This new AMD Ryzen CPU reportedly contains a GPU that could beat the RTX 5070

A new AMD Ryzen CPU is reportedly in the works that contains an incredibly powerful GPU, with specs that could enable it to beat the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, while also giving it access to huge amounts of VRAM. The new Medusa Halo chip reportedly tops a new line of Medusa-codenamed products coming in 2026 and 2027 that see AMD completely overhauling its integrated GPU tech, with some really interesting ideas.

If this latest rumor is true, then we could see some of the machines on our best gaming laptop guide running games purely on AMD integrated GPUs at surprisingly high settings, and we could also see incredibly powerful handhelds and gaming tablets too. As we saw in our Asus ROG Flow Z13 review, there's enormous potential for a powerful integrated GPU in a portable gaming device, and Medusa Halo could make a big impact here.

This latest rumor comes from YouTube tech leaker Moore's Law is Dead (MLID), in his latest video, so take all of this information with a grain of salt for now. He outlines a number of new products that are reportedly coming to the AMD stable, but the flagship one, codenamed Medusa Halo, reportedly has a killer integrated GPU containing a massive total of 48 RDNA 5 compute units, eight more than the 40 in current top-end Strix Halo products.

That means it's not far off the spec of the Radeon RX 9070, which has 56 RDNA 4 compute units, and beats the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 in many of our game benchmarks. MLID also claims that RDNA 5 is going to be around 10% quicker than RDNA 4 when it comes to raw rasterization performance, meaning this GPU could give the RTX 5070 a run for its money.

What's really interesting, though, is the reported memory system used for the GPU. According to MLID, AMD is looking to pair several budget and mid-range RDNA 5 GPUs with low-cost LPDDR5X and LPDDR6 RAM, rather than the high-speed GDDR6 and GDDR7 VRAM typically used by discrete GPUs. He also states that AMD will get around the potential bottleneck in performance by widening the memory bus of the GPUs.

As a case in point, the Medusa Halo GPU reportedly has a super-wide 384-bit memory interface (the same width as the bus on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090), meaning it could potentially still get enough memory bandwidth, despite using cheaper, slower memory.

With this approach, AMD could not only make cheaper graphics cards with large amounts of memory, but MLID also claims it shields AMD from any situation where Nvidia might buy up most of the supply of GDDR7 VRAM.

Importantly, an AMD integrated GPU wouldn't be negatively impacted by using shared system memory in a laptop, as its super-wide bus would still enable quick access to it, and it could use as much memory as a laptop maker is willing to give it. MLID also claims that AMD is planning to counter the use of slower memory by having much faster L2 cache, though there will reportedly be less of it than in current GPUs, with 20MB in the Medusa Halo GPU, for example.

According to MLID's sources, AMD is looking at making Medusa Halo compatible with both LPDDR5X and LPDDR6 memory, on the existing FP10 (Strix Halo) socket and future FP11 socket, respectively. In an FP10 machine, it will apparently revert to a 256-bit bus for use with LPDDR5 RAM, and in FP11 laptops, it will use a wider 384-bit bus and use LPDDR6 RAM.

Meanwhile, the CPU itself will reportedly have 12 AMD Zen 6 cores and two Zen 6 LP (low-power) cores, although MLID speculated that an additional 12-core Zen 6 CCD may also be an option for a top-end SKU, giving the chip a total of 26 cores.

MLID speculates that we could see the first Medusa Halo products appearing in 2027, but as with all rumor stories, bear in mind that none of this has been confirmed by AMD. If you're looking to upgrade your CPU and GPU in the meantime, check out our best gaming CPU guide, where we take you through all our favorite options right now, as well as our best GPU buying guide, which guides you through graphics cards to suit every budget.

Have you been using an integrated GPU to play games? Let us know your thoughts on the PCGamesN community Discord channel.