AMD GFX1156, Preparations Advance in Mesa 26.2 – Possibly a New RDNA 3.5 APU

New IP Block in the RDNA 3.5 Series

Support for a new AMD GPU IP block, “GFX1156” (GFX 11.5.6), has been added to the open-source graphics driver stack Mesa. According to Phoronix, this change was merged into Mesa 26.2 today.

GFX1156 belongs to the GFX115x series, which is a refresh of RDNA 3.5. On the Linux 7.2 kernel side, initial support has already been submitted for multiple new IP blocks including GFX 11.5.6 graphics IP, SDMA 6.4, NBIO 7.11.5, IH 6.4, HDP 6.4, MMHUB 3.4.2, SMU 15.0.5, ATHUB 3.4.2, and VPE 2.2.

In user space, preparations for GFX1156 are underway in Mesa’s RadeonSI Gallium3D driver and RADV Vulkan driver.

Which Product Does This Correspond To?

At this point, which AMD product GFX1156 corresponds to has not been disclosed. Based on the version number, it is highly likely to be a new RDNA 3.5 series APU.

The Mesa patch includes a change that narrows the range of “AMDGPU_STRIX_HALO_RANGE” to just before GFX1156, suggesting it is not a derivative of Strix Point.

The possibility of it being the successor to the Ryzen AI Max 300 series “Strix Halo” — the Ryzen AI Max 400 “Gorgon Halo” — is low. That product should already be preparing Linux support and is expected to either reuse an existing graphics IP version or use a different reserved version.

The next-generation Ryzen AI Max 500 “Medusa Halo” is rumored to adopt RDNA 5, and thus would not fall under the RDNA 3.5 series.

Same Code Path as GFX1153

In the driver code, GFX1156 follows the same code path as GFX1153. GFX1153 is the version for the Ryzen AI “Medusa Point,” and GFX1156 is likely a derivative of it.

At this stage, no functional differences from GFX1153 have been disclosed. As product launch approaches, new differences may be merged.

AMD engineers are preparing open-source graphics driver support early, regardless of which product GFX1156 ultimately becomes. This merge into Mesa 26.2 is timed to coincide with the introduction of AMDGPU and AMDKFD kernel driver support during the Linux 7.2 kernel merge window.

Editorial Opinion

In the short term, this addition of GFX1156 support indicates that AMD has begun full-scale driver development for its next-generation APU. With preparations underway in both the Linux 7.2 kernel and Mesa 26.2, a release within a few months of the product announcement is expected. As a successor to Strix Halo, a market launch from late 2026 to 2027 is anticipated.

From a long-term perspective, AMD’s strategy of continuing to use the RDNA 3.5 architecture for APUs can be discerned. In the high-performance APU market, improving integrated graphics performance is key to competitiveness. As the transition from RDNA 3.5 to RDNA 4 and further to RDNA 5 progresses, it will be interesting to see which product segment the GFX115x series covers.

The editorial team will keep an eye on future information to determine whether GFX1156 is a different variant of the Ryzen AI Max 400 series or constitutes an entirely new product line. AMD’s proactive driver development in collaboration with the open-source community is a beneficial trend for Linux users.

References

• Phoronix: Mesa 26.2 Preps For AMD GFX1156 For New, Post-Strix-Halo RDNA 3.5 Graphics — Published 2026-06-11
• AMD First Supports UFS Host Controller Driver in Linux 7.2 — Related article