- AMD’s rumored “Sound Wave” chip is claimed to be an arm -based apu
- It is assumed to have “RDNA 3.5+” cus that is “enhanced” for machine learning
- Mlid’s sources claim the chip will contain 16 MB Infinity Cache
Alleged new information has been uncovered about the rumored AMD “Sound Wave” APU and claims it will be more against machine learning, with “improved RDNA 3.5” cus.
The news comes from reliable hardware -leaking Moore’s law has died in a new YouTube video, with a long list of updated specifications quoted from “End of March 2025”. It is a significant update of the previous rumor that we covered back in March 2024.
Previously, it was assumed that AMDS Sound Wave processor would be a Zen 6 mobile chip. However, it is claimed by mild that the processor will be an arm-based APU that looks like like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-Lineup instead.
Specifically, MLID’s sources claim that AMDS Sound Wave APU will be built on a TSMC 3NM node targeting 5-10W form factors, with two performance kernels, four efficiency kernels (six in total) and 4MB L3-cache. Of crucial importance, it is claimed that there will be four RDNA 3.5 -cus with “improved ml — events”, which has been named “RDNA 3.5+” unofficially to denote a difference from the current RDNA 3.5 cus available on chips.
Its AI-Computing options appear to be a main focus, as can be seen in the supposed “4th Generation AI engine” supported by 16 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM, which is said to be for the “standard” systems. Mid does not know if the newer RDNA 3.5 CUS allows FSR 4. However, gaming seems to be a secondary concern for this silicon.
An interesting development for Sound Wave APU is that it will reportedly contain 16 MB memory access at the last level (mall) cache (known by AMD users such as Infinity Cache), which is unusual for a 5-10W APU. It is curious because “Strix Point” does not have this, which is reportedly “documented” by mid.
Mid later points out how the AI engine, CPU and GPU all work on the same controller, so having the extra bandwidth of 16MB Infinity cache shared between them could be beneficial, even on such a modest chip.
AI Computing Without Stream Pulling
Although it is still early days for Sound Wave, all the rumors we have heard from the chipset sound, as if it is primarily directed around AI workloads without (usually) high power features of rival hardware. 16 MB Infinity cache does not sound like dramatic inclusion at first, but it is before taking into account that the chip is only rated between 5-10W TDP.
In addition, RDNA 3.5+ CUS could be a major driving factor in AI workloads, depending on how optimized they really are for machine learning. With a law on the 2026 release date, we will soon receive an official word from AMD, but we now know that it could be an optimized arm-based APU rather than the chip initiating Zen 6, which we previously thought.
