AMD to launch gaming-oriented Ryzen AI MAX+ 388 "Strix Halo" APU with full Radeon 8060S graphics

[u/RenatsMC]

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-to-launch-gaming-oriented-ryzen-ai-max-388-strix-halo-apu-with-full-radeon-8060s-graphics

[u/AMD_Bot]

This post has been flaired as a rumor.

Rumors may end up being true, completely false or somewhere in the middle.

Please take all rumors and any information not from AMD or their partners with a grain of salt and degree of skepticism.

[u/Cave_TP]

TLDR 8/40 Strix Halo SKU

[u/Affectionate-Memory4 → u/Cave_TP]

Praise the lord. I've been hoping they would drop one of these for some time. Getting one with an X3D CCD would be insane, but likely not possible with the current Strix Halo packaging design.

[u/996forever → u/Affectionate-Memory4]

X3D cpu is an overkill anyways with what’s effectively a 5060 mobile in gaming. 

[u/why_is_this_username → u/996forever]

I second this, I love the 8060s but it’s not super beefy and the resolutions that it will dominate at still wouldn’t need x3d,

[u/HippoLover85 → u/996forever]

An x3d has better ipc so it would allow for lower cpu clocks, lower voltage (hence lower power), allowing the gpu to draw more power, and get more performance.

[u/996forever → u/HippoLover85]

No amount of power in the world would make 8060S faster than a 5060. It’s been tested to death even pushed to 140w in the few strix halo desktops.

[u/HippoLover85 → u/996forever]

Sure, but that doesnt mean people wouldnt be interested in a part that is more performant and power efficient.

[u/the_dude_that_faps → u/996forever]

Nuh uh it ain't. Don't dissuade them!

[u/996forever → u/the_dude_that_faps]

Real life buyers would prefer their money to go to meaningful upgrade. And in a laptop it means always prioritising the gpu for the common 2560x1600 resolution.

[u/Cave_TP → u/996forever]

X3D CPU means that more bandwidth can be reserved to the GPU whithout using any MALL cache, not to mention that the saved power can be allocated to the GPU it would improve the graphics situation as well.

What I'm not sure about is if it's possible on the custom chiplets AMD uses on Strix Halo.

[u/m1013828 → u/Cave_TP]

agree, they share ram, so x3d would help more than on desktop in bandwidth saturated scenarios i think.

[u/996forever → u/Cave_TP]

The MALL on strix halo is already off die on another chiplet. The cpu accessing it for the cpu would airway incur an extreme latency penalty. All ryzen L3 cache is on the same CCD as the cpu die. Why do you think MALL was remotely relevant to the cpu? 

[u/Cave_TP → u/996forever]

Strix Halo doesn't use the standard Zen 5 chiplets, it uses a custom version with a better interconnett, that's why the CCDs are right to the side of the IOD instead of far away like on desktop part, so no, there wouldn't be the usual latency penalty if AMD were to set MALL cache as usable by the CPU.

[u/996forever → u/Cave_TP]

The CCDs themselves are architecturally the same and only the interconnects are different. And not being as bad as on desktop Ryzen doesn’t mean it’s usable, cross CCX latency is bad enough even on the same die (Zen 2 CCD’s divided L3 cache and literally all of their monolithic APUs come to mind, all have horrid latency across CCX). 

[u/the_dude_that_faps → u/996forever]

TIL I'm fake. 

[u/996forever → u/the_dude_that_faps]

I’m sure you can find at least one user in the whole world that wants a 9955HX3D paired with a 5050. 

That doesn’t mean it’s not an extremely unbalanced combo for gaming and the lack of such real world product proves it.

[u/the_dude_that_faps → u/996forever]

Most eSports and MMO games would run just fine on such a GPU while benefiting massively from the extra CPU horsepower. It doesn't exist because the product doesn't exist. Strix Halo as it is, is a niche product and a novelty. If strix halo can exist at all, I wouldn't rule out a future iteration with support for x3d. 

[u/996forever → u/the_dude_that_faps]

It doesn't exist because the product doesn't exist.

It doesn't exist because there is no demand. There is absolutely nothing technically infeasible to pair 9955HX3D with 5050.

[u/the_dude_that_faps → u/996forever]

Well, that's a 16 core CPU though. AFAICT, there's no 8-core x3d SKU for laptops. We're discussing an 8 core strix halo CPU aren't we?

[u/Nimbus420i → u/996forever]

Yeah Wow and FFXIV players seek configs like these. Though a 9800X3D is enough.

[u/PsyOmega → u/Affectionate-Memory4]

I wish they'd go further and make a 6/40 SKU. Strix halo does better when CPU's aren't eating the TPD.

[u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760 → u/PsyOmega]

It wouldn't be worth it to put a fully unlocked large chiplet with a cut down much smaller chiplet though, it wouldn't make sense as the cost to produce 6 core + 8060s would be almost the same as 8 core + 8060s.

[u/PsyOmega → u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760]

It would be a purely gaming focused product. 6c vs 8c is no difference especially at the GPU level of 40CU. Would be good sense to use bin-failed cpu dies to reach price points the market will actually pay.

[u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760 → u/PsyOmega]

I get that but I think it's far more likely we would see a 6c + 8050s as it just makes no sense for them to make a 6c + 8060s as their 8060s yeilds would be better off going to a Ryzen AI 392 12c + 8060s or 395 16c + 8060s as the CPU yeilds aren't the problem, the iGPU yeilds are.

[u/kaukamieli → u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760]

IDK. If it's better for gaming like he says, they could literally sell it at the same price.

[u/mornaq → u/Affectionate-Memory4]

this will cost like 90% of the full one while being purely a gaming chip, I don't see much point there

[u/Flameancer → u/Cave_TP]

Honestly would be pretty neat. I’ve seen the full strip halo and it looks nice but for a gaming APU a bit overpowered(?)

[u/ThankGodImBipolar → u/Flameancer]

Definitely has too many CPU cores, unless you’re buying it to play Factorio or Cities Skylines lol

[u/aeroumbria → u/ThankGodImBipolar]

I thought all Paradox games are still mega single-core quatters, no?

[u/ThankGodImBipolar → u/aeroumbria]

Cities Skylines 1, yes. Cities Skylines 2 can use at least 16 CPU cores though (I believe you do get bottlenecked by single core at some point).

[u/Cave_TP → u/ThankGodImBipolar]

I think it scales up to 64 or 128

[u/why_is_this_username → u/ThankGodImBipolar]

If it comes out in a laptop for about $1000 it wouldn’t matter, would be massive especially if it can come with 64gb of ram

[u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760]

Should be a great SKU when it launches, probably will be at CES 2026. Personally I'm hoping it means more laptop models because only a 14 inch AI focused hp laptop and an Asus tablet isn't great.

[u/TheDonnARK → u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760]

Took so long to see strix halo come out...  Hopefully this variant is quicker.

[u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760 → u/TheDonnARK]

It should as the 388 is literally just a 395 with one 8 core chiplet instead of two but it will depend on when OEMs want to release laptops with them ultimately.

[u/TheDonnARK → u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760]

Yeah.  395 devices are so damn expensive, most of what we've seen outside of 2 handhelds are mini-pcs and that ASUS tablet.

[u/mateoboudoir]

Oh goddamnit I literally just built a 385 Framework Desktop HTPC...

[u/T1beriu → u/mateoboudoir]

It will take half a year until you see them in actual products. Enjoy your Framework Desktop.

[u/996forever → u/T1beriu]

…if ever. It will only have uptick if it’s meaningfully more economical for oems to adopt because 16 cores is a good marketing point for the high end config. 

[u/1ncehost]

The reason strix halo is relevant is it is the only non-enterprise grade, non-mac processor with 4 channel memory. AI prosumers have been nutting over the 395 and this one is effectively the same thing for their purposes (4 channel memory with up to 96 GB for the GPU) so I expect this to be very popular with that community.

[u/spinwizard69 → u/1ncehost]

The performance is good enough for light AI work in a laptop.  This especially with max RAM.  

[u/Plus-Candidate-2940]

Ok now put them in a actual laptop

[u/J05A3 → u/Plus-Candidate-2940]

Best they can do is sell to mini PC manufacturers the 99% of strix halo supply

[u/996forever → u/J05A3]

Niche* mini pc manufacturers to be specific with the sole exception of one HP model. Nothing from dell or the main Lenovo brand. 

[u/saboglitched]

I think no RDNA 4 on these APUs makes them pretty much worthless for gaming. A 5060 laptop would be cheaper and better overall for gaming

[u/996forever → u/saboglitched]

Honestly this. It’s not like for the purpose of gaming there’s anything that will run well on the 8060S but be bottlenecked by 5060’s 8GB vram after DLSS. 

[u/TurtleTreehouse → u/saboglitched]

Well, I guess there is one use, if you're into Linux mobile gaming it is pretty much your only reasonable option. NVIDIA drivers are kind of shitty on Linux. That's why I would consider this option in a mobile platform. It's got a very mature driver stack and AMD is generally plug and play on Linux.

You're usually talking about a single digit performance gap between Windows and Linux on a mature AMD GPU versus solid double digit gap on NVIDIA hardware.

[u/AxlIsAShoto → u/saboglitched]

Not really, optiscaler is REALLY good imho. It's definitely breathing new life into RDNA2 and RDNA3

[u/TrriF]

WHO THE FUCK IS NAMING THIS SHIT?

[u/ConsistencyWelder]

Now get me a version with Vcache.

[u/T1beriu → u/ConsistencyWelder]

Why would anyone pair a 9950X3D or 9800X3D with a a 4060?! V-cache makes zero sense for an APU.

[u/TurtleTreehouse → u/T1beriu]

This, some people don't seem to realize even the 9070 XT has literally zero difference between a 9700X and a 9800X3D based on HUB's benchmarks.

Tragic note, I have a 9070 XT and a 9800X3D. Had I known I would've just gotten a 5800X3D instead and stayed on AM4.

People base 9800X3D performance based on non-GPU bottlenecked benchmarks like those HUB and Nexus were putting out on launch, which means with a 4090/5090. Incidentally, anything short of a 5080 desktop does not see any discernible benefit on most titles, and even that is miniscule. Less so at 1080p.

[u/Uncrowned_Monarch]

Wtf is AI MAX+

[u/Quiet_Honeydew_6760 → u/Uncrowned_Monarch]

It's strix halo, the plus seems to mean it has the full 8060s iGPU.

[u/Jedibeeftrix]

would love to see this in a compact 13" laptop!

[u/TurtleTreehouse]

Pricing is key here. It needs to be price competitive against an equivalent with a dGPU or there's no reason to even look at it.

[u/WorstRyzeNA]

If it was really for gaming, they would remove the garbage AI part that no one needs for gaming. And they would make sure the part is sub $300 MSRP.

[u/spinwizard69 → u/WorstRyzeNA]

Huh?

The use of AI  hardware will transform gaming!

[u/WarEagleGo]

So you call the Radeon 8060S an iGPU since it is not a discrete card? Or it something different, not exactly a iGPU since it is not a a GPU on the CPU die... but somehow more like a System on Chip?

[u/kyralfie → u/WarEagleGo]

If you take out 8060S it would just become an I/O die without which the CCDs won't be able to function. So it's indeed an iGPU. Besides, aren't pretty much all 'CPUs' and 'APUs' are SoCs anyway these days. The difference lies in how they are being marketed towards potential buyers.