AMD Strix Point APUs officially coming to Ryzen 8000 desktop lineup possibly only packing big Zen 5 cores

A few days ago, AMD revealed in a webcast that the upcoming desktop Ryzen 8000 Zen 5 series will feature product(s) with a Navi 3.5 GPU. The information essentially means that the highly-anticipated Strix Point APUs might show up on the AM5 platform as a desktop chip. The company also confirmed that AM5 will be supported at least until 2026.

For the uninitiated, AMD Strix Point APUs are rumored to bring Zen 5/Zen 5c cores and RDNA 3+/3.5 graphic architectures. Per a previous Moore’s Law Is Dead report, the next-gen APUs could come in two SKUs, Strix Point with up to 12 Zen 5/5c cores and a 16 Compute Units RDNA 3+ iGPU and Strix "Halo" with up to a 16-core Zen 5 CPU and a 40 CU RDNA 3.5 iGPU. According to the company’s latest reveal, we might end up seeing the Strix Point APUs on desktops making low-end GPUs potentially irrelevant.

Interestingly, MLID reports in his latest video that, per one of leaker’s AMD insiders, the 4 nm Strix Point APU has a die size of “over 200 mm2” and packaging costs that are comparable to the “Granite Ridge” desktop Zen 5 CPU. This essentially means that the AM5 Strix Point APU will have no cost advantage over the vanilla Zen 5 desktop parts if AMD decides to price the processor based on the CPU performance which is something that MLID’s source also mentions. In other words, the key selling point of the Ryzen 8000 Strix Point for desktops is most likely going to be the iGPU.

Furthermore, we may see desktop Ryzen 8000 APUs only pack Zen 5 cores and skip on Zen 5c cores, as, per MLID’s source, the TDP-limited “c” cores could result in gaming performance degradation vs “full” Zen 5 cores operating at >5 GHz.

The leaker further opined that since “cheaper APU designs have significantly less I/O than Granite Ridge”, the Strix Point AM5 APUs could either be low-end products or processors focused on iGPU performance and priced as such. However, MLID’s report is based largely on speculation and conjecture. So, take it with a grain of salt.

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