AMD's Ryzen 5 7540U and Ryzen 3 7440U processors rumored to integrate a new Phoenix2 aka Little Phoenix CCD

AMD recently updated its processor spec pages to include the lower-end Ryzen 7040U models. The Ryzen 7 7840U, as well as the Ryzen 5 7640U and the Ryzen 5 7540U have a CCD size of 178mm², while the Ryzen 3 7440U has a 23% smaller die measuring 137mm². According to Twitter users @xinoassasin and @BusAlexey, this difference can represent evidence for the existence of a smaller die that has been referred to as “Little Phoenix” in previous rumors.

However, @BusAlexey claims that this smaller die also known as Phoenix2 can be found on the R5 7540U as well, but it would primarily be a cut-down version of Phoenix1 in this case. Thus the R5 7540U would feature two Zen4 cores and four Zen4c cores, whereas the R3 7440U integrates two Zen4 and two Zen4c.

7540U is dual sourced: some chips will be full Phoenix2 dies (2+4), some will be cut down Phoenix1 dies (since Zen4c is just a downclocked Zen4, it's easy to bin it down from 8 high-clock cores to 2 high-clock + 4 low-clock cores).

In his leak from June 2022, Moore’s Law Is Dead was speculating that the “Little Phoenix” would feature an RDNA3 Radeon 740M iGPU with 8 CUs. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as AMD’s product pages show 4 CUs for both the R5 7540U and the R3 7440U. That leak was also suggesting that one of these APUs could be used by Valve for a Steam Deck 2 launching in late 2023. Again a failed prediction, as Valve already hinted it would not upgrade the APU this year.

We have yet to see any devices featuring the R5 7540U and R3 7440U. These should start to pop up in thin and light laptops and some mini PC builds soon.

Buy the Acer Nitro 17 Gaming Laptop with AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS and RTX 4060 on Amazon