Discussion AMD’s Custom APU Discussion Thread

[Tigerick]

Next Gen XBox Consoles and Handheld Preliminary Specs

	ROG Xbox Ally / SteamDeck OLED	PS6 Handheld ?	ROG Xbox Ally X		PS5	Steam Console Fremont	Xbox Series S		Xbox Series X	X2 ?		PS5 Pro	PS6 ?
Date	2025	Fall 2027 ?	2025		2020		2020		2020			2024	Fall 2027?
Codename	Aerith Plus	Canis	Strix Point			Hawk Point				Magnus		Custom	Orion
Model	Z2A		Z2 Extreme AI
	N6	3 nm	N4P		N6	N4 + N6	N7		N7P	N3P + N3P ?		N4P	3nm Single Die
		135 mm2 ?	233 mm2		260 mm2	178 + 204 = 382 mm2	197 mm2		360.45 mm2	144 + 264 = 408 mm2		279 mm2	280 mm2
CPU	4 x Zen 2	4 x Zen 6c + 2 x Zen 6 LP	4 x Zen 5 + 4 x Zen 5c		8 x Zen 2	6 x Zen 4 <= 16MB L3	8 x Zen 2		8 x Zen 2	3 x Zen 6 + 8 Zen 6c 12MB L3		8 x Zen 2	7 x Zen 6c + 2 x Zen 6 LP 8-12 MB L3?
						8GB 128-bit DDR5
GPU	RDNA2 8CU	RDNA5 16 CU	RDNA3.5 16CU		RDNA2 36CU	RX-7600 RDNA3 32CU 32MB IC	RDNA2 20CU		RDNA2 52CU	RDNA5 68CU 12MB L2 ?		RDNA2 60CU	RDNA5 52CU 10MB L2
Memory	16GB 128-bit LPDDR5-6400	18GB 192-bit LPDDR5x-8533	24GB 128-bit LPDDR5x-8000		16GB 256-bit GDDR6	8GB 128-bit GDDR6	8GB 128-bit+ 2GB 32-bit GDDR6		10GB 320-bit GDDR6 + 6GB 192-bit GDDR6	18GB 192-bit 36Gbps GDDR7 ?		16GB 256-bit GDDR6	20GB 160-bit 32Gbps GDDR7 ?
Memory Bandwidth	102 GB/s	204 GB/s	120 GB/s		448 GB/s	288 GB/s	224 GB/s		560 GB/s	864 GB/s		576 GB/s	640 GB/s

 

[marees]

This sounds like a problem exclusive to US residents, though.

And given how fast these things have been changing, tariffs seem more likely to go away than to stay.

Only market pressure can reduce price .... and there is zero pressure at the moment. Things can change in 3 years time, tho

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Only market pressure can reduce price .... and there is zero pressure at the moment. Things can change in 3 years time, tho

Of course, which is why I mentioned the fact that in 2027 the market should have full volume production of SF2P/X from Samsung and 18A from Intel.

 

[511]

Of course, which is why I mentioned the fact that in 2027 the market should have full volume production of SF2P/X from Samsung and 18A from Intel.

The only one who will be Using 18A is Intel mostly their expectations for End of 2026 is 20K WSPM. Samsung I don't have an idea.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

The only one who will be Using 18A is Intel mostly their expectations for End of 2026 is 20K WSPM. Samsung I don't have an idea.

Each 18A wafer Intel produces for themselves is a N3P wafer they don't order from TSMC, though.

 

[511]

Each 18A wafer Intel produces for themselves is a N3P wafer they don't order from TSMC, though.

Yeah they are eating double margins and they can make company market Made in America Stamp 🤣🤣 as a bonus.
I bet Dell/HP would put it in their marketing.

 

[Tigerick]

Magnus SoC = Medusa Premium SoC ?

View attachment 130277

Hoho, I am pretty sure Magnus SoC is having same die as Medusa Premium SoC with 4 x Zen6 + 8 x Zen6c CPU. That's mean Magnus is not using custom design at all. Due to low sales volume, Microsoft no longer afford to custom design SoC and going to use off the shelf silicons from AMD; just like upcoming Valve's Fremont. Magnus is using combination of Medusa Premium SoC+CPU and AT2 GPU with 18GB? 192-bit GDDR7 as total system memory. Of course, to justify low BOM, AMD will cut many features from the die:

• One Zen6 core.
• STX is having 16+8=24MB L3 cache, Medusa Premium should have the same amount of L3 cache even though the CPUs are having different cluster design. Thus, Magnus SoC's L3 cache might be cut by half.
• AMD might disable certain amount of PCIe and USB PHY.
• There is no NPU and GPU integrated with SoC, thus the die size of 144mm2 might be true. Therefore, Medusa Premium SoC should be smaller than Medusa Point APU (4+4+2) with GPU and NPU.

MLID has updated info about Magnus; He leaked the orange area is NPU @ 110TOPS. And that confirms my suspicious: Magnus SoC is the same as Medusa Premium SoC.

As for target price of $800 seems a bit high. I am estimating $600 depending on the amount of GDDR7 RAM. And it confirms my theory about NPU: AMD will double down the NPU power up to 110TOPS; hope nobody should believe in non-sense removal of NPU.

 

[marees]

He leaked the orange area is NPU @ 110TOPS. And that confirms my suspicious: Magnus SoC is the same as Medusa Premium SoC.

Can you elaborate

How come magnus & medusa premium share the same cpu chiplet ?

What is the basis for this assumption ??

 

[adroc_thurston]

What is the basis for this assumption ??

voices in his head

 

[Darkmont]

voices in his head

It’s the forum equivalent to smearing feces on the walls

 

[ToTTenTranz]

MLID has updated info about Magnus; He leaked the orange area is NPU @ 110TOPS.

Which is again decoupled from the GPU's caches so it'll probably be worthless for upscalers and frame-gens.

I'm not sure why Microsoft would pay for expensive N2 die area for this, when it's going to compete with both the CPU and GPU for memory bandwidth and the RDNA5 GPU is reportedly more than capable of providing enough FP4/FP8/BF8/etc. throughput.

Unless it's really just for using AI models to do voice/face recognition on low power and wake up the device.

 

[SteinFG]

I'm not sure why Microsoft would pay for expensive N2 die area for this

It was Microsoft's idea in the first place - to force AMD and Intel to include useless 50 tops NPUs on windows laptops.

And besides, MLID says the GPU and SOC are both N3, not N2. Kinda obvious, since laptop Zen 6 is also N3.

The rest of leaked specs are kinda weird though - 3+8 CPU with one of the cores disabled? 12MB L3? Seems really random.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

It was Microsoft's idea in the first place - to force AMD and Intel to include useless 50 tops NPUs on windows laptops.

And besides, MLID says the GPU and SOC are both N3, not N2. Kinda obvious, since laptop Zen 6 is also N3.

The rest of leaked specs are kinda weird though - 3+8 CPU with one of the cores disabled? 12MB L3? Seems really random.

I thought I heard him claiming N2 for the CPU+NPU tile but could be wrong.


Just 12MB L3 for all those cores seems really strange indeed.

 

[marees]

Why is Magnus having a 'low power mode' for the NPU

Wasn't the Raison d'être for having the NPU primarily that it consumes less power than the igpu. If that's the case then why does a desktop APU need a low power mode for the NPU ??

 

[adroc_thurston]

Why is Magnus having a 'low power mode' for the NPU

So it can use botnet cameras to spy on you in standby.

 

[NTMBK]

Why is Magnus having a 'low power mode' for the NPU

Wasn't the Raison d'être for having the NPU primarily that it consumes less power than the igpu. If that's the case then why does a desktop APU need a low power mode for the NPU ??

So the camera can detect you saying McDonald's

 

[Doug S]

I guess I found a use for having AI in my phone - I could have it listening in the background while I'm watching TV so it can shout the brand name necessary to end the commercial early! 💀

 

[Geddagod]

Any rumors on what cores this product actually uses? X925?

 

[branch_suggestion]

So the camera can detect you saying McDonald's

Ironically this is a Sony patent.

 

[branch_suggestion]

Any rumors on what cores this product actually uses? X925?

C1-Ultra assuming this was always a 2026 product.