AMD raises the bar for gaming on lightweight laptops – its new Strix Halo chip could run games better than an Nvidia RTX 3060 – Lovablevibes | South Africa | Nigeria | Africa

A leaked benchmark places AMD’s upcoming flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip between the RTX 3060 and 4060 in terms of graphical performance
This represents a bit leap forward for AMD’s integrated graphics, powered by the new Radeon 8060S iGPU
The chip will be available in laptops and PCs later in 2025

AMD is gunning for the integrated graphics market in earnest now, if these new leaked benchmark results are anything to go by. A result from the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark test has placed Team Red’s upcoming Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU between Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and 4060 in terms of graphical performance – and I’m over the moon about it.

I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that integrated graphics are the future of gaming, especially as dedicated graphics cards become more and more expensive for increasingly small generational gains. Sure, the RTX 5090 is phenomenally powerful, but what’s the point if it costs an arm and a leg and stock is so limited you’ll struggle to get one anyway?

AMD’s AI Max+ 395 is the upcoming flagship chip of the Strix Halo generation of Ryzen APUs, designed primarily for high-end laptops without discrete GPUs. It packs a new integrated graphics module (iGPU) called the Radeon 8060S, signalling a major step forward for AMD’s iGPU performance even before we get to the numbers; Team Red has updated its nomenclature for this generation, as the 8060S will replace the previous top-spec Radeon 890M. I know adding an extra digit doesn’t automatically translate to a performance bump, but AMD is clearly confident about the new integrated graphics.

So, just how good is this chip?

Well, in the graphics test portion of the Time Spy benchmark (which was shared by X user @9550pro), the AI Max+ 395 scored 10,106 points. It’s worth noting here that 3DMark’s benchmark suite gives ‘index’ results designed to be compared with other test scores rather than real-world figures, but the app estimated that the AI Max+ 395 should be able to achieve a framerate of 95+ fps in Battlefield V at 1440p resolution – seriously impressive for a laptop chip, even if that game is now more than six years old.

Comparing that 10,106 score to some discrete GPUs paints an even more staggering picture. The RTX 3060 offers an average index score of just 8,746 in the same test, while the newer RTX 4060 scores 10,614 – barely ahead of AMD’s APU. It’s a strong showing for Strix Halo, suggesting that the flagship chip should be capable of 1440p gaming even in a lightweight laptop.

Of course, we should take these figures with a pinch of salt; they’re leaked info, after all, and synthetic tests like the 3DMark suite aren’t always perfectly comparable to real-world gaming performance. There are other factors at play here too. For example, the new Strix Halo chips reportedly have a far higher power ceiling than current-gen APUs (up to a hefty 120W), which could cause difficulties with thermal performance in thin-and-light laptops.

Still, I’m impressed, and excited to get my hands on a laptop with one of these APUs inside it. I got a lot of flak on Reddit last year for suggesting that dedicated GPUs for gaming might (eventually!) bow out in favor of iGPUs, but I stand by what I said – and with benchmark results like these, I’m slowly feeling more and more confident about it.