AMD developing "Sound Wave" processor to rival Qualcomm

A recent leak suggests that AMD is developing a new processor called the "Sound Wave" APU. This chip is expected to compete with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X series and is designed for enhanced performance in machine learning tasks. According to the leak, the Sound Wave chip will be an Arm-based APU. It is reported to include upgraded features like "RDNA 3.5+" compute units (CUs) that are enhanced for machine learning. This information comes from a reliable hardware leaker known as Moore's Law is Dead. The new processor is said to be built on a TSMC 3nm node. It will reportedly target power consumption between 5-10 watts and include two performance cores and four efficiency cores. Additionally, it may have a total of 4MB of L3 cache and 16MB of Infinity Cache, which is designed to improve overall performance. The Sound Wave APU is expected to have a strong focus on AI computing. It will reportedly feature a 4th Generation AI Engine supported by 16GB of LPDDR5X-9600 RAM. However, it remains unclear whether this new chip will support technologies like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) for gaming. This new development signifies a shift in AMD's strategy, with an emphasis on AI workloads while keeping power consumption low. The official launch of the Sound Wave APU is rumored to be in 2026, but AMD has not confirmed these details yet.