AMD's Strix Halo APUs might feature some massive memory pools based on the latest shipping logs which point out up to 128 GB capacities.
AMD's Strix Halo To Be An Enthusiast-Tier APU Platform: Featuring Powerful CPU, GPU Cores With Lots of Memory & Untapped Power
We have covered AMD's Strix Halo APUs in the past with the most recent post about them talking about the reference "Maple" Reference Evaluation Boards. These REVB products were discovered within the shipping logs from nbd.ltd. The last entries featured 32 GB and 64 GB configurations but the latest one doubles the memory pool which could be our hint at what the most premium configs would be getting.
So starting with the details, the AMD Strix Halo APUs are said to be compatible with the FP11 (BGA) platform and will come in TDPs ranging from 55W and up to 130W. AMD is likely using the full untapped TDPs of these chips to evaluate their maximum potential but it would be awesome if we get chips that can support such high TDPs to push them to their limits since Strix Halo is designed for enthusiast platforms.
In terms of memory, the highest capacity that has been listed so far is up to 128 GB and that's a huge pool. Even most high-end desktop PCs these days don't feature more than 64 GB capacities and this is workstation territory so if AMD is going for larger pools of memory, that would be nice but it would also certainly mean that the cost of these high-end devices based on Strix Halo will be very high too. We also previously mentioned that the 128 GB memory is definitely not on-board or on-package like Intel's Lunar Lake but we are likely looking at soldered designs (at least for these REVB platforms).
It will be interesting if Strix Halo comes with a SO-DIMM DDR5 option but it will most likely be going the LPDDR5x route considering that 40 compute units iGPU which it's expected to feature will require lots of bandwidth and LPDDR5x is fit for this job. Once again, 128 GB of LPDDR5x is going to be very pricey but 32 GB and 64 GB solutions would be priced reasonably, albeit still within the enthusiast price range. Another tech onboard these APUs will be 32 MB of MALL cache which will be a big support for the onboard graphics.
AMD Ryzen AI HX Strix Halo Expected Features:
- Zen 5 Chiplet Design
- Up To 16 Cores
- 64 MB of Shared L3 cache
- 40 RDNA 3+ Compute Units
- 32 MB MALL Cache (for iGPU)
- 256-bit LPDDR5X-8000 Memory Controller
- XDNA 2 Engine Integrated
- Up To 60 AI TOPS
- 16 PCIe Gen4 Lanes
- 2H 2024 Launch (Expected)
- FP11 Platform (55W-130W)
You see, 40 compute units is a lot for an integrated graphics chip. That's more compute units than the Radeon RX 7600 XT which features 32 compute units and features a bandwidth of 288 GB/s. A 128-bit LPDDR5x memory configuration would yield around 120-140 GB/s of bandwidth if it runs at speeds of 7467 or 8533 MT/s. We are likely going to see AMD go with the former to keep the costs lower but with a wider 256-bit interface. So add the 32 MB of MALL and we can see the bandwidth gap closing in with the discrete RDNA 3 family. The RDNA 3.5 GPUs might also come with added memory compression techniques which might also free up the need for higher bandwidth.
Overall, while AMD's Strix Point "Ryzen AI 300" APUs are without a doubt an exciting start of things for the APU front, combining next-gen Zen 5, RDNA 3.5, and XDNA 2 cores together, the Strix Halo APUs really look like the evolution of APUs to something grander than what we have seen so far. We can't wait to hear more about Strix Halo from AMD themselves
AMD Ryzen Mobility CPUs:
| CPU Family Name | AMD Sound Wave? | AMD Bald Eagle Point | AMD Krackan Point | AMD Fire Range | AMD Strix Point Halo | AMD Strix Point | AMD Hawk Point | AMD Dragon Range | AMD Phoenix | AMD Rembrandt | AMD Cezanne | AMD Renoir | AMD Picasso | AMD Raven Ridge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Branding | TBD | Ryzen AI 400 | TBD | TBD | Ryzen AI 300 | Ryzen AI 300 | AMD Ryzen 8040 (H/U-Series) | AMD Ryzen 7045 (HX-Series) | AMD Ryzen 7040 (H/U-Series) | AMD Ryzen 6000 AMD Ryzen 7035 | AMD Ryzen 5000 (H/U-Series) | AMD Ryzen 4000 (H/U-Series) | AMD Ryzen 3000 (H/U-Series) | AMD Ryzen 2000 (H/U-Series) |
| Process Node | TBD | 4nm | 4nm | 5nm | 4nm | 4nm | 4nm | 5nm | 4nm | 6nm | 7nm | 7nm | 12nm | 14nm |
| CPU Core Architecture | Zen 6? | Zen 5 + Zen 5C | Zen 5 | Zen 5 | Zen 5 + Zen 5C | Zen 5 + Zen 5C | Zen 4 + Zen 4C | Zen 4 | Zen 4 | Zen 3+ | Zen 3 | Zen 2 | Zen + | Zen 1 |
| CPU Cores/Threads (Max) | TBD | 12/24 | 8/16 | 16/32 | 16/32 | 12/24 | 8/16 | 16/32 | 8/16 | 8/16 | 8/16 | 8/16 | 4/8 | 4/8 |
| L2 Cache (Max) | TBD | 12 MB | TBD | TBD | 24 MB | 12 MB | 4 MB | 16 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 2 MB | 2 MB |
| L3 Cache (Max) | TBD | 24 MB + 16 MB SLC | 32 MB | TBD | 64 MB + 32 MB SLC | 24 MB | 16 MB | 32 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB | 8 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB |
| Max CPU Clocks | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | 5.1 GHz | TBD | 5.4 GHz | 5.2 GHz | 5.0 GHz (Ryzen 9 6980HX) | 4.80 GHz (Ryzen 9 5980HX) | 4.3 GHz (Ryzen 9 4900HS) | 4.0 GHz (Ryzen 7 3750H) | 3.8 GHz (Ryzen 7 2800H) |
| GPU Core Architecture | RDNA 3+ iGPU | RDNA 3.5 4nm iGPU | RDNA 3+ 4nm iGPU | RDNA 3+ 4nm iGPU | RDNA 3.5 4nm iGPU | RDNA 3.5 4nm iGPU | RDNA 3 4nm iGPU | RDNA 2 6nm iGPU | RDNA 3 4nm iGPU | RDNA 2 6nm iGPU | Vega Enhanced 7nm | Vega Enhanced 7nm | Vega 14nm | Vega 14nm |
| Max GPU Cores | TBD | 16 CUs (1024 Cores) | 12 CUs (786 cores) | 2 CUs (128 cores) | 40 CUs (2560 Cores) | 16 CUs (1024 Cores) | 12 CUs (786 cores) | 2 CUs (128 cores) | 12 CUs (786 cores) | 12 CUs (786 cores) | 8 CUs (512 cores) | 8 CUs (512 cores) | 10 CUs (640 Cores) | 11 CUs (704 cores) |
| Max GPU Clocks | TBD | 2900 MHz | TBD | TBD | TBD | 2900 MHz | 2800 MHz | 2200 MHz | 2800 MHz | 2400 MHz | 2100 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1400 MHz | 1300 MHz |
| TDP (cTDP Down/Up) | TBD | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 55W-75W (65W cTDP) | 55W-125W | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 55W-75W (65W cTDP) | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 15W-55W (65W cTDP) | 15W -54W(54W cTDP) | 15W-45W (65W cTDP) | 12-35W (35W cTDP) | 35W-45W (65W cTDP) |
| Launch | 2026? | 2025? | 2025? | 2H 2024? | 2H 2024? | 2H 2024 | Q1 2024 | Q1 2023 | Q2 2023 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2021 | Q2 2020 | Q1 2019 | Q4 2018 |
News Source: @Olrak29_
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