AMD’s pending line of 7nm Ryzen 5000 low-power APUs known as “Van Gogh” will have Navi 2 (RDNA 2) integrated graphics and support DDR5/LPDDR5 memory, according to details spotted in a new Linux Kernel updates.
AMD’s Van Gogh APUs will have RDNA 2 and LPDDR5 support
The sharp-eyed folks of Phoronix have spotted new Linux updates that add support for Van Gogh APUs, and its patches provide more concrete evidence than we’ve previously seen that these Ryzen 5000 mobile APUs will have RDNA 2 graphics, and be built on Zen 2, with LPDDR5 support. Fixing a battle between AMD’s Van Gogh and Intel’s Y-Series Tiger Lake chips.
Along with this the code AMD has submitted in the 45 Linux kernel patches, which weigh in at 275,000 lines, also suggests that the Van Gogh will support Video Core Next 3.0, AV1 decode. In the past, Phoronix has found patches indicating VCN 3.0 is native to the Navi 2 graphics engine.
AMD set to strike again at Intel
The current wisdom is that the Van Gogh APUs will slot into the 7.8W to 18W space for ultra-thin mobile devices or notebooks to compete against Intel’s Y-series Tiger Lake chips which will start pitching up in laptops before the end of 2020. Intel’s chips currently support DDR4/LPDDR4, and according to Intel Tiger Lake will support DDR5 in the future. And of course will come with Xe integrated graphics. And that’s why RDNA 2 graphics will be key for AMD with its incoming Van Gogh APUs.
As pairing the Navi 2 (RDNA 2) graphics engine with DDR5/LPDDR5 could unlock quite a bit of graphical horsepower, as integrated graphics tend to reply well to increased memory throughput.
AMD hasn’t made any official announcements detailing the Van Gogh chips, but they’re predicted to debut in 2021, perhaps at CES? Or could we see a reveal possibly even this year? Who knows.