As part of its quarterly earnings call this week, AMD once again emphasized that its Zen5 architecture processors will be available in client and data center applications this year. While the company didn't reveal any new product information or provide a timeline beyond "later this year," AMD's latest statement reiterates AMD's plans and confirms that they remain on track.
So far, we've heard about three Zen5-based products from AMD: the StrixPoint accelerated processing unit (APU) for laptops (and possibly desktops eventually), the GraniteRidge for enthusiast desktops, and the Turin processor for data centers. In a conference call with analysts and investors, AMD's Lisa Su confirmed plans to launch Turin and Strix this year.
"Looking ahead, customers are very interested in our upcoming Turin family of EPYC processors," AMD CEO Lisa Su said during this week's earnings call. "Turin is a drop-in replacement for the existing fourth-generation EPYC platform and extends our leadership in performance, efficiency and total cost of ownership by adding next-generation Zen5 cores, new memory expansion capabilities and higher core counts."
AMD also confirmed that Turin will be compatible with existing SP5 platforms (i.e. in the LGA6096 package), have more than 96 cores, and have greater memory expansion capabilities (i.e. enhanced support for CXL and possibly support for innovative DIMMs). At the same time, the new CPU will also provide higher single-core performance and higher performance efficiency.
As for StrixPoint, Su Zifeng confirmed that it is a Zen5 component that uses an "enhanced RDNA3" graphics core (also known as Navi3.5) and an updated neural processing unit.
Su Zifeng said: "Strix combines our next-generation Zen5 cores, enhanced RDNA graphics processors and updated RyzenAI engines to significantly improve the performance, energy efficiency and AI capabilities of PCs. Strix's customer momentum is strong, and the first laptops will be available later this year."
It's worth noting that AMD leaders didn't mention Granite Ridge CPUs for enthusiast-level desktops during the conference call. Although desktop CPUs tend to have lower profit margins than mobile or server parts, they tend to be AMD's products that receive the least attention from investors. Although not mentioned, AMD has always launched consumer desktop chips earlier than server chips - in part because the latter require longer validation times - so Turin's confirmed launch in 2024 is still a positive sign for Granite Ridge.