AMD is preparing a new brand line of Van Gogh Ryzen low-power mobile APUs that will soon be targeted at the notebook segment. We have heard a few details of these APUs, which will incorporate a very different architecture compared to the Cezanne APUs starting under the standard segments U and H series.
AMD Van Gogh Ultra-Low Power Ryzen APUs to Function Zen 2 CPU & RDNA 2 GPU Architecture in 7.5W-18W TDP Configurations
We got interesting new details yesterday about the Zen 3 based Cezanne APUs from Twitter user Patrick Schur and today he leaked information about the Van Gogh APUs in his latest tweet. The AMD Van Gogh APUs will be part of the Ryzen family and are assumed to be part of the Ryzen 5000 family.
Van Gogh (UN)
FF3 BGA 7.5 – 18 watts
Zen 2 Navi LPDDR5– Patrick Schur (@patrickschur_) 21 August 2020
The tweet mentions that Ryzen AMDs from AMD that are part of the Van Gogh family will have two key technologies. These include the Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU architecture. The design will be different from anything AMD has done on the PC platform, but the same two architectures are included for the next-generation consoles of Microsoft and Sony. The existing Ryzen 4000 Renoir APUs will feature the Zen 2 CPU and Vega GPU architecture, while the upcoming Cezanne APU family will feature the Zen 3 CPU and Vega Enhanced GPU architecture.
While we already know the full potential of the Zen 2 CPU architecture, it’s likely that those using Van Gogh APUs will be based on an improved 7nm process node. You could even call it Zen 2+, which will provide improved efficiency and much better clock durability. The GPU side on the other hand will get a major upgrade in the form of RDNA 2.
AMD’s RDNA 2 GPUs will provide improved performance per watt design over RDNA 1. Internal AMD upgrades have shown a 50% increase in performance per watt. We have yet to see an RDNA GPU in action in an integrated chip design and Van Gogh may just be the first to show how the next gen Navi 2X GPUs perform in a monolithic APU design. We can expect a big jump in overall performance over 7nm Vega GPUs, but the main bottleneck will come from the memory & cache design of Van Gogh APUs.
To reduce the bandwidth issues, AMD’s Van Gogh Ryzen APUs are expected to have LPDDR5 memory. The evolution of LPDDR4x memory provides up to 50% faster data transfer rates as well as higher bandwidth, which would help to provide improved graphics performance. As for the TDPs, the Van Gogh-based Ryzen APUs will include configurations that start at 7.5W and can be configured up to 18W. Van Gogh could be positioned to tackle both Tiger Lake-Y 9W and Tiger Lake-U 15W chips, which will surely be an interesting competition in the notebook segment.
Update: MebiuW over on Twitter shared an image from an internal AMD roadmap showing both Van Gogh and Cezanne’s family of APUs along with their core architectures.
CVML means a computer vision & machine learning accelerator? pic.twitter.com/fXW4306FHB
– MebiuW (@MebiuW) August 22, 2020
AMD Ryzen 5000 ‘Van Gogh’ – Low Power Mobile APUs with Zen 2 CPU & Navi 21 GPU
There is no word on when these chips will launch, but previous reports have indicated late 2020 as a possible release date, but I expect the announcement will take place alongside AMD’s Ryzen 5000 ‘Cezanne’ family unveiled at CES 2021.
The Van Gogh CPUs are also reported in A0 revision. Earlier leaks have indicated that Van Gogh probably has Zen 2 CPU cores and Navi GPU cores. While Zen 2 has proven to be a very efficient chip for the low power segment, the most interesting part of the Van Gogh APUs will be its graphics chip which will not only be based on a better graphics architecture than Vega, but AMD’s RDNA 2 IP. The specific GPU for the Van Gogh APUs is said to be Navi 21.
Again, the use of the Navi 21 code name here may confuse many people, but just like Vega 20, which is the code name for the 2nd Gen Vega (7nm) graphic IP, the Navi 21 code name could be there around the 2nd Gen Navi (7nm) graphics IP. We are aware that Navi 21 is also the code name used for the Big Navi GPU, but this is the very reason why I hate to explain earlier that details for just Ryzen 5000 ‘Cezanne’ APUs are concrete at the moment, while the rest of the setups are mostly based on speculated evidence from various sources.
