AMD’s Zen 5 “Strix Point” CPUs will reportedly feature a big.LITTLE design

AMD’s Zen 4 processors will likely transition the company onto 5nm silicon and into the DDR5 memory standard. Beyond that, Zen 4 will reportedly add integrated graphics to AMD’s entire desktop CPU lineup, turning all of their consumer-oriented processors into APUs. With Zen 5, AMD will reportedly deliver even more significant changes, utilising a big.LITTLE style structure like Intel’s upcoming Alder Lake platform. 

If these new rumours are to be believed, AMD’s Zen 5 “Strix Peak” processors will feature 8 “big” Zen 5 cores alongside four “little” cores. AMD’s Zen 5 processors are also due to be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm lithography process, assuming that it is ready in time for Zen 5. 

AMD’s Zen 5 architecture will reportedly be scheduled to launch in 2024, launching as the Ryzen 8000 series. AMD has reportedly already set iGPU performance targets for their Ryzen 8000 series, suggesting that integrated graphics performance will be a strong point of AMD’s “Strix Point” design. Perhaps these CPUs will deliver more gaming performance than Microsoft’s Xbox Series S system, making integrated graphics good enough for modern titles. 

With Zen 5 targeting a 2024 release timeframe, it is worth remembering that the PC market could rapidly change over the next three years. As such, AMD’s roadmap could change. This will be especially true when it comes to Zen 5’s reported use of TSMC’s 3nm lithography node, as the global semiconductor supply chain is currently in a turbulent state, making forward-planning difficult. 

MoePC has claimed that AMD’s Zen 5 architecture will feature changes to Zen’s memory subsystem and relatively large changes elsewhere. Let’s hope that this means that AMD will be continuing to boost Zen’s performance across gaming and productivity workloads, giving all hardware enthusiasts a reason to upgrade their systems.