AMD Phoenix 2 APU With Hybrid Zen 4 & Zen 4C Cores Smiles For The Camera In New Die Shots

The first die shots of AMD's Phoenix 2 APUs featuring a hybrid Zen 4 and Zen 4C configuration have been revealed over at Zhuanlan.

The die shots of the AMD Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix 2" APUs once again confirm the use of hybrid Zen 4 and Zen 4C cores within certain SKUs. AMD has been expected to go the hybrid route but they have also stated that their approach will be far different than the Intel P-Core and E-Core design for their hybrid chips.

We have previously seen pictures of the AMD Phoenix 2 APUs, notably the Ryzen 5 7540U & Ryzen 3 7440U, but the die shots go a little more in-depth on the design of these chips. The die shot can be seen showing that AMD will equip a large L3 cache, coupled with a 2+4 (Zen 4 / Zen 4C) combo. Moreover, DDR5 and LPDDR5 interfaces are also present on the die, which reveals that AMD plans to integrate the APUs into laptops and compact PCs.

Furthermore, it was reported that the AMD Phoenix 2 APUs will feature the "GFX103" RDNA 3 GPU IP, which we saw with the original Phoenix lineup, hence they could bring significant graphics and performance-per-dollar value, combining all the popular elements from APUs in the market.

Now if we question AMD's approach to using Zen 4 & Zen 4C cores with APUs going forward, it seems like Team Red plans on creating an efficient and low-cost solution, which would make the APU releases by AMD well-positioned. This new design is just a test case for AMD's future APUs & we will see a more mature implementation within the upcoming Strix "Ryzen 8000" APU family in the coming year.

So far, AMD has gradually been rolling out the Phoenix 2 APU lineup on certain platforms. The first review of the APU has already been published by David Huang at Zhuanlan using a Ryzen Z1 hand-held console featuring the chip. The Z1 and the Ryzen 5 7540U share pretty much the same specs.

AMD Phoenix 2 Zen 4 & Zen 4C Core Performance at Default & Fixed Clocks (Image Source: Zhuanlan):

In the tests, we can see that at the default clock speeds, the Zen 4C cores on the chip perform a tad bit slower than the Zen 4 classic cores but using a fixed 3.2 GHz clock frequency, the performance is pretty much the same across all three core variants. The AMD Zen 4C cores also produce higher efficiency at a lower frequency while Zen 4 classic cores offer the best efficiency at higher frequencies.

AMD Phoenix 2 Labeled Die Shot (Image Source: Zhuanlan):

News Source: HXL