I don't see the low and entry level GPU market surviving, With AMD perfecting the APU. Make a PS6 equilvent APU for PC use and a Big APU and there you go.
Unless amd can massively increase memory bandwidth for the apus, they will always have decent limits on how much performance they can push out. compared to an equivalent dedicated gpu This is why the 780m is in theory faster than a gtx 1060 but in practice is much slower. The strix halo GPU can be much faster but it has less bandwidth than the slowest gddr6, so even if you were to put 200w watts on it there would be diminishing returns. Unless they use gddr for desktop memory or increase the memory bus for the cpus on desktop. the low end market will always have a place.
It's likely that AM6 will remain 128-bit, so socketed desktop APUs and the mainstream APUs they are based on will continue to eat shit, although it will be better shit than ever before (DDR6 and CUDIMMs). But they could improve on it by finally starting to include Infinity Cache (L3 cache for GPU) in mainstream APUs, which raises the "effective bandwidth" and helps mitigate the bandwidth issue. This will be something to watch out for with Medusa Point and future APUs. Strix Halo has 32 MiB, but even 16 MiB (
like Navi 24) could help.
Zen 6 desktop (Olympic Ridge) could boost the iGPU after two gens of lowly
Radeon 610M graphics. We have a tentative prediction of up to 8 CUs of RDNA4, which could put it near the 8600G. 4 CUs of RDNA3 or better would match or beat the 8500G. But it might not make it fully intact to the low-end 8/10-core of the lineup.
Strix Halo is AMD's first attempt at a consumer "mega APU", and they can make big changes to it going forward as long as the physical size doesn't grow too crazy. Medusa Halo might support 384-bit LPDDR6 which could be a big upgrade. LPDDR6 was just
officially announced, and it
uses 24-bit channels (12-bit sub channels), which is probably where the 384-bit leak is coming from. What was 256-bit became 384-bit with the same number of memory chips, probably. We'll see what the experts have to say about it.
Strix Halo's pricing and relative GPU performance makes it irrelevant for the low-end. Maybe that can change in the future. For now it's an LLM powerhouse.
Mini PCs and mobile-on-desktop chips soldered onto motherboards, which can include a "Halo" but not for budget users anytime soon, are the way forward for the low-end. There are Rembrandt/Phoenix mini PCs with RAM and storage for around $300 to $500 on sale, undercutting almost any new desktop build and offering convenience and a small form factor. They don't offer the price/perf of throwing a $300 GPU with the cheapest parts you can find, since they have more CPU and less GPU performance than needed for gaming.
