AMD Ryzen AI MAX 300-series processors, codenamed "Strix Halo," have been on in the news for close to a year now. These mobile processors combine "Zen 5" CPU cores with an oversized iGPU that offers performance rivaling discrete GPUs, with the idea behind these chips being to rival the Apple M3 Pro and M3 Max processors powering MacBook Pros. The "Strix Halo" mobile processor is an MCM that combines one or two "Zen 5" CCDs (some ones featured on "Granite Ridge" desktop processors and "Turin" server processors), with a large SoC die. This die is built either on the 5 nm (TSMC N5) or 4 nm (TSMC N4P) node. It packs a large iGPU based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, with 40 compute units (CU), and a 50 TOPS-class XDNA 2 NPU carried over from "Strix Point." The memory interface is a 256-bit wide LPDDR5X-8000 for sufficient memory bandwidth for the up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores, the 50 TOPS NPU, and the large 40 CU iGPU.

Golden Pig Upgrade leaked what looks like a company slide from a notebook OEM, which reveals the iGPU model names for the various Ryzen AI MAX 300-series SKUs. Leading the pack is the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395. This is a maxed out SKU with a 16-core/32-thread "Zen 5" CPU that uses two CCDs. All 16 cores are full-sized "Zen 5." The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache (32 MB per CCD), each of the 16 cores has 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache. The iGPU is branded Radeon 8060S, it comes with all 40 CU (2,560 stream processors) enabled, besides 80 AI accelerators, and 40 Ray accelerators. The Ryzen AI MAX 390 is the next processor SKU, it comes with a 12-core/24-thread "Zen 5" CPU. Like the 395, the 390 is a dual-CCD processor, all 12 cores are full-sized "Zen 5." There's 64 MB of L3 cache, and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The Radeon 8060S graphics solution is the same as the one on the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, it comes with all 40 CU enabled.

In case you missed it, AMD's new madcap enthusiast silicon engineering effort, the "Strix Halo," is real, and comes with the Ryzen AI Max 300 series branding. These are chiplet-based mobile processors with one or two "Zen 5" CCDs—same ones found in "Granite Ridge" desktop processors—paired with a large SoC die that has an oversized iGPU. This arrangement lets AMD give the processor up to 16 full-sized "Zen 5" CPU cores, and an iGPU with as many as 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units (2,560 stream processors), and a 256-bit LPDDR5/x memory interface for UMA.

"Strix Halo" is designed for ultraportable gaming notebooks or mobile workstations where low PCB footprint is of the essence, and discrete GPU is not an option. For enthusiast gaming notebooks with discrete GPUs, AMD is designing the "Fire Range" processor, which is essentially a mobile BGA version of "Granite Ridge," and a successor to the Ryzen 7045 series "Dragon Range." The Ryzen AI Max series has three models based on CPU and iGPU CU counts—the Ryzen AI Max 395+ (16-core/32-thread with 40 CU), the Ryzen AI Max 390 (12-core/24-thread with 40 CU), and the Ryzen AI Max 385 (8-core/16-thread, 32 CU). An alleged Ryzen AI Max 390 engineering sample surfaced on the Geekbench AI benchmark online database.