Update 12/19/2019 11:50am PT: AMD responded to our queries with the following statement that quashes the questions raised by Fudzilla's reporting:
AMD Radeon RX 5500 series is manufactured on TSMC's advanced 7nm process, the same process used for the RX 5700 series and Ryzen 3000 series.
Original Article:
Fudzilla's sources claim that the Navi 14 silicon inside the Radeon RX 5500 XT is purportedly produced by Samsung, and not TSMC as we've come to assume. If the information is accurate, AMD and Samsung's partnership may extend far beyond smartphones.
It is no secret that TSMC has its plate full. The majority of 7nm products come out of the Taiwanese company's foundries. In addition to AMD, TSMC also has to satisfy other big-name clients, such as Apple, Huawei, MediaTek, and Qualcomm as well. There is only so much one can produce with a limited number of foundries.
TSMC's business is booming so much that the company saw the need to increase leads times for 7nm chips threefold due to high demand. So, it's not very difficult to see why AMD would look to Samsung to secure enough chips to get out to the chipmaker's partners.
There are multiple variants of the Navi 14 die. First, there's the Navi 14 XT and Navi 14 XTX variants that are used for the Radeon RX 5500 and Radeon RX 5500 XT, respectively. Both are equipped with 1,408 Stream Processors (SPs).
In second place, AMD employs two different Navi 14 XTM silicons for its mobile offerings. The Radeon RX 5500M maintains the same 1,408 SPs while the Radeon Pro 5500M has the honor of sporting the fully unlocked Navi 14 die with 1,536 SPs.
Fudzilla's sources only reference the Radeon RX 5500 XT. It's unknown if the other models also utilize Samsung-produced dies. Whether it's TSMC or Samsung, it shouldn't really matter because the performance should be nearly identical. At the end of the day, a Radeon RX 5500 XT will still be a Radeon RX 5500 XT. At any rate, we've reached out to AMD for comment.
