AMD Flute Zen 2 Ryzen SoC Leaks Online And Could Be Bound For Project Scarlett
Well, this is interesting—benchmark results for a mysterious AMD "Flute" chip have popped up online, leading some people to speculate that it is an early sample of the custom system-on-chip (SoC) that will find its way into Microsoft's upcoming Project Scarlett console. We cannot say for sure if that it is what it really is, but the reported specs are at least intriguing.
Project Scarlett, if you are not aware, is the codename for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console. It is expected to debut sometime in 2020, just as Sony will be releasing a PlayStation 5 console during the same year. Both systems are being built around AMD hardware, each with its own custom SoC featuring a Zen 2 processor and Navi graphics.
Microsoft and Sony are both keeping things rather close to the vest at this early stage. However, if the leaked Flute data is both actually real and bound for Project Scarlett, then we have our first look at the specs, at least as they exist at this very moment in time.
Twitter user Komachi spotted the benchmark results in the UserBenchmark database. According to the listing, Flute packs a Zen 2 CPU with 8 cores and 16 threads, with a 1.6GHz base clock and 3.2GHz boost clock. Those are not exactly eye-popping clocks. A Ryzen 7 3700X desktop processor, for example, sports a 3.6GHz base clock and 4.4GHz max boost clock.
Still, even at those speeds, it will be a big bump in processing power compared to the current generation Xbox One X. On the graphics side, the SoC lists a "Navi 10Lite" GPU. This could mean a cut down version of Navi 10, though no other GPU specs are listed.
Finally, the listing shows 16GB of unspecified memory. We presume this refers to shared memory between the CPU and GPU.
As for the actual benchmarks, there is not much to be gleaned—UserBenchmarks rates it at 65.9 percent and "Good," but also notes that there are insufficient samples to truly gauge relative performance. The bigger takeaway is what the listing reveals about the specs.
The last thing to note is that this is listed as an engineering sample. So even if Flute is real and ends up in Project Scarlett, the specs could (and would likely) end up very different than what is shown right now.
