Strix Point (Mobile) Ryzen AI 300 vs Ryzen 9000 Series
The Zen 5 architecture is featured in the latest AMD processors, specifically in the Strix Point Ryzen AI 300 series for mobile devices and the Ryzen 9000 series for desktops. They're a bit different though.
Each series is designed to cater to its respective platform with distinct technical setups. The Ryzen AI 300 mobile processors, known under the codename Strix Point, use a single, integrated circuit design, but differing from Intel's segmented approaches like Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake.
The Strix Point processors include a powerful core complex (CCX) that integrates a combination of twelve CPU cores—four high-performance Zen 5 cores and eight efficient Zen 5c cores—sharing a large 24 MB L3 cache (16+8MB). The Zen 5c cores in AMD's Strix Point design will run at lower clock frequencies and deliver slightly less performance when using maximum power. However, these cores allow AMD to efficiently use additional space on the chip for GPU and NPU functions, enhancing the overall versatility of the Zen 5 processors. Each core is equipped with its own L1 and L2 cache, and the L3 cache is divided into two sections, designated separately for Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores. Although this setup may cause minor delays because the caches need to interact, AMD assures that this will not affect performance. The processors also use advanced scheduling techniques to manage tasks efficiently, assigning less urgent tasks to the 5c cores to minimize delays.
On the other hand, the Ryzen 9000 desktop processors, referred to as Granite Ridge, feature a more complex design. Similar to the Ryzen 7000 series, these processors use multiple compute dies along with an IO die, allowing for higher scalability and performance in desktop computing environments with big L3 caches.
Both the mobile and desktop chips support simultaneous multithreading (SMT), enabling them to handle more tasks at once. The mobile processors utilize basic UEFI CPPC preferred core flagging, which helps the operating system prioritize tasks more effectively, boosting the performance of the high-capacity cores.
Zen 5 processors continue to support DDR5 memory, providing higher bandwidth and better power efficiency compared to DDR4. The integration of PCIe 5.0 lanes is also maintained, enhancing the potential for faster and more flexible system expansions. Although specific details on the number of available PCIe lanes in the Zen 5 CPUs were not disclosed, it is anticipated to be consistent with the previous Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series, which featured 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes. These lanes are typically allocated with 16 lanes dedicated to a video card, eight lanes to SSDs, and the remaining four lanes facilitating communication with the chipset.
