
- 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs
- RTX 3050 Max-Q level performance
- 128-bit LPDDR5X memory controller
- Integrated XDNA engine
- 20 TOPS artificial intelligence engines
The version with AMD Strix Point chiplet design will be designed for the highest performance. It is reported that Strix Point chiplet APUs will be 25 percent faster than the 16-core Dragon Range configuration at the same power (90W) with 32 threads and 16 Zen 5-core configurations. At the same time, Strix Point will be the first APU with a chiplet design for consumers. It will also offer 64MB of L3 cache (32MB per chip). On the GPU side, we will see up to 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs and 32 MB Infinity Cache in 20 WGP. When all these are combined, it is stated that the chip-designed Strix Point APUs will offer RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Max-Q level performance. According to the shared, these APUs will come with a maximum TDP of 120W, which is a good value considering the performance. We will probably see chip-designed APUs in the second half of 2024.
- Zen 5 chiplet design
- 16 cores 32 threads
- 64MB shared L3 cache
- 35 percent faster CPU than Dragon Range
- 40 x RDNA 3.5 CUs
- Equivalent performance to the RTX 4070 Max-Q
- 256-bit LPDDR5X memory controller
- Integrated XDNA engine
- 40 TOPS artificial intelligence engines
According to these leaks, the first AMD Zen 5 Ryzen 8000 APUs aren’t expected to be released until mid-2024, so it’s still a year away and a lot could change. On the other hand, if this information is correct, we can say that AMD will increase the gear on laptop computers.
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