Thursday, March 28th 2024
AMD "Zen 5" Based "Strix Point" and "Fire Range" Mobile Processors Spied in Shipping Manifests
Two of AMD's upcoming mobile processors that implement the "Zen 5" microarchitecture, "Strix Point" and "Fire Range," were spotted in shipping manifests. These are prototypes moving between AMD and its OEM partners. The manifest explicitly mentions a "Fire Range" 16-core processor sample with 55 W TDP, another "Fire Range" chip with an 8-core configuration and the same 55 W power; and a trio of "Strix Point" processors with a 28 W power design. Two of these are Ryzen 9 SKUs, and one of them is a Ryzen 7.
VideoCardz has the OPN codes for the samples being moved. The Ryzen 7 "Strix Point" sample bears 100-0000001335. One of the two Ryzen 9 "Strix Point" chips bears 100-000000994. The 16-core "Fire Range" is marked 100-000001028, while the 8-core "Fire Range" is 100-000001029. "Strix Point" will be AMD's most imporant mobile processor silicon, as this will be the one with a "Zen 5" CPU core count relevant to the notebook market, pack an RDNA 3+ iGPU, and that alleged 40 TOPS+ XDNA 2 NPU that can run Microsoft Copilot locally. A step up from this will be "Strix Halo," with a higher CPU core count, a much larger iGPU designed for performance-segment gaming. "Fire Range" is essentially a low Z-height BGA version of the "Granite Ridge" chiplet processor that has up to two "Zen 5" CCDs and an I/O die.
Sources:
harukaze5719 (Twitter), VideoCardz
VideoCardz has the OPN codes for the samples being moved. The Ryzen 7 "Strix Point" sample bears 100-0000001335. One of the two Ryzen 9 "Strix Point" chips bears 100-000000994. The 16-core "Fire Range" is marked 100-000001028, while the 8-core "Fire Range" is 100-000001029. "Strix Point" will be AMD's most imporant mobile processor silicon, as this will be the one with a "Zen 5" CPU core count relevant to the notebook market, pack an RDNA 3+ iGPU, and that alleged 40 TOPS+ XDNA 2 NPU that can run Microsoft Copilot locally. A step up from this will be "Strix Halo," with a higher CPU core count, a much larger iGPU designed for performance-segment gaming. "Fire Range" is essentially a low Z-height BGA version of the "Granite Ridge" chiplet processor that has up to two "Zen 5" CCDs and an I/O die.
6 Comments on AMD "Zen 5" Based "Strix Point" and "Fire Range" Mobile Processors Spied in Shipping Manifests
AMD could have provided a powerful APU since basically the launch of this generation of consoles. This is not a big priority, evidently.
Also, considering it will be using the system's DDR5 RAM, it's gonna compete for memory resources with everything else, so it's not even as efficient as the memory system that a crappy RX 540 from seven years ago has.
So, going back to this:
"It could single handedly alter the entry level dGPU market...."
This has already happened between AMD's APU offerings and whatever Intel offers with their CPUs. The entry level discrete GPU market is RTX xx50 (and Geforce 1660/1650, I suppose, not sure if Nvidia is gonna make anything without RTX anymore) and Radeon RX x5xx, everything below those has been dead and buried already for years now unless you meet BOTH of these conditions:
- Need ***JUST*** a working display AND don't plan on any gaming.
- Your CPU doesn't have an IGP (fairly rare considering Intel's dominance of the CPU market at a general level and that AMD has been offering APUs for years, plus now including at least a basic IGP in all Ryzen 7000 processors, though this is more of a for the future thing)
So, a 40CU APU won't change the current discrete GPU market much, unless AMD decides to make all their APUs carry a much beefier IGP for little to no price increase compared to current existing offers.