While AMD is seemingly uninterested in promoting its cut-down Strix Point APU, if ASUS is correct, the part seems to have quite a bit going for it, especially when integrated graphics are considered.
According to Videocardz, the Radeon AI 300 series features two SKUs: Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which has 16 RDNA3 Compute Units, and Radeon AI 9 365, which has 12 Compute Units. The latter has the same configuration of CUs as its predecessor, the Phoenix and Hawk Point-based APUs.
AMD has not mentioned how the 12 CU variant, known as Radeon 880M, performs compared to Radeon 780M. This means that ASUS’s promotion featuring a new Vivobook laptop may be our first indicator of how much better RDNA3.5 is.
At Zen5 Tech Day, AMD revealed that Radeon 890M is 19 per cent to 32 per cent faster than Radeon 780M. That claim is at 15W, which means it delivers that much performance without requiring more power. However, this was stated for the 16 CU variant, not the 12 CU.
ASUS has revealed that Radeon 880M will have 15 per cent higher performance compared to the previous generation (Radeon 780M) and its performance is approaching RTX 3050 Laptop GPU at 40W TGP. The data is based on 3DMark TimeSpy. This means that at the same power level, the RDNA3.5 architecture delivers 15 per cent higher performance with similar config. It can smoothly run mainstream MOBA and FPS games, and even many AAA titles.
With RDNA 3.5, AMD is focusing on enhancements for low-power settings. Mainstream laptops with RDNA 3.5 APUs will be more than capable of handling popular e-sports and online games, a significant advantage for systems lacking discrete graphics. Similar improvements are expected in gaming handhelds, which will benefit from switching to the new series, especially with the flagship Strix Point APU.
The Radeon 800M series also comes with a 100 MHz higher GPU boost clock, and most laptops will feature faster LPDDR5X memory than DDR5. Both are undoubtedly big contributors to integrated graphics performance.