AMD Flute SoC spotted on UserBenchmark, rumoured to power Xbox Project Scarlett

At E3 2019, Microsoft revealed several details of the next-generation Xbox console, codenamed “Project Scarlett”. And, while we already know the software giant will partner with AMD for the CPU and GPU on the upcoming Xbox Scarlett, few details were available on actual hardware, until now.

An AMD system-on-chip (SoC) – codenamed ‘Flute’ – was recently spotted on the UserBenchmark by a Twitter user. The benchmark results are leading to speculation that the SoC could power the next-gen Xbox Scarlett console.

The results were identified by a Twitter user and don’t detail the purpose of the chip. However, we already know Microsoft is working with AMD on a new system-on-chip, which combines both processor and graphics card, for the next-gen Xbox console.

[UserBenchmark] AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000004-15_32/12/18_13F9 https://t.co/bmE1sP3uLf Platform : AMD Flute. Socket : BL5. 8C16T : Base 1.6Ghz/Boost 3.2Ghz. 13F9 = Navi 10LITE (?). pic.twitter.com/cwwpicuNSj

— 比屋定さんの戯れ言@Komachi (@KOMACHI_ENSAKA) July 22, 2019

According to the tweet, the CPU on AMD Flute packs eight Zen 2 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 1.6Ghz and maximum boost clock hitting 3.2Ghz. The clock speeds on this SoC are quite low as compared to processors in the existing Zen 2 lineup, which suggests Flute will be a low-power part similar to AMD’s Jaguar SoC that powers the Xbox One.

While clock speeds on Flute may not sound impressive, when compared to that of a desktop CPU, the CPU alone is already twice as fast as the processor on the previous-generation Jaguar SoC. Shifting from the 28nm process on the Jaguar SoC from 7nm Zen 2 architecture on the Flute SoC will offer substantial performance gains and better power efficiency.

The tweet also suggests that the graphics processing unit (GPU) on the Flute SoC will be based on “NAVI 10 Lite” architecture. This will likely be a lite version of the recently released Navi 10 GPU that uses AMD’s RDNA architecture. The Lite version will probably get a lower CU count making the GPU less power-hungry, suggesting it is meant for a power-efficient device like a game console.

The engineering sample spotted on UserBenchmark also packed 16GB of memory, which means the Flute SoC could share 16GB of GDDR6 memory between the CPU and GPU. Considering Flute is an engineering sample, these specifications could change when the Xbox Scarlett console launches in 2020.

However, for now, we can only speculate. The next-gen Xbox console is expected to deliver 8K gaming and 120fps at 4K resolution, which is a pretty big ask, despite the upgrades to Flute.