A leak detailing AMD’s new Strix Point Halo chips reveals configurations and seemingly official names for these powerful CPUs aimed at gaming laptops (and possibly handhelds). Less welcome, however, is a new hint that these processors could be shockingly expensive.
In case you missed the buzz surrounding the Strix Point Halo (often just called Strix Halo), these are the top-of-the-line Strix Point models. The standard Strix Point chips are called the Ryzen AI 300, while the Strix Halo CPUs are rumored to be called the Ryzen AI Max 300.
Video cardz picked up the rumor that comes from Golden Pig Upgrade, a known leaker on Weibo which gives us the first three processors that AMD will release in this price range, and their key specifications.
These are as follows:
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 – 16 cores (Zen 5) + 40 compute units (RDNA 3.5 graphics)
- Ryzen AI Max 390 – 12 cores + 40 compute units
- Ryzen AI Max 385 – 8 cores + 32 compute units
Of course, we should be skeptical here – as with all rumors – but the specs match what we’ve heard before and the naming makes sense to us. “Max” seems like a fitting label to adorn these CPUs with (it gives us a hint of Apple vibes, it must be said).
The leaker also reports that the Strix Halo will support up to 96GB of video memory, indicating that AMD is targeting the chip at professional users and the notebook market, rather than just gaming laptops.
Here’s where there’s a little disturbing twist Video cardz also saw a post on X (from Hoang Anh Phu) highlighting that GPD, a manufacturer of gaming laptops and handhelds, recently downgraded a notebook from a Strix Point CPU (HX 370) to an older Hawk Point processor (Ryzen 7 8840U).
GPD rep suggested HX 370 (Strix Point) price for OEMs. No surprise. Maybe AMD is taking more Zen 5 profits from laptops to offset desktops. Just imagine how much Strix Halo will cost! pic.twitter.com/gkrFfgGPf1September 20, 2024
The reason? The report claims that the Strix Point chips twice as muchand therefore GPD has reduced the laptop’s bill of materials cost to keep it at a more reasonable level.
Now the concern is that if Strix Point is so expensive – again, add spice, and lots of it – what kind of financial toll will Strix Halo take? As we said at the outset, this fuels the fear that Halo will be prohibitively expensive.
Analysis: End of the supercharged handheld dream?
We’ve always been concerned about the Strix Halo’s price point, given how powerful these mobile offerings are said to be. To put the (alleged) performance of the integrated RDNA 3.5 graphics into perspective, AMD’s standalone GPU, the RX 7600 XT (RDNA 3), has 32 Compute Units, as does the low-end Ryzen AI Max 385 – so the high-end Max+ 395 edges it out for that key spec by quite a bit, with 40 Compute Units. What’s more, Halo runs on RDNA 3.5, meaning there’s a revamped RDNA 3 architecture that’s been refined, so it’s probably faster on that basis too.
So, these are some seriously supercharged chips, and if Strix Point has laptop makers thinking about cost, what will Strix Halo look like? Will these heavyweight chips even be suitable for, say, a gaming handheld, given the price point? Or is Halo really more reserved for workstation laptops, given AMD’s clear positioning noted above?
As ever, we can’t rely too much on rumors, and this is just one isolated case from a single laptop vendor in any case. Still, it’s easy to see why there’s now some concern about the future, especially regarding handhelds boosted by the Strix Halo (or Ryzen AI Max, preferably), and how expensive that silicon could make thin-and-light gaming laptops too.
Still, as previously noted, no one expected the Strix Halo to be even remotely affordable. It’s just a hint that the price could be higher than most people imagined.
