AMD Strix Points coming mid-2024, Halo moves to 2025
Moore’s Law is Dead provides an update to AMD Ryzen APU deployment.
The latest video discusses a recent leak that reveals AMD’s internal plan for the upcoming Zen5 processors. This plan focuses on APUs that include integrated graphics architecture like RDNA1, RDNA2, or RDNA3.5. Additionally, certain future architectures may incorporate AI accelerators known as XDNA1 or 2.
AMD Strix Series with increased AI performance
The roadmap shows different performance segments that AMD aims to address with their upcoming Zen4/5 architectures. In 2024, the Dragon Range architecture, designed for high-performance gaming systems, will be the predominant AMD choice in the market. The roadmap doesn’t indicate any updates for the following year, but in 2025, the Fire Range series will introduce the latest Zen5 architecture.
More interesting are the Strix series, namely the Strix Point and Strix Halo (also known as Sarlak) APUs. The former is a proper successor to Phoenix, which was expected sometime early next year, as AMD has been releasing new series typically around that period of the year. While it is a fact that at CES AMD usually made the announcements, the actual launch typically shifted to the following months, and that’s what this roadmap is possibly showing.
AMD Ryzen 8000/9000 roadmap, Source: Moore’s Law is Dead
According to this roadmap, Strix Point featuring Zen5 CPU cores and RDNA 3.5 GPU cores combined with XDNA 2 AI-cores will sometimes launch in mid-2024. The roadmap confirms that the series will feature 12 Zen5 cores and what is new is the 45 to 50 TOPS AI performance. In fact, all the upcoming premium and high-end APUs are expected to feature this level of AI performance.
More interestingly, the Strix Halo, which is said to offer 16 Zen5 cores and up to 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units, would launch in 2025, not 2024 as previously expected. This means that the new APU segment defined by AMD as ‘Elite Experiences’ will not launch next year. This chip is also said to feature XDNA2 AI chip with 45 to 50 TOPS of performance.
The reason for the increased AI performance is most likely a new requirement for the Windows 12 operating system, which is said to be around 50 TOPS, as mentioned by other leakers.
AMD Zen4 “Hawk Point”, Zen4 “Escher” and Zen5 “Kraken Point”
The new roadmap also confirms what will happen to Hawk Point, which is now confirmed to feature 8 Zen4 cores. This is most likely the refresh of Phoenix silicon which features RDNA3 and XDNA1 GPU/AI-cores. As the roadmaps shows it offers 16 TOPS of AI acceleration performance. Its successor, called Kraken Point is to also feature 8 cores, but of the newer Zen5 architecture and upgraded RDNA3.5 graphics. The AI-core will be upgraded to XDNA2, but the node will remain at 4nm.
We also finally have some data on Escher, which is an 8 Zen4 chip with RDNA3 and XDNA1 architecture. It would replace Rembrandt-R, which is surprising not going for a retirement just yet. Instead, the Rembrandt chip will fall into the low-power mainstream category within the 2025 lineup.
Therefore, one cannot be sure at this point if Strix Halo will remain as Ryzen 8000 or rather Ryzen 9000 series at this point. AMD’s own product naming schema suggest it should be the latter.
AMD Ryzen naming, Source: AMD
| RUMORED AMD Ryzen Series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | Hawk Point | Strix Point | Fire Range | Strix Halo | Granite Ridge |
| Target | Premium APU | Premium APU | High-end APU | Ultimate APU | Desktop CPU |
| Type | Monolithic | Monolithic | Multi Chiplet | Multi Chiplet | Multi Chiplet |
| Ryzen Series | Ryzen 8040 (?) | Ryzen 8050 (?) | Ryzen 9055 (?) | Ryzen 9050 (?) | Ryzen 8000 |
| CPU Cores | 8× Zen4 | 12C (4×Zen5 + 8×Zen5c) | 16× Zen5 | 16× Zen5 | 16× Zen5 |
| GPU Cores | 12CU RDNA3 | 16CU RDNA3.5 | 2CU RDNA2 (?) | 40CU RDNA3.5 | TBC |
| Default TDP | ~28-54W | ~28-54W | ~55-75W | ~55-120W | ~65-170W |
| AI Perf. | 16 TOPS | 45-50 TOPS | ? | 45-50 TOPS | ? |
| Release Date | 2024 | Mid-2024 | 2025 | 2025 | 2024 (?) |
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