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It has been a while since we last heard anything regarding AMD's new Zen architecture. For now the first eight core desktop CPU is on track to launch late this year but there are also murmurs about future Zen APUs, which will launch next some time in 2017 and rumoured to feature Polaris graphics.
We already know that AMD is focusing on its desktop CPU first, there is also a 32-core sever chip apparently in the works. However, for the APU side of things, apparently the first Zen-based APU will come with four Zen cores and Polaris architecture graphics, according to sources speaking with Fudzilla.
The Zen APU will reportedly have four CPU cores, each with 512KB of cache plus 8MB of shared L3 cache. The Zen APU will also apparently come with up to 11 Graphics Core Next (GCN) cores for gaming horsepower. Zen will launch on the AM4 platform and support DDR4 with the APU currently rumoured supporting speeds of up to 3200MHz.
The graphics side of this APU is said to use Polaris 10, similarly to the RX 460. However, it will have less stream processors. Power efficiency will also be kept in check, with TDPs supposedly ranging from 45W to 65W on socket AM4.
KitGuru Says: We have yet to hear anything official regarding AMD Zen-based APUs but we should get more news once the architecture has actually launched. Are any of you looking forward to Zen's launch?
At this point I don’t think its a rumor. Its been stated on conference calls and the like which can be found on seeking alpha.
Why less stream processors than RX 460? Come on, guys, we want APU with 1024 at least. That must be some sort of recycled mobile chip that didn’t fit into the TDP.
I agree with you, but hopefully they’ll have something with 1024 SP or more later on if they don’t have it at launch. They do tend to release higher and higher performing stuff as time goes on.
65W on AM4? Cmon really? They should easily be able to pump out a better 95W APU with more GPU horsepower.
That probably won’t happen till Vega is out at least as any APU without HBM from AMD will be bottlenecked by the lack of bandwidth making utilization of bigger iGPUs rather limited.
Not without HBM.
Their APUs are bottlenecked by bandwidth issues that Intel tried to get around with a little memory on the die as a “L4” catch.
HBM is AMDs answer and should provide enough bandwidth but Polaris isn’t designed to use HBM.
Vega might change things despite being a high end arcitecture depending on how it’s designed.