AMD's Krackan Ryzen AI APUs Confirmed for Early 2025 Launch

[Nomad76]

AMD is about to extend its mobile CPU lineup with the introduction of new Ryzen AI APUs, which are going to include the Krackan Point series which has been greatly expected. These CPUs are aimed at mainstream platforms and are targeted to bring performance, AI capabilities, and memory support to a new level. Krackan Point is supposed to be a cheaper alternative to the premium Strix Point series. Jack Huynh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group of AMD confirmed at IFA 2024 that Krackan will be released to the mass market early in 2025.

One of the highlights is the support for LPDDR5X-8000 memory, this feature is expected to place the Krackan Point APUs close to AMD's Strix Halo series and compete directly with Intel's Lunar Lake processors. The XDNA2 Neural Processing Unit and also the certification of AMD for Microsoft Copilot+PC will be the advantages of this enhancement of the product.





Expected Key Features of Krackan Point:

• Zen 5 Monolithic Design
• Up To 8 Cores (4x Zen 5 + 4x Zen 5C)
• 16 MB of Shared L3 cache
• 8 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units
• LPDDR5X-8000 Support
• XDNA 2 Engine Integrated
• Up To 50 AI TOPS
• 1H 2025 Launch
• FP8 Platform (15 W-45 W)

Putting aside some great specification points, AMD still has its share of troubles in the mobile sector. The new Strix Point chips, which debuted about two months ago, did not do as well as hoped for. AMD is required to show OEMs its ability to provide chips in large numbers for production purposes and to deliver designs that meet their unique requirements.

"Strix Point is available here and from some manufacturers, but these are all premium devices at correspondingly high prices. In order to reach the mass of the market, cheaper chips are needed." — AMD's Jack Huynh, head of the Ryzen and Radeon division, confirmed in a conversation at IFA 2024 that Krackan will be there from the beginning of 2025.

The Krackan Point series alongside the Strix Halo APUs are to occupy a wide segment in the market. The CES 2025 event will see both lineups being launched, this would be (one) the most important move by AMD.

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[phanbuey]

Did they mean Kracken? What is a Krackan?

Probably too many things named Kracken already so they decided to misspell it.

Beware the Krackan

 

[Nomad76]

Did they mean Kracken? What is a Krackan?

Probably too many things named Kracken already so they decided to misspell it.

View attachment 362761
Beware the Krackan

Krackan, known as Kraken "The Artist"

 

[prtskg]

These apus are good like zen4 ones. Hopefully they'll be present in good enough number in market.

 

[bonehead123]

Did they mean Kracken? What is a Krackan?

Probably too many things named Kracken already so they decided to misspell it.

View attachment 362766
Beware the Krackan

Well, they could have named it "Krackoon", and changed the whole dynamic of the release

And for those who are not aware, a Krackoon is that pesky critter that keeps stealing/eating your stash, hahahaha !

 

[tfp]

Wow Intel stop pushing the 4P core model and give people what they want! /s

 

[SL2]

Like I pointed out before, these will have slower graphics than Ryzen 6000 APU's (Rembrandt).

 

[Firedrops]

With this timeline, this would be competing more against Panther Lake than Lunar Lake.

 

[Minus Infinity]

With this timeline, this would be competing more against Panther Lake than Lunar Lake.

No, it'll be out at least 8-9 months earlier. Panther Lake will be late 2025 if all goes well. 18A is far from ready. Also, Krackan is budget oriented, Lunar Lake is high end oriented. Strix Point U will be better competitor and it's already out.

 

[ADB1979]

Wow Intel stop pushing the 4P core model and give people what they want! /s

These are cheap, a whole lot cheaper than Lunar Lake which is what I assume you are talking about (and yes the sarcasm was noted, and appreciated).

Yeah, Lunar Lake looks good for certain things, but it's super expensive for the performance, and so it might find itself in a bit of a niche, especially so when Kracken launches and is a nearer competitor in many things at half the price, but Lunar Lake will still likely excel in those niche's.