AMD's Upcoming Mobile Rembrandt APU Makes an Early Appearance

[TheLostSwede]

If you've been waiting for more details about AMD's next mobile platform, then you're in luck, as the motherload has dropped today, with lots of details about the new Rembrandt APU's that are launching next year. Not only has a picture of the first motherboard, with adhering laptop showed up, but we also have a mostly complete block diagram and a list of expected SKU's, even though not all SKU models are revealed as yet.

AMD's Rembrandt APU will be its first APU with PCIe 4.0 support, which in itself might not be worth the wait, but if paired with the right GPU, this might help increase the performance somewhat compared to the previous generation of APUs from AMD. The bigger news is USB4 support, plus a new GPU which we so far don't know too much about, but it's speculated that it'll be called Radeon RX 680M and should offer 12 compute units. DDR5 memory support is also expected, so Rembrandt clearly has a new memory controller, since the APU is still based on the Zen 3 architecture.




It looks like we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's, with a TDP of either 28 or 45 Watts for now, split between two different packaging types, FP7 and FP7r2. The first three models that have been revealed are the Ryzen 7 6800H with a 4.7 GHz boost clock, the Ryzen 9 6900HX with a 4.9 GHz boost clock and the Ryzen 9 6980HX with a 5 GHz boost clock. All three CPUs are said to have eight cores and 16 threads. The leaked notebook is the Alienware m17 R5 from Dell and it's said to sport up to a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, in addition to its Ryzen 9 6980HX APU. The motherboard picture is said to have a Radeon RX 6700M with 10 GB of GDDR6, as it's from a lower-end model. It looks like we have some competition to look forward to next year between AMD and Intel in the mobile space, that is if the current shortages of everything doesn't ruin it.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[AusWolf]

"we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's" - Is it April 1st?

 

[Steevo]

"we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's" - Is it April 1st?

I’m sure they will have some with better performing GPU or CPU in each power budget, 45W to 15W and then maybe a few lower core count 15W or less for ultra thin platforms, then probably some 45W with beefier GPUs to handle integrated signage and things like multiple casino machines rendering, a whole set of slot machines ran by one APU to save money and power.

 

[Mysteoa]

I wasn't expecting to see Navi Apu before Zen4. So this is a surprise. But maybe it's thanks to the Steam Deck.

 

[Vayra86]

"we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's" - Is it April 1st?

24 entries saying 'sold out' you mean?

 

[TheLostSwede]

"we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's" - Is it April 1st?

Several of them are pro SKUs.

 

[Punkenjoy]

I can't wait to see the benchmark of a Navi APU paired with DDR5.

A faster architecture with way more memory bandwidth might finaly mean acceptable 1080p performance in newer game. My hope aren't very high but i am very interested to see

As for the 24 SKUs, i wonder if there are different sky for LPDDR5 and DDR5 too

 

[TheLostSwede]

I can't wait to see the benchmark of a Navi APU paired with DDR5.

A faster architecture with way more memory bandwidth might finaly mean acceptable 1080p performance in newer game. My hope aren't very high but i am very interested to see

As for the 24 SKUs, i wonder if there are different sky for LPDDR5 and DDR5 too

Not when it comes to these, expect LPDDR5 on the U SKUs, which might have better GPUs too, just as with the current models.

 

[R0H1T]

"we can expect as many as 24 different SKU's" - Is it April 1st?

24 isn't much actually, though I hope it doesn't swell to 48 by the end of the year

24 entries saying 'sold out' you mean?

Mobile APU's

 

[LabRat 891]

What's the deal with the Dual 10Gb (Linux only)?

 

[lexluthermiester]

The leaked notebook is the Alienware m17 R5 from Dell and it's said to sport up to a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory

I count 5 VRAM chips in that photo. How do you get 12GB from 5 chips? Something doesn't add up...

 

[Raiju]

Let's hope for a proper Dual graphics support.
If so, having a full amd ecosystem would be a huge perk as the iGPU will be used for lighter loads and the discrete GPU will back it up with horsepower when needed.
Intel iGPU + Nvidia GPU can switch between them depending on the load but cannot work together, whereas dual graphics would do exactly this.

 

[Nephilim666]

I count 5 VRAM chips in that photo. How do you 12GB from 5 chips? Something doesn't add up...

It literally says the pictured chip is 6700M with 10GB.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It literally says the pictured chip is 6700M with 10GB.

Perhaps my joke was too subtle..

 

[Chrispy_]

I am so ready for an APU with a better IGP. My current daily driver is a 25W HP Envy with a 4700U and I hate to say it but that shitty Vega7 is the best IGP I could get my hands on. The Iris Xe IGP of the 1135G7 was looking good based on Intel's cherry-picked benchmarks but then independent reviewers tested it for real at launch and the decrepit old Vega5 in the lowly R3 4300U was faster even at just 15W.

RDNA2 and DDR5 might make for an amazing sub-25W laptop, RDNA2 scales down well to the 6600XT and most importantly, the performance/Watt is amazing.

 

[Mussels]

8x PCI-E 4.0 lanes can handle any desktop GPU out there, so its good to see in the laptop space


The thing is, internally a 1x 4.0 lane provides enough bandwidth for all sorts of peripherals, ports etc laptops often miss out on. 10Gb USB 4 ports? Thunderbolt? 5Gb ethernet? can all be done easier now

 

[usiname]

Perhaps my joke was too subtle..

Yeah, "joke"...

 

[TheLostSwede]

What's the deal with the Dual 10Gb (Linux only)?

Not sure, not an official block diagram.

 

[zlobby]

But will it run Win 11?

 

[lexluthermiester]

But will it run Win 11?

Of course it will.

 

[zlobby]

Of course it will.

Perhaps my joke was too subtle as well?

 

[Minus Infinity]

But will it run Win 11?

But why would it want to run alpha software?

 

[junglist724]

What's the deal with the Dual 10Gb (Linux only)?

All previous desktop/server(not sure about APUs) Zen CPUs had integrated ethernet controllers, but they required you to sacrifice some serdes lanes and add an actual physical interface. IDK why it would be linux only though.

 

[Space Lynx]

only 3 days to go for e3... can't wait for the content... really hoping we seem innovation in gaming laptops.

 

[Chrispy_]

only 3 days to go for e3... can't wait for the content... really hoping we seem innovation in gaming laptops.

I don't think gaming laptops are going to get any huge changes as they're mostly limited by cooling and power delivery which depends entirely on performance/Watt which hasn't really moved much in the last 3 years, we're still mostly seeing the same 7nm TSMC and Intel 10nm (rebranded Intel7). Samsung 8 for Ampere doesn't seem to bring much to the table over TSMC12 of Turing's dGPUS, it's arguably worse at the low end when comparing performance/Watt of the 3050 against the 1650Ti etc - possibly because the 3050 is bogged down by additional raytracing die area that the 1650/1660 series don't have to bother with. I've yet to see the 3050 convincingly raytrace anything at playable framerates, so IMO that's a step backwards anyway!

Alder Lake may be more efficient than Rocket lake but we already know it's not a game-changer in terms of performance/Watt at "65W" TDPs, more of an evolutionary step that brings Intel up to the peformance/Watt level that AMD have already been operating at since Renoir a couple of years ago.

What I would like to see (but probably won't) is some higher-quality midrange laptops that don't compromise on cooling to be as thin as humanly possible. Call me crazy but a 3060 gets to mostly stretch its legs at about 90W TGP, which is fine in a mainstream 1080p gaming laptop and can be cooled quietly and unobtrusively if the laptop's base is allowed to be 20mm thick instead of 12mm thick. Thin&light is great but it starts to get overly compromised for cooling and battery runtimes once you move into dGPU territory, utterly defeating the purpose of a thin&light.

There will always be fancy $4000+ flagship laptops with two power bricks, a 3080 and all the trimmings but I think the target audience for most gaming laptops is people sitting on a sofa in a social environment with their SO, kids, whatever. Noisy, heavy, barely-portable and inconvenient laptops look cool on the trade show floor but really aren't popularly desirable.

Whoops, that turned into a cynical ramble. Hope I'm wrong, but it's better to be a pessimist who gets better news than they expected, than to be an optimist who is constantly dissappointed by the usually underwhelming reality.