Give Ryzen AI Max+ a Chance: AMD’s Strix Halo Uber-APU Model List and Initial Specs Leaked

AMD has clearly gone all-in on the generic tech vocabulary for its upcoming Strix Halo uber-APU. Introducing the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, not a novel joint venture with Apple, but the top of the line in a range of unprecedentedly powerful APUs for laptops and hopefully desktops as well.

According to a post on Weibo by ever leaky Golden Pig Upgrade Pack account, we can initially expect three models of AMD’s novel, powerful APU. The aforementioned AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 has 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 GPU compute units with the RDNA 3.5 specification.

Next up is the Ryzen AI Max 390 with 12 cores and 40 compute units, while the Ryzen AI Max 385 rounds out the pack with eight cores and 32 compute units. There’s no word on clock speeds or pricing yet. In fact, these chips are believed to launch in 2025.

However, the Strix Halo is believed to be slightly different from previous AMD APUs, as it will be based on chiplets rather than a single, monolithic slice of silicon.

Previous Strix Halo rumors suggest it will consist of a enormous main SoC chiplet or tile containing the graphics hardware, plus I/O, a memory controller, and perhaps an AI-accelerating NPU. AMD will add one or two core CPU chipsets to that, which some sources suggest will be the exact same Zen CPU chipsets seen in the novel Ryzen 9000 desktop processors.

Another key feature of the Strix Halo is its 256-bit memory bus and around 500 GB/s of memory bandwidth, shared between the CPU and graphics. In many ways, this is just as significant as the relatively enormous GPU. Previous AMD APUs have reached 128-bit buses, which put a pretty gigantic limit on bandwidth.

For context, AMD’s novel monolithic laptop APU, codenamed Strix Point and branded Ryzen AI without the “Max” bit, has up to 16 graphics compute units. So the Strix Halo is on a whole other level. You could say the biggest remaining question is the power draw of the novel uber-APU and, by extension, what devices it’ll see.

Gaming laptops seem like the obvious target. But will they be powerful enough for thinner, lighter laptops? What about laptops? The processor and graphics specs certainly look like the makings of an epic laptop. But are they really too much in terms of power consumption?

Could we also be looking at a desktop version? A Strix Halo in a petite, NUC-like box would be pretty special, right? Either way, it’s a bit of a shame that the Strix Halo isn’t expected until 2025. Initially, rumors suggested a release around now, which would have a gigantic impact.

However, a launch later in 2025 will likely mean a novel generation of discrete graphics cards will likely arrive, which will change expectations for graphics performance at least somewhat and perhaps reduce the value proposition of a novel APU.

The novel discrete GPUs from AMD and Nvidia will make the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture look a tad more old-school. Still, a significantly more powerful—in the style of a gaming console, you might say—APU is certainly an intriguing prospect. We can’t wait to see how the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 fares. Even if it sounds like AMD ran out of ideas and went to Apple’s parts bin for tech product naming schemes.