AMD Ryzen 8000 APU Leaks: Zen 5 In Fire Range & Strix Point Families, Hawk Point With Zen 4 & RDNA 3.5

AMD Ryzen 8000 "Strix Point" APU Spotted With 12 Zen 5 Cores, 24 Threads, RDNA 3.5 GPU 1

AMD's next-gen Zen 5 & Zen 4 powered Ryzen 8000 Fire Range, Strix Point & Hawk Point APUs with RDNA 3.5 GPU cores have leaked out by Moore's Law is Dead.

The latest information from Moore's Law is Dead allegedly comes from an internal roadmap leak that points out several next-gen APU families that AMD is going to release next year. It looks like Zen 5 will be the main focus for next year along with a few Zen 4 refreshes which are also pointed out in the leak.

So starting with the details, it looks like AMD is most likely going to talk about its next-gen Ryzen APU families for laptops at CES 2024. The first family which is expected to hit shelves will be Hawk Point followed by Strix Point and Fire Range APUs. Next year will be a mix of Zen 5 & Zen 4 while the desktop platform will see a brand new Zen 5 launch.

AMD Hawk Point APUs: Phoenix Refresh With Zen 4 Cores & RDNA 3.5 GPUs, Launch In Q1 2024

As mentioned above, the AMD Hawk Point APUs will be the first to hit shelves, & based on the rumor, it looks to be a refresh of the existing Phoenix chips based on a slightly tweaked 4nm design. You're still getting the same Zen 4 cores but with an updated RDNA 3.5 GPU and XDNA cores to top things off.

Since this family is mostly a refresh, AMD can have the laptops readily available to consumers. While we talk about Phoenix's refresh, the original Phoenix APUs are yet to launch but retail is expected later this month as the Ryzen 7040 series. The refresh will likely fall under AMD Ryzen 8040 series.

Zen 4 (4nm) Monolithic Design

Up To 8 Cores

12 RDNA 3+ Compute Units

XDNA Engine Integrated

Q1 Launch (Expected)

AMD Fire Range APUs: Enthusiast Dragon Range Successor With 16 Zen 5 Cores In 2H 2024

On the enthusiast front, AMD's Ryzen 7045 "Dragon Range" APUs will be getting replaced by the Fire Range APUs which are expected to feature up to 16 Zen 5 cores. While the number of cores remains the same as the current gen offerings, the new chips will be offering a significant boost in overall performance thanks to the upgraded architecture and offer even higher efficiency.

These APUs are said to utilize the 5nm variant of the Zen 5 cores so which points out to the desktop lineup retaining the 5nm node. There's also some confusion about whether the chip will house RDNA 2 or RDNA 3.5 cores but since it will most likely utilize just 2 Compute Units, either one would be good enough for the intended tasks of a low-power iGPU. We are most likely going to get these APUs as the Ryzen 8055 series (Ryzen 8000 APU lineup).

Zen 5 (5nm) Monolithic Design

Up To 16 Cores

RDNA 3+ Graphics Cores

2H 2024 Launch (Expected)

AMD Strix Point APUs: Up To 16 Zen 5 Cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units & 120W TDP In Mono & Chiplet Designs

Now on to the more juicy details and these are regarding the Strix Point APUs. As per the rumor, AMD's Strix Point APUs will come in two flavors, a monolithic die, and a chiplet design. Both will utilize the 4nm Zen 5 CPU and RDNA 3.5 GPUs. We are most likely going to get these APUs as the Ryzen 8050 series (Ryzen 8000 APU lineup).

AMD Strix Point Mono

The AMD Strix Point Monolithic design will feel just like a traditional APU design but for the first time in many years, AMD will be upping the core counts from 8 to 12 for the monolithic designs. This will be made possible by using a hybrid design approach that features 4 standard Zen 5 & 8 Zen 5C cores in a 4+8 (4/8 + 8/16) package, rounding up to a total of 24 threads. The APU will get 24.0 MB of L3 unified cache across all Zen 5/5C cores and is said to be 35% faster than Phoenix at the same power (50W) in early Cinebench R23 benchmarks.

For the GPU side of Strix Point Mono, you'll be getting 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs within 8 WGPs. There's still no onboard Infinity Cache but the performance is said to be on par with an RTX 3050 Max-Q GPU. It also rocks a 128-bit LPDDR5X memory controller and features up to 20 TOPs of AI Engine compute.

Zen 5 (4nm) Monolithic Design

Up To 12 Cores In Hybrid Config (Zen 5 + Zen 5C)

32 MB of Shared L3 cache

35% Faster CPU Versus Phoenix at 50W

16 RDNA 3+ Compute Units

On Par With RTX 3050 Max-Q

128-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controller

XDNA Engine Integrated

20 TOPS AI Engine

Q2-Q3 Launch (Expected)

AMD Strix Point Chiplet

The AMD Strix Point Chiplet is the more interesting of the two & is labeled as a "Halo" product. This will be the first APU with a chiplet design for consumers with up to 16 Zen 5 cores with 32 threads & offering 25% faster performance than a 16-core Dragon Range chip at the same power (90W). It will also get 12, 8, and 6 core variants with 64 MB of L3 cache (32 MB per chiplet) and some superb improvements to efficiency.

The GPU side gets an even bigger upgrade with up to 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs in 20 WGPs plus 32 MB of on-die infinity cache. This is expected to perform similarly to RTX 4070 & RTX 4060 Max-Q GPUs. Surely, an iGPU of this size and performance will be greatly beneficial for battery timings on laptops and the chip will come with a peak TDP of 120W. It will also carry a 256-bit LPDDR5X controller and offer 40 TOPS AI compute.

Zen 5 Chiplet Design

Up To 16 Cores

64 MB of Shared L3 cache

25% Faster CPU Versus 16-Core Dragon Range at 90W

40 RDNA 3+ Compute Units

On Par With RTX 4070 Max-Q (90W)

256-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controler

XDNA Engine Integrated

40 TOPS AI Engine

2H 2024 Launch (Expected)

According to Kepler_L2, the Strix Point Halo APUs are now known as Sarlak.

Strix Halo is called Sarlak now afaik.

— Kepler (@Kepler_L2) April 22, 2023

The first AMD Zen 5 Ryzen 8000 APUs aren't expected until the mid of 2024 as these leaks point so we are still a year away from launch and a lot could change. But if this information is true, then the red team really has some formidable chips in the laptop segment to go against Intel's Meteor Lake & Arrow Lake offerings.