AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ brings monstrous 40-core GPU, unified memory to laptops

zohaibahd

zohaibahd

Posts: 803   +17
Staff
In brief: AMD came out swinging at CES 2025 in Las Vegas with its new 'Strix Halo' Ryzen AI Max+ mobile processors. Boasting impressive specifications, these chips seem primed to dominate the competition in the thin-and-light gaming laptop and AI workstation markets. The lineup includes four models: Ryzen AI Max+ 395/Pro, Ryzen AI Max 390/Pro, Ryzen AI Max 385/Pro, and Ryzen AI Max 380 Pro.

At the top of the lineup is the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, featuring 16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores, and support for up to 128GB of shared RAM. One step below is the Ryzen AI Max+ 390, equipped with 12 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. Following that is the Ryzen AI Max+ 385, offering eight CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. Lastly, the Ryzen AI Max Pro 380, designed with professional users in mind, includes six CPU cores, 16 GPU cores, and enhanced security and manageability features.

All models feature a 55W base TDP, configurable between 45W and 120W to accommodate more robust cooling solutions. Built on a cutting-edge 3nm process, the chips utilize a design where the CPU cores are distributed across two smaller chiplets, while the GPU and AI engines reside on a larger central I/O die. They also support up to 128GB of unified memory, with up to 96GB available for graphics – a feature AMD emphasizes as crucial for seamless multitasking and handling "incredibly large AI models."

The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 stands out thanks to its impressive graphics specs, boasting a 40-core RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU known as the Radeon 8060S. According to AMD, this is the fastest integrated GPU available in any Windows laptop.

AMD claims the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is up to 1.4x faster than Intel's top Lunar Lake Core Ultra 9 288V chip in gaming performance. For AI workloads, AMD asserts it can deliver up to 2.2x higher performance than Nvidia's desktop RTX 4090 GPU, while consuming just 87 percent of the power.

While gaming remains a focal point, AMD is positioning the Ryzen AI Max+ APUs as versatile powerhouses for demanding workloads like video rendering, 3D modeling, data analytics, and more. According to AMD's content creation benchmarks, these chips show substantial performance gains over Apple's latest M4 Pro processors in popular render engines like V-Ray, Blender, and Corona. However, Cinebench scores reveal slightly less impressive, though still competitive, results.

Naturally, vendor-provided benchmarks should always be taken with a grain of salt. However, if these processors can achieve performance levels even approaching AMD's claims, they have the potential to be game-changing releases.

The new Ryzen AI Max+ chips are expected to debut in laptops from AMD's OEM partners starting in Q1 and Q2 of 2025.

Permalink to story:

AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ brings monstrous 40-core GPU, unified memory to laptops

 
This sounds more like a portable PC, not a laptop. I wouldn't mind having a something like this in a miniPC form factor.
 
yRaz said:
This sounds more like a portable PC, not a laptop. I wouldn't mind having a something like this in a miniPC form factor.
Click to expand...
RTX 3080 Mobile has 115W TDP. Here Ryzen AI Max has 45-120W for the entire package (CPU + GPU). You can definitely put it into a laptop, even tiny one (if you configure TDP to a lower range).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mr Majestyk
ruid84 said:
RTX 3080 Mobile has 115W TDP. Here Ryzen AI Max has 45-120W for the entire package (CPU + GPU). You can definitely put it into a laptop, even tiny one (if you configure TDP to a lower range).
Click to expand...
I would not put 120watts of anything on my lap. You can put it in a laptop package, but the cooling and power requirements prevent it from being anything practical
 
  • Like
Reactions: AngelG
So it'll trade blows with 5090 mobile in some AI workloads, but at 40% faster than a 288V, should be slightly slower than a mobile 3060 in gaming.
 
yRaz said:
I would not put 120watts of anything on my lap. You can put it in a laptop package, but the cooling and power requirements prevent it from being anything practical
Click to expand...
Fair enough. I'm myself not a fan of gaming laptops. I am merely acknowledging that there is a market segment for such devices... and 120W is not that much for this segment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScottSoapbox
ruid84 said:
Fair enough. I'm myself not a fan of gaming laptops. I am merely acknowledging that there is a market segment for such devices... and 120W is not that much for this segment.
Click to expand...
It's why I refer to them as portable PCs. You can't do anything useful unless they're plugged into a wall due to their power requirements. I generally don't consider anything over a total system power of 30watts to be a true laptop. Anything more than that and you can't get much done on the battery alone. Then there is the bulk of the system. There is absolutely a market for 250watt 17inch "laptops", it's just that they're usually meant to be moved around from one desk to another and stay plugged in. Not from a desk, to your bed, to the couch, ect.
 
These chips are going to be going into some pretty small machines, not just the big desktop replacment laptops. Asus has announced that it will be going into their Z13 gaming tablet, and that will have a 13.4" screen; HP will be putting it into a 14" Zbook as well.

Edit - just saw a nice preview video of the Z13 tablet; no hard numbers yet, but looking pretty darn nice.

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DanteSmith
What is so great about "Strix" that both ASUS and now AMD want to use it as a brand name in the same consumer space? I can't wait to hear about the ASUS ROG Strix laptop powered by the AMD Strix Halo Ryzen CPU inside. And I'm going to need it fully spelled out like that otherwise I won't know which brand they're talking about.
 
Being lazy AF, AMD never sale these CPUs to enthusiast ?

Like others alluded to deep pocket techies just want a nice one box micro PC with at least 2 M2 drives and one SSD drive and wifi/BT to latest and enough I/O connections

even one replaceable M2 drive would probably be OK as well

Could be hub for large TV , streamer/music streamer/movies.plex, YT no adverts GOG gamings . Retro gamer etc
People already use a range of solutions , NUCs , nvidia shield to control "smart" TVs
 
brucek said:
What is so great about "Strix" that both ASUS and now AMD want to use it as a brand name in the same consumer space? I can't wait to hear about the ASUS ROG Strix laptop powered by the AMD Strix Halo Ryzen CPU inside. And I'm going to need it fully spelled out like that otherwise I won't know which brand they're talking about.
Click to expand...
https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-instinct-mi300-rocm6

Probably the same kind of advantage that the mi300A has by having CPU and GPU working on the same unified memory pool.
 
opckieran said:
So it'll trade blows with 5090 mobile in some AI workloads, but at 40% faster than a 288V, should be slightly slower than a mobile 3060 in gaming.
Click to expand...

I call BS on the AI workloads. 5080 desktop is 1800TOPS, so I expect 5090 mobile to be similar and Halo has 50 TOP NPU, and RDNA3.5 does not have dedicated AI units like Blackwell. Then let's talk about software. I'll guarantee independent testing will show 5090 decimating Halo for AI workloads.
 
I just hope that it can power down most of the GPU when not gaming. My current laptop has a 280W power brick, but last eight hours on the battery if the dGPU is idled for common laptop work.
 
May be it’s me, but people who want a high end iGPU may not require a 16 cores processor. So they are being forced to pay more for something they don’t need. You don’t need a 16 cores processor for games. I understand there is a market of customers that want more cores for their workflow and also a reasonably good GPU for games, but with up to 120W power draw, what is stopping them from buying a H class mobile processor with a dedicated GPU? Unless this is going to be cheaper, I think it makes more sense to go with a dGPU that we can choose based on budget and need. So far, I rarely see any laptops with an AMD dGPU available, so I think this force bundle of a very beefy iGPU may not sell well.
 
I wonder whether they'll use 4-channel memory so these CUs could be fed with data w/o mem I/o bottleneck. Some desktops could also use such APU.
 
Watzupken said:
May be it’s me, but people who want a high end iGPU may not require a 16 cores processor. So they are being forced to pay more for something they don’t need. You don’t need a 16 cores processor for games. I understand there is a market of customers that want more cores for their workflow and also a reasonably good GPU for games, but with up to 120W power draw, what is stopping them from buying a H class mobile processor with a dedicated GPU? Unless this is going to be cheaper, I think it makes more sense to go with a dGPU that we can choose based on budget and need. So far, I rarely see any laptops with an AMD dGPU available, so I think this force bundle of a very beefy iGPU may not sell well.
Click to expand...

They are also going to be making a version with 8 cores & 32 CU iGPU; that should be quite nice for midrange gaming laptops if they price it well.

AngelG said:
I wonder whether they'll use 4-channel memory so these CUs could be fed with data w/o mem I/o bottleneck. Some desktops could also use such APU.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will be using a 256 bit ("quad channel") memory to keep the iGPU reasonably fed.

Mr Majestyk said:
I call BS on the AI workloads. 5080 desktop is 1800TOPS, so I expect 5090 mobile to be similar and Halo has 50 TOP NPU, and RDNA3.5 does not have dedicated AI units like Blackwell. Then let's talk about software. I'll guarantee independent testing will show 5090 decimating Halo for AI workloads.
Click to expand...
The 5090 mobile will indeed likely be much faster at running any AI model that fits within the 24 GB of VRAM that GPU is coming with. However, since this Ryzen iGPU is sharing the system memory it will be able to access a lot more RAM, letting one run models that simply won't fit on a 5090.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fb020997
Dreadcthulhu said:
They are also going to be making a version with 8 cores & 32 CU iGPU; that should be quite nice for midrange gaming laptops if they price it well.
Click to expand...

That is the one I'm most excited about, a Mini PC with the equivalent of a 9700X + RX7600-level GPU would be a great mid-tier HTPC for emulation and gaming, and in theory should be much cheaper to produce than an actual mini PC + dGPU combo (shared memory, single cooling solution, less PCB/componentry, etc).

Apparently Strix Halo uses a 307mm2 die (combined, given it is a chiplet design) which is about ~25% smaller than a 9070 die and therefore conceptually should go for similar money. It is ~30% larger than Strix Point however, and IMO mini PC's with Strix Point so far are far too expensive (like double the cost of 8945HS mini PCs which makes no sense). It'll be interesting to see what prices we end up seeing, and what supply AMD provides.
 
kiwigraeme said:
Being lazy AF, AMD never sale these CPUs to enthusiast ?

Like others alluded to deep pocket techies just want a nice one box micro PC with at least 2 M2 drives and one SSD drive and wifi/BT to latest and enough I/O connections

even one replaceable M2 drive would probably be OK as well

Could be hub for large TV , streamer/music streamer/movies.plex, YT no adverts GOG gamings . Retro gamer etc
People already use a range of solutions , NUCs , nvidia shield to control "smart" TVs
Click to expand...

The mainstream manufacturers, with the exception of ASUS, haven't really moved into the mini PC market. I'm sure that a number of smaller Asian companies will make small desktop systems using these chips, just as they have done with previous generations of AMD's "mobile" chips, once they can get their hands on them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kiwigraeme
yRaz said:
It's why I refer to them as portable PCs. You can't do anything useful unless they're plugged into a wall due to their power requirements. I generally don't consider anything over a total system power of 30watts to be a true laptop. Anything more than that and you can't get much done on the battery alone. Then there is the bulk of the system. There is absolutely a market for 250watt 17inch "laptops", it's just that they're usually meant to be moved around from one desk to another and stay plugged in. Not from a desk, to your bed, to the couch, ect.
Click to expand...

There are power modes on powerful laptops also. They can get work done even when power is restricted and these days these power modes are getting better and better. I use a gaming laptop for my work when doing data analysis. Sometimes I use full power and at other times I limit its power use to extend battery life. Anyhow, 120W max TDP is fine. Even 250W is fine if some task can benefit from it. And then at other times it can be limited to 30W if there no need for all that extra headroom.
 
Sisyfos said:
There are power modes on powerful laptops also. They can get work done even when power is restricted and these days these power modes are getting better and better. I use a gaming laptop for my work when doing data analysis. Sometimes I use full power and at other times I limit its power use to extend battery life. Anyhow, 120W max TDP is fine. Even 250W is fine if some task can benefit from it. And then at other times it can be limited to 30W if there no need for all that extra headroom.
Click to expand...
you "limit" the power on your laptop to 30watts? my work issued laptop is 15watts MAX and my personal laptop is 27 watts MAX TDP. Not the CPU, the whole system. Again, this is just a number of reasons I call them portable PCS. They're basically a desktop because you aren't getting an hour out of a laptop at 120watts. It's a desktop you need to easily move from place to place, they aren't laptops. They're big, heavy and you can't do much for long away from a power socket.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Daniel Sims
Microsoft Paint AI eraser is now available for all Windows 11 users, not just Copilot PCs
Replies
10
Views
131
Steveb8189
Steveb8189
Daniel Sims
Copilot on a budget: AMD's Krackan Point APUs to debut in budget-friendly ECS laptop
Replies
5
Views
113
ScottSoapbox
S
S
Intel launches Core Ultra 200 laptop chips with a mix of architectures, CPU, GPU and NPU capabilities
Replies
2
Views
102
Mr Majestyk
M

Latest posts

Back