AMD Zen 5 “Ryzen” Mobility APU Configurations: Strix With 12 Cores, Kraken With 8 Cores, Sonoma With 4 Cores

AMD’s Zen 5 “Ryzen” APU lineup for mobility lineup is going to be quite extensive with the likes of Strix, Kraken & Sonoma families. Each of these APU families will feature different configurations & utilize a mix of Zen 5 and Zen 5C cores.

AMD Zen 5 “Ryzen” Mobility APU Lineup To Kick Off With Strix, Kraken & Sonoma Lineups

Based on new information by @Olrak29_, it looks like we might have a sense of what the final max core configurations for these chips would look like. As mentioned above, there are going to be a lot of Zen 5 families throughout the lifespan of this architecture. For mobility alone, we are expecting at least five Zen 5 products (Strix Point1, Strix Point2, Kraken Point, Sonoma Valley, Fire Range, etc). AMD is known to refresh/rebrand its architectures a year or two after the initial launch so we could be getting even more products.

4 + 8
4 + 4
0 + 4

— Everest (@Olrak29_) April 5, 2024

• Strix Point: 4 Zen 5 Cores + 8 Zen 5C Cores = 24 Threads
• Kraken Point: 4 Zen 5 Cores + 4 Zen 5C Cores = 16 Threads
• Sonoma Valley: 0 Zen 5 Cores + 4 Zen 5C Cores = 8 Threads

Starting with the details, there are two numbers mentioned with the first one representing the standard Zen 5 “Nirvana” cores and the second one representing the Zen 5C “Prometheus” cores. While both cores feature the same architecture, the Zen 5C cores are clocked slightly lower for efficiency purposes. All three of the AMD Ryzen APU families will feature Zen 5C cores but it looks like not all would feature Zen 5 standard cores.

AMD Ryzen 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
• 128-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controller
• XDNA 2 Engine Integrated
• ~25 TOPS AI Engine
• 2H 2024 Launch (Expected)

AMD’s Strix Point APUs will come in two flavors, a standard monolithic offering & a premium chiplet design. The standard monolithic design will feature 4 Zen 5 cores and 8 Zen 5C cores for a total of 12 cores and 24 threads. This will be a 50% increase in number of cores and threads versus the Zen 4 APU offerings which are limited to 8 cores and 16 threads. The premium variant is expected to be configured with up to 16 cores and 32 threads though the exact Zen5/Zen5C config isn’t known yet. These chips will feature much higher graphics capabilities with higher CU counts based on the new RDNA 3+ graphics architecture.

AMD Ryzen 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
• 256-bit LPDDR5X Memory Controller
• XDNA 2 Engine Integrated
• ~50 TOPS AI Engine
• 2H 2024 Launch (Expected)

The Kraken Point “Ryzen” APUs will feature 4 Zen 5 and 4 Zen 5C cores for a total of 8 cores and 16 threads. These will be the more mainstream offerings aimed at thin and light designs coupled with a RDNA 3+ GPU architecture (4 WGP / 8 CU). In addition to these, there will be a low-power offering in the form of Sonoma Valley. This chip is likely to power the next-generation Steam Deck & will be featuring just four Zen 5C cores with 8 threads.

Currently, the Steam Deck features the Aeirth SoC which is equipped with 4 cores based on the Zen 2 core architecture and we saw an updated 6nm version of this for the Steam Deck OLED in the form of the Sephiroth SoC. This will also replace Mendocino APUs for low-power PCs. A very recent rumor suggests that AMD might utilize Samsung’s 4nm process technology for the production of its low-power and lower-end Ryzen APUs and Radeon GPUs. Sonoma Valley is among the list of chips that are expected to be made at Samsung’s fabs.

With AMD’s Computex 2024 keynote just two months away, we can expect the company to share more details on its next-gen Zen 5 core architecture and the respective Ryzen APU & CPU families soon.

AMD Ryzen Mobility CPUs: