Recent rumors suggest that AMD is planning to refresh its Hawk Point family of APUs under the Ryzen 200 moniker. Over on X (formerly Twitter), Olrak , an avid silicon enthusiast, has leaked the entire line-up, including the PRO counterparts. Take the news with a measure of caution until official confirmation is received.

Hawk Twoah PointRyzen 7 260Ryzen 7 255Ryzen 7 250Ryzen 5 240Ryzen 5 230Ryzen 5 220Ryzen 3 210Ryzen 7 PRO 250Ryzen 5 PRO 230Ryzen 5 PRO 220Ryzen 3 PRO 210November 22, 2024

Hawk Point - better known as the Ryzen 8040 series - launched in December last year as the successor to AMD's notable Phoenix (Ryzen 7040) APUs. These APUs were more or less similar to the Ryzen 7040 lineup but incorporated a faster XDNA-based NPU. Bear in mind tha this is tnot the first time we've heard about a potential Hawk Point refresh. A key factor that sets these new new Hawk Point refresh or Ryzen 200 APUs apart is the absence of an NPU - which is probably physically disabled from the die - thus explaining the lack of an "AI" tag.

The Ryzen 200 series does not include a Ryzen 9 flagship offering, starting with the Ryzen 7 260 (rebadged Ryzen 7 8845) and extending down to the Ryzen 3 210 (rebadged Ryzen 3 8440). The PRO family is less extensive and packs an added layer of security and other enterprise features - targeted at business-oriented laptops.

In theory, these APUs should be cheaper as they're essentially 'defective' Ryzen 8040 processors. Based on an extensive leak detailing AMD's portfolio for the next two years, the Ryzen 200 APUs will offer upwards of eight Zen 4 cores alongside a 12 CU (Compute Unit) RDNA 3.5 iGPU (Integrated GPU). If you're in the market for something more potent, look out for AMD's Zen 5-based mainstream Krackan Point offerings early next year.

Theoretically you could argue that these APUs are inferior to Phoenix since the latter did feature an NPU - at least on the Ryzen 5 7640 and above. There might be a few adjustments to the clock speeds but that's about it. Across AMD's APU stack, the Ryzen 200 offering will occupy the mid-ranged segment while Rembrandt-R (Ryzen 7035) will continue its legacy as AMD's go-to budget choice going into 2025. That is expected since Team Red's Z2 family is rumored to be a mixture of multiple architectures - offering options at every price point.

The Ryzen 200 series of APUs is planned for a 2025 launch - scheduling them for a potential CES 2025 unveiling. Laptops equipped with these processors should follow in the coming weeks from all major laptop manufacturers.

By: DocMemory
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