AMD has been making significant strides in the mobile market, and new information about their upcoming Zen 5 APUs has leaked online, indicating a significant upgrade to CPU and GPU performance. The company is set to release a series of APUs, including the Hawk Point and Strix Point for the Premium Mobile segment, Strix Halo to take on Apple silicon, and Fire Range as the purported successor to Dragon Range.
According to the information leaked by Tom from the YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead, AMD is planning to announce a refreshed 4 nm 15 W - 45 W Phoenix APU codenamed Hawk Point in Q1 2024. Following the launch of this "Phoenix+" APU, the company will also release a higher-end 4 nm 15 W - 45 W APU codenamed Strix Point in Q2-Q3 2024. The Strix Point will be a monolithic die with up to 12 cores, including 4C/8T Zen 5 cores and 8C/16T Zen 5c cores, with 24 MB of unified L3 cache and a 16 CU RDNA 3+ iGPU. This APU is purported to take on a 35 W RTX 3050 Laptop GPU and possibly even outperform Meteor Lake's tiled GPU.
The Strix Halo, on the other hand, is set to be the "big apple" of this leak, taking on Apple's M-series with chiplets. It will offer up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads with a 64 MB L3 cache, a 40 CU RDNA 3.5 discrete GPU chiplet, and 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. This APU is set to rival a <95 W RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, with 32 CU, 24 CU, and 20 CU variants also available.
The leaked information also suggests that AMD is planning to offer 12-core (>28 W), 8-core (<28 W), and 6-core (<28 W) SKUs, with the goal of rivaling Apple in terms of efficiency. However, it remains to be seen if AMD can indeed offer unthrottled performance on battery similar to Apple silicon-based MacBooks.
Finally, alongside Strix Halo in 2H 2024, AMD is also planning a successor to Dragon Range called Fire Range. Fire Range is being pegged internally as an "Ultimate Mobile Compute" APU, and while it was initially expected to use RDNA 3 graphics, leaks seem to indicate that AMD has downgraded it to RDNA 2. In 2025, AMD will introduce Kracken and Escher, but there is not much information about these parts yet.
Overall, the leaked information about AMD's upcoming APUs is exciting and shows that the company is continuing to push the envelope in terms of CPU and GPU performance. If the leaked information is accurate, Strix Halo could very well be the beginning of proper gaming on battery power. However, it remains to be seen if AMD can deliver on their promises and offer unthrottled performance on battery power.
