Back in 2021, Intel made headlines when it introduced a 12th generation x86-based CPU line called Alder Lake. The reason this processor line has received a lot of attention compared to all other x86 CPU models previously released on the market is because of the hybrid design in the CPU structure, similar to the way it works. of Arm chips (big.LITTLE) on phones. Intel originally called this design the Big-Bigger, but later renamed it the Performance Hybrid architecture.
Seeing Intel’s rapid success after boldly applying hybrid architecture to commercial computer CPU products, there have been many questions about when or whether AMD will ever do something like this. similar or not. With little information leaked from AMD’s filed patents, it seems that “Red Team” is also working on options to apply hybrid architecture with its Ryzen product line in the future.
A new report from a website called PerformanceDatabases confirms the existence of such chips. In fact, the report lists the specs of AMD’s rumored upcoming Ryzen 8000 Strix Point APUs, along with screenshots showing leaked core configuration details.
The lower left image shows CPU-Z data attributed to the Strix Point APU, while the right shows the HWiNFO64 engine:
As you can see, the screenshot on the HWiNFO side shows that CPU-Z seems to have identified the smaller “Zen 5c” cores rather than the E (power-saving cores) like on the Intel chip; while Zen 5 cores are P cores (high performance cores). The biggest differentiating factor between the Intel and AMD designs is the presence of SMT (simultaneous multithreading) on the Zen 5c cores, which Intel’s E cores don’t have.
Also, it’s probably too early to look at details like cache size or core clocks. But the core configuration is apparently four Zen 5 cores and eight Zen 5c cores, for a total of 12 cores (4+8) and 24 threads.
In case you’re wondering, the Zen 5c will inherit AMD’s Zen 4c, the cloud-based core that AMD introduced alongside its “Bergamo” EPYC server CPU. There are two key differences between Zen 4 cores and Zen 4c cores. The first is the number of level 3 (L3) buffers and the second is the operating clock.
While Zen 4 is designed for higher clocks (performance per core/single core performance), Zen 4c is optimized for lower clocks (around 3GHz) for better performance per watt . The Zen 5c is also expected to go the same way and without much difference.
Strix Point APUs are expected to be released around 2024, right when Windows 12 launches. For integrated graphics, AMD is expected to pack RDNA 3.5 GPU cores on the Strix Point. RDNA 3.5 will be similar to Zen+ or Zen 3+ as there will be some architectural improvements, but certainly not a huge leap in performance.