Monday, November 2nd 2026
AMD Zen 7 "Grimlock" APUs to Feature New RDNA 5+ Graphics in 2029, Leaker Claims
Leaker Kepler_L2 says AMD will bring RDNA 5+ to its Zen 7 "Grimlock" APUs in 2029. He posted on the NeoGAF forum, replying to a user who guessed RDNA 5 would trickle down to regular mobile chips in 2028 or later. His answer was "RDNA5+ in 2029 with Grimlock." He gave no details on how RDNA 5+ differs from RDNA 5, and AMD hasn't confirmed the name or timing. Grimlock is the codename for the Zen 7 Ryzen generation. This update follows Kepler_L2's January claim that AMD is splitting its APU roadmap in two. Products that don't need strong integrated graphics, like office laptops or laptops with a high-end discrete GPU, stay on RDNA 3.5 until 2029, while "premium" parts get RDNA 5. Medusa Halo is expected to be one of those.
The picture is messy, though. We previously reported that Medusa Point should get RDNA 4m, a tweaked RDNA 3.5 with FSR 4 support, and AMD's HIPRT 3.2 release notes list Medusa support for gfx1170, gfx1171 and gfx115E. The gfx115x family is RDNA 3.5, so it looks like at least one Medusa chip could stick with it. If this ends up being true, anyone waiting on a mainstream Ryzen laptop or handheld with RDNA 5 graphics may be waiting a long time. That's a long run for one iGPU architecture, but of course, this is all leak territory until AMD says something concrete.
Sources:
Kepler_L2 on NeoGAF, via Videocardz
The picture is messy, though. We previously reported that Medusa Point should get RDNA 4m, a tweaked RDNA 3.5 with FSR 4 support, and AMD's HIPRT 3.2 release notes list Medusa support for gfx1170, gfx1171 and gfx115E. The gfx115x family is RDNA 3.5, so it looks like at least one Medusa chip could stick with it. If this ends up being true, anyone waiting on a mainstream Ryzen laptop or handheld with RDNA 5 graphics may be waiting a long time. That's a long run for one iGPU architecture, but of course, this is all leak territory until AMD says something concrete.
20 Comments on AMD Zen 7 "Grimlock" APUs to Feature New RDNA 5+ Graphics in 2029, Leaker Claims
Then again I guess that would cut into their own Radeon dGPUs, but they are not exactly giving any attention to that either.
I'd really love to know exactly why they are thinking this way.
I would still love a more rounded AMD laptop instead of needing to see about what Nvidida discreet GPU is in it.
Hopefully AMD wakes up and realizes endlessly repackaging RDNA 3 as RDNA 3.5,
4m3.6 etc. won't pay off.The fact that APUs are still monolithic and follow a completely separate dev/tech/fab/release cadence than AMD's mainline CPUs and GPUs feels like a huge miss on AMD's part.
An Arc G3 or Z2 extreme are well over $1,000, too expensive for a handheld system, at that pricing I'd rather be able to sit down at a desk to play PC games.
www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-s-Arc-G3-Extreme-is-often-more-than-50-faster-than-AMD-s-Ryzen-Z2-Extreme-at-35-Watts.1330115.0.html
Both are overpriced but the Intel system egregiously so. Not many people spending $1,800 on a handheld just for gaming. At $500 the Steam deck was already an expensive handheld option (it's not $500 anymore), At $1,000 the ROG Alley is a luxury handheld. At $1,800, the G3 Extreme claw (and that's on the cheaper end for products coming with this chip), it's a niche of a niche.
In general the only handheld I can see maintaining notable sales is the steam deck. Otherwise the gaming handheld form factor just has too many compromises being focused only on gaming.
Right now these companies should focus on value if they want to maintain the market. Hard to do given memory pricing, it might just be the market takes a backseat for awhile. Sometimes that happnes, just like VR right now.
The chiplet solutions they use for CPUs are even worse than that, they have several drawbacks: slow data interconnect, high latency (relatively speaking), and high power usage. It's why they use monolithic APUs: they are mobile chips where they can't afford the chip to use +15W just for the chiplet interconnects.
Zen 6 is said to switch this to a parallel connection like the 7800/7900 that fixes most issues. Strix Halo already used that. It's still not enough for GPUs though, those have to be on the I/O die. They are supposedly making a 24CU I/O die codenamed AT4, but it'll be exclusively used for the lower-end strix/gorgon halo successor and low-end dGPU, and will probably never come out for AM5.Yeah, those new arc b370/b390 igpus are monstrously good. They are something like 60% as fast as Strix Halo in games. Shame they are too expensive and not available for desktop.
More importantly, they DO make what you want. Its called Strix Halo. But you'd probably say it costs far too much, leading us back to the original problem: low end consumer hardware doest make much money, and when supply is limited it isnt gonna be a focus of the company.
Besides, the relative performance difference is better than the price difference. G3X hitting 62 FPS at 18 W, Z2 Extreme needs 35 W to get 59.5. At 10 W it's 42 vs 27 FPS.
From the TPU review of a G3 Extreme device.
The difference between G3 and G3 Extreme GPU is 10 vs 12 Xe cores and a bit of frequency.
That alone is part of the reason I was looking forward to this new APU but if it is slated to 2029 that means it launches in 2030, and given AMDs track record with APUs it will be released on AM5 in 2031 at earliest, if it is released on it at all (Gorgon Point was a paper launch). That's way too late for something with an iGPU at most 2-3x better than the 8600G (which Intel already has now, just not in desktop).What interconnects did the 7800/7900 use? I thought they used a similar sea of wires parallel interconnect already.