Recently, on Weibo, a Lenovo China executive commented on a post discussing AMD’s rumored Zen 5 IPC enhancement. AMD’s upcoming Zen 5 series of processors is rumored to get a 40% IPC (instructions per cycle) boost. Rumor has it that AMD is seeing about a 40% improvement in SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation), which recently accused Intel of inflating its benchmark scores, and AMD had no part of the blame.
However, a Lenovo executive reacted with some surprise as apparently internal tests show a 10% increase. This 10% gain is based on Cinebench R23 single thread test numbers.
The management’s surprise is hardly surprising indeed. It is no easy task to achieve a 40% IPC improvement in one generation without a massive architectural overhaul. For example, AMD achieved a 52% jump with a 1st gen strain over a 4th gen bulldozer, but we all know how awful the bulldozer was.
While there is a slim chance that SPEC will actually see a 40% boost, 10% seems more realistic and far more likely in various tasks, unless AMD manages to get its hat out.
Interestingly, a Lenovo executive also revealed that Windows 10 driver support will be ended by AMD with Strix Point APUs. This implies that the focus will be mainly on Windows 11 24H2 only and it also makes sense given that the hype is around the NPU and AI performance of these parts, as well as the next generation Strix Halo, which is rumored to be very powerful.
A Lenovo manager in China, with the Weibo username 手机未来啊 the city (Through wccftech):
About 40%, what I see is Zen5 relative to Zen4 IPC increased by 10%, in CR23 1T test, increased by 10% Please note, from Strix Point, AMD does not provide Win10 driver
In Google’s English translation, it says:
Where did you get the 40%? What I saw was that Zen5 increased by 10% compared to Zen4 IPC, while in the CR23 1T test, the increase was more than 10%. Also, Win10 enthusiasts please note that starting at Strix Point, AMD will not provide a Win10 driver
Ryzen 8050 series or Strix Point Mobile APU was first revealed by AMD last year in December. For those wondering, the Ryzen 8040 series is codenamed “Hawk Point”. According to the company, Strix Point is “under surveillance“For release in the second half (2H) of the year.
Oddly enough, AMD may be looking to update the Ryzen 8050-series Strix Point name to “Ryzen AI HX” at least according to Asus’ listed laptop parts (via @harukaze5719 at X/formerly Twitter).
However, keep in mind that the AMD chipset driver, including the latest one, does support the desktop Ryzen 8000 series which is different from the Ryzen 8050 that the article is about.