AMD’s High-End Strix Halo ES APU Leaks Out: 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 32 MB Cache & Up To 5.36 GHz Clocks

AMD's High-End Strix Halo ES APU Leaks Out: 8 Cores, 16 Threads, 32 MB Cache & Up To 5.36 GHz Clocks 1

AMD's high-end Strix Halo "Ryzen" APUs are the next to leak out, and the first sample features 8 cores and up to 5.36 GHz clocks.

The latest leak comes from Geekbench 5 database where a susceptible ES sample of the AMD Strix Halo lineup has leaked out. While all eyes are on the imminent launch of the Ryzen AI 300 "Strix" lineup, one should not forget that AMD will soon follow up with a more powerful release in the form of Strix Halo APUs. These APUs will offer up to 16 high-performance Zen 5 cores and pack up to 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units, really pushing the laptop performance envelope to the next level.

AMD Ryzen AI HX Strix Halo Expected Features:

Zen 5 Chiplet Design

Up To 16 Cores

64 MB of Shared L3 cache

40 RDNA 3+ Compute Units

32 MB MALL Cache (for iGPU)

256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 Memory Controller

XDNA 2 Engine Integrated

Up To 60 AI TOPS

16 PCIe Gen4 Lanes

2H 2024 Launch (Expected)

FP11 Platform (55W-130W)

Starting with the specifications, the alleged AMD Strix Halo "Ryzen" APU is an ES part and features an OPN ID of "100-000001422-31_N". This APU comes with 8 cores, 16 threads, and a clock-listed clock speed of up to 5.36 GHz. We can see from the Geekbench log that the chip was running at core clocks around 3.4-4.8 GHz so it never actually ran at the highest listed boost clock. This is an ES sample so the clock speeds are meant to be a little inconsistent versus the retail samples but it does give us an idea of the highest frequency levels that Strix Halo would achieve.

STX Halo???? https://t.co/RPkAa9IcUC

— HXL (@9550pro) July 22, 2024

The current line of Ryzen AI 300 chips will max out at 5.1 GHz so the ES Strix Halo chip being listed at 5.36 GHz will mean that we might get 5.4-5.5 GHz (or even higher) clocks out of these enthusiast offerings. The TDPs are previously reported to be up to 130W which is more than twice as much as standard Strix which peaks out at 54W.

The Strix Halo CPUs also pack 32 MB of L3 cache and 8 MB of L2 cache (4 MB L3 and 1 MB L2 per Zen 5 core). Since these APUs will come in chiplet configs, the maximum amount of cores and cache will be 16 cores, 32 threads, and up to 64 MB of L3 cache. It will also carry an additional 32 MB of MALL for the RDNA 3.5 iGPUs which themselves will offer 40 compute units. Other specs would include up to 128 GB memory configurations on the AMD FP11 platforms.

Coming to the performance figures, the alleged AMD Strix Halo ES APU scored up to 2177 points in the single-core and up to 13,993 points in the multi-core tests within Geekbench 5. This is a solid score for an ES 8-Core CPU and sits well ahead of the Ryzen 7 8845HS which scores around 11,000 points in multi-core and 1850 points in the single-core tests in the same benchmark. Geekbench 5 is a bit old so the database has removed all entries from its performance comparison chart, making it a bit difficult to offer a direct comparison but overall, these Strix Halo chips are going to be a strong outing for enthusiast laptops.

The strong iGPU will also lead to dGPU-less designs, allowing better prices than dGPU options while enabling higher efficiency. We can expect AMD to introduce Strix Halo "Ryzen" APUs by CES 2025 as the company would first like to focus on the mainstream laptop segment. The company also has a high-end Fire Range lineup based on the Zen 5 architecture expected to debut around the same time.

News Sources: Benchleaks #1, #2