A render diagram of a new AMD Ryzen CPU has purportedly leaked online, showing a radically different CPU structure to the company’s current CPUs. The diagram reportedly shows one of AMD’s new Strix Halo CPUs, and it’s divided into three chiplets. So far, so usual for AMD, you might think, until you see the size of one of the chips.
AMD is expected to lift the lid on its forthcoming Zen 5 architecture at Computex in June, and we’d be surprised if some of these CPUs didn’t make it onto our best gaming CPU guide. However, this leaked AMD Strix Halo chip is quite a different beast from AMD’s usual desktop gaming CPUs, which tend to have one or two core chiplet dies, and an I/O chip under the hood.
On the right of the diagram that you can see below, which was recently shared by X (Twitter) leaker Olrak29_, are the two main CPU core chiplets. These chiplets each contain eight Zen 5 CPU cores, making for a total of 16 cores, and each chiplet is labeled as having 32MB of L3 cache. However, it’s that massive chip on the left that’s really striking. It looks less like a chiplet, and more like the main chip, despite the fact that it doesn’t contain any x86 CPU cores.
Olrak29_ compares the appearance to an old AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 chip, which had two HBM dies in the same package as the GPU, rather than having GDDR memory on the PCB, and there’s a definite likeness. It looks as though the 16 Zen 5 CPU cores are secondary to this mighty third chip.
So what’s in this massive AMD Ryzen die? According to the diagram label, this chip contains a GPU housing 20 RDNA 3+ workgroup processors (WGPs), which would tally with previous AMD Strix Halo specs leaks. An AMD WGP contains two of the company’s compute units, and with the RDNA 3 architecture you get 64 stream processors in each compute unit, as well as two AI matrix accelerators and one ray tracing accelerator.
As such, this new CPU’s integrated GPU is likely to contain 2,560 stream processors, 80 AI cores, and 40 ray tracing cores. In terms of core GPU specs, it’s more powerful than the AMD Radeon RX 7600, which currently costs over $250.
Bear in mind that this chip is designed for laptops, rather than desktops, but it shows that AMD is finally really serious about integrating its GPU tech properly into its CPUs. Current AMD CPUs with Radeon GPUs, such as the Ryzen 5 8600G, don’t go higher than having eight CPU cores, plus they only have 16MB of L3 cache, and even the top-end Ryzen 7 8700G only has 768 stream processors. Add in the matrix AI cores, and AMD really does look like it has a CPU that does it all.
Right at the bottom of the label, we also spotted “Zen 5 LP,” which we assume is a reference to some low-power Zen 5 cores that are also embedded in this chip. AMD is already producing lower-power versions of its Zen 4 cores, called Zen 4c, which have the same architecture and instructions per clock (IPC) as full-size Zen 4 cores, but have less L3 cache, lower clock speeds, and take up less die space.
It’s quite possible that Strix Halo doesn’t just have 16 Zen 5 cores, 80 AI cores, and a massive GPU, but also has some more lower-power cores under the hood.
What’s interesting about this particular diagram is that it also shows how the CPU core chiplets communicate with the massive GPU die, with an interconnect labeled “InFO” in the diagram. After one X user asks if this is a “Zen 6-like interconnect,” Olrak29_ replies “Strix Halo gets it first,” meaning this future mammoth CPU potentially has some AMD Zen 6 tech in its innards.
Of course, this is all rumor and speculation right now, and we have no information about the actual source of this diagram. However, the diagram does correspond with previous rumors we’ve seen about the AMD Strix Halo GPU. If this diagram is correct, AMD can basically make a CPU that does it all – multi-threading, gaming graphics, and AI, without needing secondary components. Intel should be worried.
Hopefully, we’ll find out more information about Zen 5 at Computex, but if you’re looking to buy a gaming CPU right now, check out our Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, as this is the best all-round processor for gaming at the moment.