Massive AMD Ryzen 8000 Zen 5 leak: Strix Halo chiplet APUs targeting Apple silicon efficiency with RTX 4070-class graphics along with new Strix Point and Fire Range APUs

We've only seen a handful of AMD Zen 4 laptops so far, but information about upcoming Zen 5 parts has already leaked out. Previously, we reported about speculation on desktop Granite Ridge Zen 5 CPUs. Now, we are getting to know what AMD is likely to offer on the mobile side of things. This information comes from Tom of the YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead (MLID).

AMD 4 nm 15 W - 45 W "Premium Mobile" Hawk Point and 4 nm Strix Point

According to Tom, AMD will announce a refreshed 4 nm 15 W - 45 W Phoenix APU codenamed Hawk Point in Q1 2024. Following the launch of this "Phoenix+" APU, we will also get to see a higher end 4 nm 15 W - 45 W APU codenamed Strix Point sometime in Q2-Q3 2024.

Strix Point will be a monolithic die with up to 12 cores in a big.LITTLE fashion. This includes 4C/8T Zen 5 cores and 8C/16T Zen 5c cores. The APU will have 24 MB of unified L3 cache and a 16 CU RDNA 3+ iGPU that is purported to take on a 35 W RTX 3050 Laptop GPU and possibly even outperform Meteor Lake's tiled GPU. This APU will also feature a 128-bit LPDDR5X memory controller and a 20 TOPS AI Engine.

According to information received by MLID, Strix Point was found to be up to 35% faster than a current Phoenix APU in an early Cinebench R23 test when limited to less than 50 W TDP.

AMD 4 nm 20 W - 120 W "Ultimate Mobile" Strix Halo

The "big apple" of this leak, however, is Strix Halo. Unlike Strix Point, Strix Halo will make use of chiplets. MLID claims that Strix Halo would be an Apple M-series competitor and can offer up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads with a 64 MB L3 cache. Strix Halo will feature a 40 CU RDNA 3.5 discrete GPU chiplet and will use a 256-bit LPDDR5X memory controller.

Strix Halo supports up to three MIPI cameras, can offer 40 TOPS of AI performance, and can be configured with a TDP between 25 W and 120 W.

MLID's sources say that Strix Halo is up to 25% faster than a 16-core Dragon Range APU in Cinebench R23 when both are limited to less than 90 W.

It is not fully clear if Strix Halo would feature just Zen 5 cores or would be a mix of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores. However, AMD is indeed planning on offering 12-core (>28 W), 8-core (<28 W), and 6-core (<28 W) SKUs. Apparently, the idea is to rival Apple in terms of efficiency.

The 40 CU RDNA 3.5 discrete GPU chiplet part is interesting as this would enable Strix Halo to rival a <95 W RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. Strix Halo SKUs will also offer 32 CU (rivals <65 W RTX 4060 Laptop GPU), 24 CU, and 20 CU (rival an RTX 4050 Laptop GPU) variants.

Strix Halo is slated to launch sometime in 2H 2024. If true, this could very well be the beginning of proper gaming on battery power. However, it remains to be seen if AMD can indeed offer unthrottled performance on battery similar to Apple silicon-based MacBooks.

AMD Fire Range, Kracken, and Escher

Finally, alongside Strix Halo in 2H 2024, AMD is also planning a successor to Dragon Range called Fire Range. Fire Range, which is being pegged internally as an "Ultimate Mobile Compute" APU, was initially expected to use RDNA 3 graphics, but leaks seem to indicate that AMD has downgraded it to RDNA 2.

In 2025, AMD will introduce Kracken and Escher. There's not much information about these parts yet, but Kracken could succeed Hawk Point Phoenix+ while Rembrandt and Barcelo will be succeeded by Escher. Interestingly, Mendocino could continue as a mainstream offering with some refresh in 2025 as well.

MLID also indicates there could also be another Strix SoC apart from the 12C Strix Point and 16C Strix Halo, but there's no other information on this yet.

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