AMD’s Picasso APU spotted in online benchmark

AMD’s Raven Ridge successor was spotted last year, continuing to use the same architecture under the new name of ‘Picasso’. Although the APU isn’t set to launch until 2019 according to previous leaks, Picasso has already begun to crop up in benchmarks.

At least that’s what a recent post by UserBenchmark suggests, with APU device ID 15D8 appearing ahead of the weekend, attributing itself to Picasso. This number follows Raven Ridge’s 15DD ID that’s currently in circulation. Unfortunately, instead of being accompanied by statistics, the database has instead prompted doubt for its use of an internal codename, something which doesn’t usually happen when handling tech early.

Originally Picasso was pegged as a simple iterative upgrade on Raven Ridge architecture running on the AM4 socket, featuring the same node with optimisations and better binning. It has since been rumoured that the chip will feature the new 12nm process as other Zen+ processors like this year’s Pinnacle Ridge, helping it to become much more power efficient than expected.

Ahead of this is Zen2 architecture, also expected in 2019 under the codename Matisse. This will similarly use the AM4 socket while focusing on an unprecedented 7nm process. Matisse won’t be alone in using these new nodes, as AMD also has Starship in its pocket, believed to be a direct competitor to Intel’s high-end Xeon line-up.

There’s nothing to truly suggest that the initial, mostly unconfirmed timeline has changed and all information should be taken with a pinch of salt given its barebones nature.

KitGuru Says: By now, everyone’s getting pretty sick of iterative upgrades, so the more comprehensive the evolution in AMD’s CPUs and APUs, the better. The firm looks like it knows what it’s doing ever since Ryzen came into the mix, so I have quite a bit of faith that AMD won’t be taking a wrong turn just yet. Are you excited for more Zen+, or better yet Zen 2?

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