AMD, in collaboration with ASUS, has addressed the high inter-core latency problems affecting its Strix Point APUs (Ryzen AI 9 365, 370, and 375). A BIOS update significantly reduces latency, resulting in noticeable performance improvements.
The complex die design of Zen 5 chips, combining Zen 5 and Zen 5c core clusters, led to excessive latency between the different core types, impacting multi-threaded performance. While a similar issue with desktop Ryzen 9000 processors was resolved earlier, the Strix Point APUs continued to suffer from this problem.
As shown in the leaked table, typical inter-core latency between Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores ranged from 160-180 ns. The experimental BIOS update drastically reduces this to 60-70 ns, a substantial improvement.
While the latency between different core types remains higher than within the same core type (Zen 5 to Zen 5 or Zen 5c to Zen 5c), this fix will still significantly benefit multi-threaded workloads. The ASUS TUF Gaming Air 2024 is the first laptop to receive this update (BIOS 312 or higher), with other ASUS laptops and eventually models from other manufacturers expected to follow suit.
