News AMD's new Ryzen AI re-branding for Zen 5 comes to light — Asus leaks 'Strix Point' processor names

[Admin]

AMD is re-branding its processors with new Ryzen AI names, according to leaked information from Asus. Upcoming Zen 5 CPUs will follow Intel's lead and jump on the AI PC hype train.

AMD's new Ryzen AI re-branding for Zen 5 comes to light — Asus leaks 'Strix Point' processor names : Read more

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

For instance, Lenovo is prepping ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 with AMD's Ryzen Pro 8040 and Ryzen Pro 8050-series CPUs (according to a flyer leaked by TechnicallyLogic). So perhaps at least some of Zen 5-based processors could continue to use the familiar branding scheme.

That's false and incorrect info. There won't be any 8050 series. As debunked by Lenovo China's product manager.

I previously made a comment here as well:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-on-zen-5-architecture.3844093/#post-23257543

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

post edited for too many typos/errors..........................

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Or we could get Ryzen AI badges for AMD's premium Strix Point Halo processors with up to 12 cores, while regular Strix Point processors might be sold under the Ryzen 8050-series name. That could also provide a way to clearly position the more expensive processors as offerings for those who want the latest and greatest hardware as well as on-device AI acceleration.

That makes no sense at all. Had that been the case, then there won't be this new "AI branding" listed for a 12-core Ryzen AI 9 "HX 170" SKU, which implies it is most likely a Strix Point chip, and not the Halo variant.

Because as per previously leaked documents, the Halo series would be a "16-core" lineup, and both the normal Strix Point and the Halo parts have support for XDNA 2 NPU for the AI.

So it makes little sense to use the AI badge only for the "premium" HALO chips, since both support the integrated AI engine.

AMD's top Zen 5-based processor will be called the Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, according to the leak.

Huh ? Not correct.

On what basis can you claim that ? That's just an entry for a model number, and we don't even have any official AMD nomenclature to back up this leak, and we also don't know whether this SKU is the 'only' top high-end part, or there are even other high-end processors in the lineup as well, which have not been mentioned by ASUS here.

We don't even a full list of official chips which fall under the Strix Point lineup, so this model number could be anything from the flagship itself, or some other chip in the hierarchy, slightly on the lower end.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

...We don't even a full list of official chips which fall under the Strix Point lineup, so this model number could be anything from the flagship itself, or some other chip in the hierarchy, slightly on the lower end.

FWIW, I edited this, and the key point is merely that we have a leak of one, not fully disclosed, APU that will be called Ryzen AI 9 HX 170. The phrasing was poor initially, so I added the top, but I've redacted that to make it better.

There are clearly a lot of unknowns still, including whether Ryzen AI branding will be used everywhere or not. I think we can agree that either route presents potential confusion points. A Lenovo manager saying that an accidentally leaked / listed specification for a future product is "fake" also doesn't constitute proof either, as it could merely be Lenovo covering itself for the leak. He could have just said "oops" or "hmmm" and communicated the same amount of information.

Bottom line: While the Asus leak appears to indicate an official name, there is no official and definitive word on all the upcoming Zen 5 parts and likely won't be until the formal launch. And even after the initial launch, other parts could be released. But, I've edited and tweaked some of the wording to clear things up (e.g. the "up to 12" was supposed to be "12 or more cores").

 

[Giroro]

Strix is an Asus brand.

So this leaker saw a Strix leak out of Asus, and assumed that meant AMD is going to try and step on the trademark of one of their partners?
That logic doesn't follow, not even for a code name.

 

[TheJoker2020]

That makes no sense at all. Had that been the case, then there won't be this new "AI branding" listed for a 12-core Ryzen AI 9 "HX 170" SKU, which implies it is most likely a Strix Point chip, and not the Halo variant.

Because as per previously leaked documents, the Halo series would be a "16-core" lineup, and both the normal Strix Point and the Halo parts have support for XDNA 2 NPU for the AI.

Both Strix Point and Strix Halo products will include 8, 12 and 16-core variants

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Both Strix Point and Strix Halo products will include 8, 12 and 16-core variants

Yes. Of course I know that. My reply was for the original unedited part of the article, which caused some confusion to begin with, as clarified above by jarred.

 

[TheJoker2020]

These new line-up of chips were never going to use the Ryzen 8000 series branding, it was always going to be either the 9000 series or something new as per this "leak".

The real question though is whether the leak is real or not, and I only care about the name so long as I can keep up with them, but what is interesting is that a claimed "up to" 77 TOPS, which is interesting. The AI engine was expected to be in the realm of 45-50 TOPS, so the real questions here are whether this leak is real, how many TOPS does the AI engine produce and at what power draw, how many TOPS is produced by the GPU and at what power draw, what is the real world usage TOPS output and what is meant by "up to".?

 

[TheJoker2020]

Yes. Of course I know that. My reply was for the original unedited part of the article, which caused some confusion to begin with, as clarified above by jarred.

Others may not know as much as the Messiah or I 😉

 

[TheJoker2020]

Strix is an Asus brand.

So this leaker saw a Strix leak out of Asus, and assumed that meant AMD is going to try and step on the trademark of one of their partners?

Strix Point and Strix Halo are both "internal" code names used by AMD and not used for marketing, and typically only mentioned in press briefings, product reveals etc when they simply say on stage something like "AMD codename Strix Point", or "otherwise known as Strix Point" but never formally used, so not a trademark issue at all.

 

[TheJoker2020]

That logic doesn't follow, not even for a code name.

"If" AMD is going to be using some kind of new naming / numbering scheme then I think that it would be unlikely that the would start with a 1xxx because Intel just did that and bigger numbers are always better, so if anything I would expect them to start at 2.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me that AMD would want to differentiate their mobile oriented "APU's" from their desktop line-up, which would simultaneously get round their self created problem of every new series designation swapping from APU to CPU, so separating them would make sense, but only if they do it correctly the first time.

They are also pushing pretty hard into the mobile space, so now would be the sensible time to do so.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

There is some legitimacy in this leak, as per new AI naming pop-up, but we still can't say for sure unless AMD backs this up.

It would be a blunder if someone at ASUS PR/marketing department make some silly typos, and/or if it was unintentional on someone's part by disclosing early embargoed nomenclature, which was not supposed to be made public, in the first place. But this seems unlikely !

And yes, AMD should differentiate their Mobile offerings from the desktop Zen 5 "Granite Ridge" lineup. I doubt the Ryzen Zen 5 desktop 9000-series lineup will have this new "AI" moniker/branding in the product's name.

 

[TechyIT223]

So this whole AI buzzword is gonna poke it's nose in every aspect and field related to technology.

Can't they just get away without sticking with anything related to AI as if everyone who will use any upcoming processor or APU will have a passion for this stupid AI hype. 😆 Gamers would be least bothered imo.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

So this whole AI buzzword is gonna poke it's nose in every aspect and field related to technology.

Can't they just get away without sticking with anything related to AI as if everyone who will use any upcoming processor or APU will have a passion for this stupid AI hype. 😆 Gamers would be least bothered imo.

Reminds me of how we used to have things like a simple stadium name, but now we have sponsors for the field, endzone/goal, building, etc. We must shoehorn AI or deep learning or similar into every product name going forward!

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Breakdown of past AMD ZEN 5 lineup leak. Most of the info appears to be correct, but still approach it with caution.

So apart from the already leaked Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 SKU which features up to 12 cores, there is another confirmed entry dubbed as Ryzen AI 165 (Non-HX) sporting 10 cores.

However, there is no number mentioned here like 9 or 7/5, and it is a non-HX model. So maybe Ryzen AI 165 is not the final naming scheme? A 10 core chip could either sport a "2+8" or "4+6" Zen 5/5c core config though.

Also, the MCM "Strix Halo" lineup would be getting 40 Compute units in total, and the NPU is rated for > 70 TOPS as well. Previous rumors have reported on a similar CU count as well.

There will also be an additional 32 MB of MALL cache that might help eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks for this iGPU. The rest of the specs are mentioned in this slide, which obviously are not yet official though.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

So this whole AI buzzword is gonna poke it's nose in every aspect and field related to technology.

Of course, lol ! After all...

 

[Giroro]

Strix Point and Strix Halo are both "internal" code names used by AMD and not used for marketing, and typically only mentioned in press briefings, product reveals etc when they simply say on stage something like "AMD codename Strix Point", or "otherwise known as Strix Point" but never formally used, so not a trademark issue at all.

Ok... but why would they use a current graphics card brand as a code name instead of any other word?
I'm not saying AMD would be sued if they internally called a CPU "Arc Warcraft"... I'm just saying they would never, ever do that.

And still, why would should we assume a leak of Strix naming out of Asus would be anything other than an Asus Strix product?

 

[TechyIT223]

Of course, lol ! After all...

May the AI be with us ! 😀

 

[TheJoker2020]

Ok... but why would they use a current graphics card brand as a code name instead of any other word?

Unless they literally invent a whole new word like they did with Ryzen or Epyc for every new codename they would often end up using a word that another company uses, but granted it is less than usual that they used a current brand within the IT industry.

Also, as I do not buy Asus products and pretty much skip over anything they make I was not even aware that Strix was a brand name of theirs until it came up in this thread, and I just looked up "Strix" on a shop I use, 4 Graphics card are listed, 6 AIO's, 1 Case, 1 PSU, 1 Headset and 22 Motherboards, so seemingly they use it for pretty much everything these days, and not even as a direct Asus brand, but as part of the ROG lineup, so a sub-brand, literally every one is Asus Republic Of Gamers Strix xxx because they must really love catchy names, but that last part is just me laughing at their marketing department (not just Asus, most companies, but Asus make it really easy).

And here I am way off topic.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

Great, now here comes another rumor.

But I find this move a bit hilarious odd if AMD has indeed made this last minute naming change for the upcoming "Strix Point" APU series just because Intel is using the Core Ultra 200 nomenclature for Arrow and Lunar Lake lineup.

Old numbering convention would've put AMD at a disadvantage against Intel's Core Ultra 200 family ? I doubt this prediction though.

But in any case, the company has now decided to go with a new numbering scheme and the chips will be branded under the "Ryzen AI 300" series instead of "Ryzen AI 100" series.

According to Golden Pig Upgrade (Lenovo's ex-product manager), two of the chips featured within this lineup would include the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and the Ryzen AI 9 365.

But since we have NOT seen any benchmarks yet, nor any official Laptop product page listings from any OEM, which would further confirm this change in codename, take this leak as it is. Until there is some official confirmation that is.

The chips will be branded under the "Ryzen AI 300" series instead of "Ryzen AI 100" series.

BTW, technically speaking, Strix Point is the 3rd Generation of APUs with NPU architecture so it's valid for AMD to use the "300" series nomenclature.

OLD:

Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 and Ryzen AI 9 165.

NEW:

Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and the Ryzen AI 9 365.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

It appears AMD indeed made some last minute changes. The 100 series nomenclature was previously used by the company. A prototype Laptop was spotted running the Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 with 880M iGPU.

But we all know the official SKU now is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, with 890M RDNA 3.5 igpu.

so 170 changed to 370.
880M - > 890M.

165- > 365. AMD Ryzen AI 9 365

870M-> 880M.