AMD teases its next-gen Strix Point APUs with 3x generative AI NPU performance with XDNA 2

AMD just announced its new Ryzen 8040 series APUs codenamed "Hawk Point," which have improvements in generative AI workloads, with Ryzen AI on board and helping out through a next-gen NPU (Neural Processing Unit). But after this, we've got the next-gen "Strix Point," which will have over 3x the generative AI NPU performance.

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AMD XDNA 2 has over 3x generative AI NPU performance (source: AMD)

AMD itself is promising that its next-gen Ryzen 9000 series APUs codenamed "Strix Point" will have "more than 3x generative AI NPU performance" compared to Strix Point with its new XDNA 2 AI architecture.

Right now, the Ryzen AI cores inside of the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" APU series have around 10 TOPS of compute performance for generative AI, compared to the upcoming Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" APU series that has 16 TOPS of compute performance for generative AI.

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AMD Ryzen AI roadmap (source: AMD)

Inside of the upcoming Strix Point APU series, AMD itself has confirmed they'll feature a next-generation XDNA2 NPU core, which will deliver a 3x improvement in generative AI performance. AMD promises we'll see its next-gen Strix Point APUs sometime in 2024, where they'll feature next-gen Zen 5 CPU cores and upgraded RDNA 3+ GPU cores that we've been hearing rumors about.

• Read more: AMD's next-gen Strix Halo, Strix Point, Kraken Point APUs have 3x AI boost
• Read more: AMD Strix Point Halo APU teased: RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, next-gen Zen 5 CPU cores
• Read more: Microsoft preparing 'AI PC' branding for 2024 systems
• Read more: Windows 12 is apparently launching in June 2024 alongside a wave of new AI PCs

AMD's next-gen Strix Point APUs will reportedly come in a few different flavors, with leaks on AMD's upcoming Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs swirling for a while now since I first started writing about them back in April 2021. AMD's next-gen Strix Point APU will feature a chiplet design based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a monolithic design on the TSMC 4nm process node with up to 12 cores (Zen 5 + Zen 5c) compared to Strix Halo with a chiplet design with up to 16 cores.

According to Moore's Law is Dead, we can expect Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs to have even better generative AI performance, with 45-50 TOPS out of them both.

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AMD's leaked APU roadmap for 2024-2025 (source: Moore's Law is Dead)

AMD Ryzen 8050 Strix Point Mono Expected Features:

• Zen 5 (4nm) Monolithic Design
• Up To 12 Cores In Hybrid Config (Zen 5 + Zen 5C)
• 32 MB of Shared L3 cache
• 35% Faster CPU Versus Phoenix at 50W
• 16 RDNA 3+ Compute Units
• On Par With RTX 3050 Max-Q
• 128-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controller
• XDNA Engine Integrated
• 20 TOPS AI Engine
• Q2-Q3 Launch (Expected)

AMD Ryzen 8050 Strix Point Halo Expected Features:

• Zen 5 Chiplet Design
• Up To 16 Cores
• 64 MB of Shared L3 cache
• 25% Faster CPU Versus 16-Core Dragon Range at 90W
• 40 RDNA 3+ Compute Units
• On Par With RTX 4070 Max-Q (90W)
• 256-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controler
• XDNA Engine Integrated
• 40 TOPS AI Engine
• 2H 2024 Launch (Expected)