We have already seen the RDNA 2 graphics architecture integrated into the APUs for video game consoles newer on the market, since new SONY and Microsoft consoles such as Valve’s future Steam Deck were launched less than a year ago. All of them have an integrated GPU of different specifications, but with a common architecture: RDNA 2. That is why it should not surprise us that future AMD APUs also integrate a graphics of that architecture. However, it does not seem that they are going to be the only ones and it is that apparently AMD could do like Intel and launch models with integrated GPU in its future range of desktop CPUs.
The AMD Ryzen “Raphael”, Zen 4, with integrated RDNA 2 GPU?
Through a leak from the future Socket AM5 documentation we can see a major shift in the way AMD is going to approach its Zen 4-based desktop CPUs, which are codenamed Raphael, following AMD’s trend of using famous historical painters to name their future PC processors. .
Well, according to the documentation let’s see Zen 4 processors with integrated RDNA 2 GPU, which in principle could refer to APUs of laptops based on Zen 4, which we do not expect until 2023, ported to socket AM5. A maneuver similar to the one that AMD itself has made with the AMD Ryzen 5000G, but if we remember the route maps that have been leaked from AMD itself, there was References to the implementation of Navi 2 / RDNA 2 in Zen 4 “Raphael”.
What is surprising about this information? Simple, Raphael is the successor to the current Ryzen 5000 or “Vermeer” for desktop. CPUs that are not APUs by not having integrated graphics and they are built by chiplets where the Northbridge is separated from the chip or chips that include the cores and their caches in the form of a chip called IOD.
This translates to AMD would have created a second IOD with a graphics integrated in it, it would be like an APU but built on chiplets. The new IOD would also include the display controller and the video codec, which always accompany all GPUs. However, it should be noted that such information could refer to Phoenix, the code name of the successor to Rembrandt and Raphael that will be released in 2023.
The Socket AM5’s own leaked specification diagram indicates that it has connections to HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 video outputs. This in principle would not prove anything, since in AM4 we already have more than one APU with integrated graphics. In any case, in the coming weeks or months we will get rid of doubts about those hypothetical AMD Raphael based on Zen 4 with integrated RDNA 2 GPU.
