AMD's upcoming server processor, the 5th Gen EPYC "Turin," has been pictured as an engineering sample is probably being evaluated by the company's data-center or cloud customers. The processor has a mammoth core-count of 192-core/384-thread in its high-density cloud-focused variant that uses "Zen 5c" CPU cores. Its regular version that uses larger "Zen 5" cores that can sustain higher clock speeds, also comes with a fairly high core-count of 128-core/256-thread, up from the 96-core/192-thread of the "Zen 4" based EPYC "Genoa."

The EPYC "Turin" server processor based on "Zen 5" comes with an updated sIOD (server I/O die), surrounded by as many as 16 CCDs (CPU complex dies). AMD is expected to build these CCDs on the TSMC N4P foundry node, which is a more advanced version of the TSMC N4 node the company currently uses for its "Phoenix" client processors, and the TSMC N5 node it uses for its "Zen 4" CCD. TSMC claims that the N4P node offers an up to 22% improvement in power efficiency over N5, as well as a 6% increase in transistor density. Each of the "Zen 5" CCDs is confirmed to have 8 CPU cores sharing 32 MB L3 cache memory. A total of 16 such CCDs add up to the processor's 128-core/256-thread number. The high-density "Turin" meant for cloud data-centers, is a whole different beast.

ASRock is announcing the support of 64 GB DDR5 memory module across Intel 700 Series and AMD AM5 Series motherboards. This enhancement boosts the maximum memory capacity to 256 GB with 4 DIMMs, offering increased performance and compatibility for enthusiasts. Additionally, we are committed to expanding support for the 64 GB DDR5 memory module across more motherboards with various chipsets, enhancing productivity for memory-intensive multitasking applications.

Here is our first look at the higher end of AMD's Ryzen 8000G series Socket AM5 desktop APU lineup. The company is planning to bring its 4 nm "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" monolithic silicon to the socketed desktop platform, to cover two distinct markets. Models based on the larger "Phoenix" silicon cater to the market that wants a sufficiently powerful CPU, but with a powerful iGPU that's fit for entry-level gaming, or graphics-intensive productivity tasks; whereas the smaller "Phoenix 2" silicon ties up the lower end of AMD's AM5 desktop processor stack, as it probably has a lower bill of materials than a "Raphael" multi-chip module.

The lineup is led by the Ryzen 7 8700G, a direct successor to the Ryzen 7 5700G "Cezanne." This chip gets the full 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4" CPU, along with its 16 MB shared L3 cache; and the full featured Radeon 780M iGPU with its 12 compute units worth 768 stream processors. The CPU features a maximum boost frequency of 4.20 GHz. This is followed by the Ryzen 5 8600G, which is based on the same "Phoenix" silicon as the 8700G, but with 6 out of 8 "Zen 4" cores enabled, and a maximum CPU boost frequency of 4.35 GHz, and the 16 MB L3 cache left untouched. It's likely that the Radeon 780M is unchanged from the 8700G.Update 13:59 UTC: A CPU-Z screenshot of the Ryzen 7 8700G surfaced, which confirms that it features the maxed out Radeon 780M iGPU

Yesterday, Intel unveiled its latest Xeon data center processors, codenamed Emerald Rapids, delivering the new Xeon Platinum 8592+ flagship SKU with 64 cores and 128 threads. Packed into its fresh silicon, Intel promises boosted performance and reduced power hunger. The comprehensive tech benchmarking website Phoronix essentially confirms Intel's pitch. Testing production servers running the new 8592+ showed solid gains over prior Intel models, let alone older generations still commonplace in data centers. On average, upgrading to the 8592+ increased single-socket server performance by around 23.5% compared to the previous generation configs of Sapphire Rapid, Xeon Platinum 8490H. The dual-socket configuration records a 17% boost in performance.

However, Intel is not in the data center market by itself. AMD's 64-core offering that Xeon Platinum 8592+ is competing with is AMD EPYC 9554. The Emerald Rapids chip is faster by about 2.3%. However, AMD's lineup doesn't stop at only 64 cores. AMD's Genoa and Genoa-X with 3D V-cache top out at 96 cores, while Bergamo goes up to 128 cores. On the power consumption front, the Xeon Platinum 8592+ was pulling about 289 Watts compared to the Xeon Platinum 8490H average of 306 Watts. At peak, the Xeon Platinum 8592+ CPU managed to hit 434 Watts compared to the Xeon Platinum 8490H peak of 469 Watts. This aligns with Intel's claims of enhanced efficiency. However, compared to the 64-core counterpart from AMD, the EPYC 9554 had an average power consumption of 227 Watts and a recorded peak of 369 Watts.

AMD on Thursday announced the first release of FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) source code through the company's GPUOpen initiative. The company just set up an FSR 3 source code repo on GitHub that game devs everywhere can take advantage of. This includes the complete source for DirectX 12, and the source of an FSR 3 Unreal Engine 5 plugin. With it, the company also released extensive documentation that helps developers understand the inner workings of FSR 3, so they could better integrate the tech with their games and applications. With this announcement, AMD also unveiled FSR 3 support for even more new and upcoming games, which include "Black Myth: Wukong," the three latest titles from the "Warhammer" franchise, including "Darktide," "Space Marine II," and "Realms of Ruin;" "Starfield," "Pax Dei," and "Crimson Desert."

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, is excited today to showcase the best graphics card and motherboard combo for work efficiency and home entertainment.

The A620MP-E PRO motherboard and Radeon RX7600 GPU by BIOSTAR redefine excellence, specifically catering to the diverse requirements of students, home users, and casual gamers. These innovative products, embodying BIOSTAR's commitment to quality, seamlessly blend advanced technology with unparalleled performance. This dynamic duo establishes a new standard in versatility and efficiency, exemplifying BIOSTAR's legacy in delivering cutting-edge, reliable solutions for a broad range of computing needs.

ASRock Industrial releases state-of-the-art 4X4 BOX 8040 Series Mini PCs and 4X4 8040 Motherboard Series, powered by AMD Ryzen 8040 Series APUs, crafted to elevate trusted performance and AI PC capabilities. Featuring up to 8 "Zen 4" cores/ 16 threads and AMD Radeon 700M graphics, the Series integrates AMD Ryzen AI with 16 NPU TOPS, delivering up to 1.6x surge in AI processing performance over its predecessor. With support of dual-channel DDR5 5600 MHz memory up to 96 GB, the 4X4 BOX 8040 Series comes with enriched I/O connectivity in a compact fanned box. It enables 4K quad-display outputs, five USB ports, including two USB4, accommodates dual storages, and offers dual LAN up to 2.5G, along with Wi-Fi 6E support. The new Series, marked by a significant speed boost with lower power consumption, paves the way for accelerated generative AI workloads, tailoring heightened experience in content creation, gaming, entertainment, office productivity, commerce, and many other AIoT applications through the quintessential AI PC for you.

ASRock Industrial's 4X4 BOX 8040 Series offers versatile selections: 4X4 BOX-8840U, 4X4 BOX-8640U, powered by AMD Ryzen 8040 Series (Ryzen 7 8840U/ Ryzen 5 8640U). With integration of CPU, GPU, and NPU, the AMD Ryzen AI upgrades to 16 NPU TOPS and 39 total TOPS (NPU+CPU+GPU), reaching up to 1.6x surge in AI processing performance and a notable 40% speed increase in running AI LLM models than prior gen AMD APUs. Featuring 4 nm "Zen 4" architecture with up to 8 cores/ 16 threads, along with AMD Radeon 700M RDNA 3 graphics, and dual-channel DDR5-5600 MHz SO-DIMM memory up to 96 GB. The 4X4 BOX 8040 Series marks a leap forward in AI processing, allowing users to re-imagine dynamic applications on their AI PC, such as enhancing productivity, delivering AI-inspired visuals/content, running AI models right on PCs for various AIoT use cases.

According to Tom's Hardware, today we are finding out that AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors, codenamed Storm Peak, including Pro and non-Pro SKUs, blow a fuse on the chip when overclocking is enabled. Modern microprocessors have dozens of fuses that are used to store information inside the chip. For example, the factory stores the per-processor default voltage information in the fuses. On downgraded graphics chips, the shaders get disabled through such fuses, too. These fuses are not like your household circuit breakers—they will blow only when a specific command is sent to the processor, there is no way for them to break accidentally through system crashes or power spikes. In the case of Ryzen Threadripper 7000, the BIOS code will blow a fuse when the user enables overclocking in the BIOS settings, it reacts only to the user-initiated UI change, not to any kind of measurement. Before that happens a warning is shown. AMD uses this mechanism to see any indications if any kind of overclocking has been done to the processor.

While the messaging might suggest otherwise, just enabling overclocking does not void all warranties. In a statement to Tom's Hardware an AMD representative confirmed: "Threadripper 7000 Series processors do contain a fuse that is blown when overclocking is enabled. To be clear, blowing this fuse does not void your warranty. Statements that enabling an overclocking/overvolting feature will "void" the processor warranty are not correct. Per AMD's standard Terms of Sale, the warranty excludes any damage that results from overclocking/overvolting the processor. However, other unrelated issues could still qualify for warranty repair/replacement," noted the spokesperson. Ultimately, overclocking and overvolting by themselves will not cause the owner of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPU to lose the right to repair and seek AMD's help. Other factors, such as damages induced by overclocking, will be a warranty-voiding factor though. These can occur from constant overheating, which significantly lowers the life expectancy of the CPU.

After years of delays, Chinese chipmaker Zhaoxin has finally launched its long-awaited KX-7000 series consumer CPUs, only one of its kind in China, based on the licensed x86-64 ISA. Zhaoxin claims the new 8-core processors based on "Century Avenue" uArch deliver double the performance of previous generations. Leveraging architectural improvements and 4X more cache, the KX-7000 represents essential progress for China's domestic semiconductor industry. While still likely lagging behind rival AMD and Intel chips in raw speed, the KX-7000 matches competitive specs in areas like DDR5 memory, PCIe 4.0, and USB4 support. For Chinese efforts to attain technological independence, closing feature gaps with foreign processors is just as crucial as boosting performance. Manufactured on a 16 nm process, the KX-7000 does not use the best silicon node available.

Other chip details include out-of-order execution (OoOE), 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, a 32 MB pool of L3 cache and 4 MB L2 cache, a base frequency of 3.2 GHz, and a boost clock of 3.7 GHz. Interestingly, the CPU also has VT-x, BT-d 2.5, SSE4.2/AVX/AVX2 support, most likely also licensed from the x86 makers Intel and/or AMD. Ultimately, surpassing Western processors is secondary for China next to attaining self-reliance. Instructions like SM encryption catering to domestic data protection priorities underscore how the KX-7000 advances strategic autonomy goals. With its x86 architecture license giving software compatibility and now a vastly upgraded platform, the KX-7000 will raise China's chip capabilities even if it is still trailing rivals' speeds. Ongoing progress closing that performance gap could position Zhaoxin as a mainstream alternative for local PC builders and buyers.

ASUS began rolling out beta UEFI firmware updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards that contain the latest AMD AGESA 1.1.0.1 microcode. If you recall, ASRock had recently released its own firmware updates last month that feature AGESA 1.1.0.0. This would be the first widely released firmware from ASUS to support the upcoming Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" desktop APUs; and the 4th AGESA release to do so. Version ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.1 contains a newer version of the system management unit (SMU) for "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2," with SMU version 76.75.0, compared to version 76.72.0 with the older ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.0 that ASRock released in November.

The UEFI firmware updates by ASUS containing AGESA ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.1 are only being released for AMD B650/E and X670/E chipset motherboards, and only spanning the company's ROG, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, and ProArt product lines, we haven't come across one for the Prime series, yet. It's important to reiterate here, that these are beta updates, and those with Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" processors don't stand to benefit from them, as the SMU for "Raphael" hasn't changed since ComboAM5PI 1.0.8.0. Check for the firmware updates in the Support section of the product pages of your motherboard on the ASUS website.

Bethesda has released its latest Starfield Update 1.8.88 for all platforms, and as a minor update, it only fixes several issues, including a rather annoying bug where space matter is stuck to the player's ship during space travel, also known as the "pet-asteroid" bug. The new update also fixes a bug that prevents random guns spawning in a newly created Weapon Case after loading, and fixes an issue where the game crashes while saving in some scenarios.

As this is a minor patch, it kept everyone wondering when we would see some other promised updates, including city maps, official mod support, a possible new vehicle, and more. Thankfully, Bethesda took to Reddit and clarified that the major update will be coming early next year, bringing support for AMD FSR 3 and Intel XeSS, as well as numerous "in-progress" quest fixes. The post adds that they have been hard at work on fixing many of the issues that were posted, as well as on those new features.

Sony is developing the PlayStation 5 Pro console that targets higher refresh-rate gaming at 4K Ultra HD, or higher in-game eye-candy, given its faster hardware. Details about the console are few and far between, given its late-2024 tentative release, but by now the company would have co-developed its semi-custom SoC, so it could spend the next year extensively testing and optimizing it, before mass production in the 2-3 quarters leading up to the launch. Kepler_L2 and Tom Henderson on Twitter are fairly reliable sources for PlayStation hardware leaks, and piecing their recent posts together, VideoCardz compiled the most probable specs of the SoC at the heart of the PlayStation 5 Pro.

The semi-custom SoC powering the PlayStation 5 Pro is co-developed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and AMD; and is codenamed "Viola." The monolithic chip is built on the TSMC N4P foundry node (4 nm EUV), which is a big upgrade from the 7 nm DUV node on which the "Oberon" SoC powering the original PlayStation 5, and 6 nm DUV node powering the "Oberon Plus" SoC of the refreshed PS5, are based on. Sony is leaving the CPU component largely untouched, it is an 8-core/16-thread unit based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, spread across two 4-core CCXs. The CPU has a maximum boost frequency of 4.40 GHz, dialed up from the 3.50 GHz maximum boost of "Oberon." The iGPU is where all the magic happens.

Huawei's subsidiary HiSilicon has made significant strides in the independent R&D of AI chips, launching the next-gen Ascend 910B. These chips are utilized not only in Huawei's public cloud infrastructure but also sold to other Chinese companies. This year, Baidu ordered over a thousand Ascend 910B chips from Huawei to build approximately 200 AI servers. Additionally, in August, Chinese company iFlytek, in partnership with Huawei, released the "Gemini Star Program," a hardware and software integrated device for exclusive enterprise LLMs, equipped with the Ascend 910B AI acceleration chip, according to TrendForce's research.

TrendForce conjectures that the next-generation Ascend 910B chip is likely manufactured using SMIC's N+2 process. However, the production faces two potential risks. Firstly, as Huawei recently focused on expanding its smartphone business, the N+2 process capacity at SMIC is almost entirely allocated to Huawei's smartphone products, potentially limiting future capacity for AI chips. Secondly, SMIC remains on the Entity List, possibly restricting access to advanced process equipment.

Intel's upcoming Sierra Forest Xeon server chip has debuted on Geekbench 6, showcasing its potential in multi-core performance. Slated for release in the first half of 2024, Sierra Forest is equipped with up to 288 Efficiency cores, positioning it to compete with AMD's Zen 4c Bergamo server CPUs and other ARM-based server chips like those from Ampere for the favor of cloud service providers (CSP). In the Geekbench 6 benchmark, a dual-socket configuration featuring two 144-core Sierra Forest CPUs was tested. The benchmark revealed a notable multi-core score of 7,770, surpassing most dual-socket systems powered by Intel's high-end Xeon Platinum 8480+, which typically scores between 6,500 and 7,500. However, Sierra Forest's single-core score of 855 points was considerably lower, not even reaching half of that of the 8480+, which manages 1,897 points.

The difference in single-core performance is a matter of choice, as Sierra Forest uses Crestmont-derived Sierra Glen E-cores, which are more power and area-efficient, unlike the Golden Cove P-cores in the Sapphire Rapids-based 8480+. This design choice is particularly advantageous for server environments where high-core counts are crucial, as CSPs usually partition their instances by the number of CPU cores. However, compared to AMD's Bergamo CPUs, which use Zen 4c cores, Sierra Forest lacks pure computing performance, especially in multi-core. The Sierra Forest lacks hyperthreading, while Bergaamo offers SMT with 256 threads on the 128-core SKU. Comparing the Geekbench 6 scores to AMD Bergamo EPYC 9754 and Sierra Forest results look a lot less impressive. Bergamo scored 1,597 points in single-core, almost double that of Sierra Forest, and 16,455 points in the multi-core benchmarks, which is more than double. This is a significant advantage of the Zen 4c core, which cuts down on caches instead of being an entirely different core, as Intel does with its P and E-cores. However, these are just preliminary numbers; we must wait for real-world benchmarks to see the actual performance.

AMD over the past months has been releasing periodic updates to its Fluid Motion Frames preview drivers. These are off-trunk drivers that serve to demonstrate the capabilities of Fluid Motion Frames (FMF), a technology that enables near-doubling of frame-rates for every game, through interpolation techniques, similar to what you find in consumer televisions. The tech works on DirectX 12 and DirectX 11 games, on Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines, and for Radeon RX 7000 series and RX 6000 series GPUs. The December 7th update is based on the Adrenalin 23.12.1 drivers (i.e. includes all changes and improvements AMD introduced with those drivers), plus enablement for FMF, although the driver isn't WHQL certified. With this release, AMD says that it introduced several application stability improvements for FMF. The company also reduced stutter and improved frame-pacing. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Fluid Motion Frames Preview Driver—December 7 Update

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, and storage solutions innovator, today unveiled the new high-capacity TS-hx77AXU-RP ZFS NAS series, including 12-bay TS-h1277AXU-RP and 16-bay TS-h1677AXU-RP rackmount models powered by AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors based on the cutting-edge AMD Socket AM5 platform. By integrating robust hardware and diverse I/O including DDR5 RAM, M.2 PCIe Gen 5, PCIe Gen 4 slots, and redundant power supplies, the TS-hx77AXU-RP series unleashes enterprise-level performance and delivers ultra-high bandwidth, futureproof expandability, and trusted reliability for performance-demanding Tier 2 storage, virtualization, 4K video editing, and PB-level storage applications.

"The whole new TS-hx77AXU-RP series ZFS NAS provides enterprises with superb performance and large storage capacity to tackle business-critical workloads and storage-demanding applications. The AMD Ryzen 7000 Series multi-core processors further unlocks the key performance of DDR5 and M.2 PCIe Gen 5," said Alex Shih, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Paired with the ZFS file system that's most suited for business applications, the TS-hx77AXU-RP series stands out as the top choice for storage solutions that require uncompromising data integrity."

ENERMAX, an industry-leading force dedicated to designing high-performance computer hardware and cooling solutions, today announced the AMD sTR5 upgrade kit for its LIQTECH TR4 II AIO CPU cooler series, which makes it possible to upgrade the coolers to the latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors and Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors. The complimentary AMD sTR5 upgrade kit will bridge the gap between different specifications and avoid extra electronic waste through forced upgrades.

As the world's first AIO CPU cooler tailored to complete coverage of the integrated heat spreader (IHS) of AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors, the larger cooling block can cover more of the Threadripper 7000 series heat spreader. This is especially important for processors that feature more than 64 cores, specifically the 96-core Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX processor. With the new upgrade kit, the LIQTECH TR4 II series will support the new TRX50 and WRX90 motherboards, and it will ensure the best cooling results for your Threadripper workstations and servers.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Manufacturer for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing three new additions to its AMD-based H13 generation of GPU Servers, optimized to deliver leading-edge performance and efficiency, powered by the new AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators. Supermicro's powerful rack scale solutions with 8-GPU servers with the AMD Instinct MI300X OAM configuration are ideal for large model training.

The new 2U liquid-cooled and 4U air-cooled servers with the AMD Instinct MI300A Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) accelerators are available and improve data center efficiencies and power the fast-growing complex demands in AI, LLM, and HPC. The new systems contain quad APUs for scalable applications. Supermicro can deliver complete liquid-cooled racks for large-scale environments with up to 1,728 TFlops of FP64 performance per rack. Supermicro worldwide manufacturing facilities streamline the delivery of these new servers for AI and HPC convergence.

Acer today announced the new Nitro V 16 (ANV16-41) gaming laptop, built for casual players looking for a well-balanced device with modern features and more. The latest Nitro V laptop is powered by the new AMD Ryzen 8040 Series processors with Ryzen AI technology built in and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs with DLSS 3.5 to deliver versatile performance, long-lasting battery life, and AI-powered technologies. Even in the heat of battle, the Nitro V 16 stays cool through innovative thermals highlighted by a dual fan system and keeps users at the center of the action with stunningly immersive visuals.

"Acer and AMD continue to collaborate in bringing AI-backed gaming experiences with the latest Nitro laptop powered by the new AMD Ryzen 8040 Series processors," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, Acer Inc. "Combined with fast refresh rate display options, enhanced features, and loads of improvements across the board, the Nitro V 16 brings an exciting new AI-ready gaming laptop to the table for all types of gamers."

Generative AI (GenAI) is the decade's most promising accelerator for innovation with 78% of IT decision makers reporting they're largely excited for the potential GenAI can have on their organizations.¹ Most see GenAI as a means to provide productivity gains, streamline processes and achieve cost savings. Harnessing this technology is critical to ensure organizations can compete in this new digital era.

Dell Technologies and AMD are coming together to unveil an expansion to the Dell Generative AI Solutions portfolio, continuing the work of accelerating advanced workloads and offering businesses more choice to continue their unique GenAI journeys. This new technology highlights a pivotal role played by open ecosystems and silicon diversity in empowering customers with simple, trusted and tailored solutions to bring AI to their data.

V-COLOR Technology Inc. announces reaching a new overclocking milestone of DDR5-8000 for their DDR5 R-DIMM 96 GB (4x 24 GB). This impressive feat was accomplished on the AMD 7000 series processors and the ASUS PRO WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI motherboard. V-COLOR has effectively demonstrated its overclocking capabilities on the high-powered AMD 7000 series processors, highlighting the outstanding compatibility and superior performance of V-COLOR memory products with AMD innovations. The accomplishment of overclocking to DDR5-8000 was achieved on the ASUS Pro WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI motherboard, employing the DDR5 OC R-DIMM 96 GB (4x 24 GB) configuration with CL40-52-52-126-1.4 V timings.

Today at the "Advancing AI" event, AMD was joined by industry leaders including Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, Dell Technologies, HPE, Lenovo, Supermicro, Arista, Broadcom and Cisco to showcase how these companies are working with AMD to deliver advanced AI solutions spanning from cloud to enterprise and PCs. AMD launched multiple new products at the event, including the AMD Instinct MI300 Series data center AI accelerators, ROCm 6 open software stack with significant optimizations and new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs) and Ryzen 8040 Series processors with Ryzen AI.

"AI is the future of computing and AMD is uniquely positioned to power the end-to-end infrastructure that will define this AI era, from massive cloud installations to enterprise clusters and AI-enabled intelligent embedded devices and PCs," said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "We are seeing very strong demand for our new Instinct MI300 GPUs, which are the highest-performance accelerators in the world for generative AI. We are also building significant momentum for our data center AI solutions with the largest cloud companies, the industry's top server providers, and the most innovative AI startups ꟷ who we are working closely with to rapidly bring Instinct MI300 solutions to market that will dramatically accelerate the pace of innovation across the entire AI ecosystem."

Today, AMD announced the availability of the AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators - with industry leading memory bandwidth for generative AI and leadership performance for large language model (LLM) training and inferencing - as well as the AMD Instinct MI300A accelerated processing unit (APU) - combining the latest AMD CDNA 3 architecture and "Zen 4" CPUs to deliver breakthrough performance for HPC and AI workloads.

"AMD Instinct MI300 Series accelerators are designed with our most advanced technologies, delivering leadership performance, and will be in large scale cloud and enterprise deployments," said Victor Peng, president, AMD. "By leveraging our leadership hardware, software and open ecosystem approach, cloud providers, OEMs and ODMs are bringing to market technologies that empower enterprises to adopt and deploy AI-powered solutions."

AMD in its Ryzen 8040 series "Hawk Point" mobile processors announcement made the first mention of XDNA 2, its next-generation on-chip neural processing unit (NPU) architecture. Above all, the XDNA 2 NPU is expected to introduce an over 3 times improvement in performance over the first generation XDNA NPU powering the Ryzen 7040 series "Phoenix" processor. XDNA 2 is making its debut with AMD's next-generation Ryzen "Strix Point" mobile processor that the company looks to launch in 2024. While "Phoenix" offers 10 TOPS of NPU performance, AMD mentions an "over 3 times" performance improvement, which probably puts this figure at 32 TOPS for "Strix Point."

The "Strix Point" mobile processor is rumored to debut faster "Zen 5" CPU cores, a possible CPU core count increase to 12, and a much more powerful iGPU based on the updated RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, with some SKUs expected to feature CU counts as high as 32, and designed to square off against the iGPU of the Apple M3 Max processor. Besides "Zen 5" CPU cores and RDNA 3.5 iGPU, we now know that even the NPU gets an overhaul with this XDNA 2 announcement, and a possible 32 TOPS NPU performance.

AMD today announced the new Ryzen 8040 mobile processor series codenamed "Hawk Point." These chips are shipping to notebook manufacturers now, and the first notebooks powered by these should be available to consumers in Q1-2024. At the heart of this processor is a significantly faster neural processing unit (NPU), designed to accelerate AI applications that will become relevant next year, as Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 12, and software vendors make greater use of generative AI in consumer applications.

The Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" processor is almost identical in design and features to the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix," except for a faster Ryzen AI NPU. While this is based on the same first-generation XDNA architecture, its NPU performance has been increased to 16 TOPS, compared to 10 TOPS of the NPU on the "Phoenix" silicon. AMD is taking a whole-of-silicon approach to AI acceleration, which includes not just the NPU, but also the "Zen 4" CPU cores that support the AVX-512 VNNI instruction set that's relevant to AI; and the iGPU based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, with each of its compute unit featuring two AI accelerators, components that make the SIMD cores crunch matrix math. The whole-of-silicon performance figures for "Phoenix" is 33 TOPS; while "Hawk Point" boasts of 39 TOPS. In benchmarks by AMD, "Hawk Point" is shown delivering a 40% improvement in vision models, and Llama 2, over the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" series.