AMD's flagship Strix Halo APUs are gearing up to offer serious performance gains for laptops and gaming handhelds, as a benchmark leak gives us a hint at an AMD Ryzen AI Max 390's power — and it's giving off RTX 4060 desktop GPU vibes.
Spotted by leaker 9550pro on X, a 3DMark Time Spy benchmark of the Ryzen AI Max 390 was posted on Baidu, and it shows impressive scores close to an RTX 4060. Overall, it achieved an overall score of 9,006, but a look at the graphics score shows it reached a score of 10,106.
Using the same benchmark, a desktop RTX 4060 GPU scored a very close 10,365. Thanks to the Radeon RX 8050S iGPU (the integrated graphics in the Ryzen AI Max 390 APU), it means we could see better performance in more portable gaming laptops or gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck OLED — which currently features a custom AMD Zen 2 APU.
As exciting as it appears, there are some discrepancies to bring up. A report from Wccftech details that the leaked benchmark actually shows a lab test for an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with Radeon 8060S. The Ryzen AI Max 390 shown offers 12 cores based on Zen 5 architecture with 24 threads while the 395 delivers 16 cores with 32 threads, so there would be a substantial different in scores here.
Moreover, Notebookcheck points out that the APU was tested using 128GB of DDR5 RAM. That's quite a lot more than your average gaming laptop, indicating this engineering sample was tested using a desktop.
Regardless, this still shows signs that AMD's Strix Halo lineup are set to achieve new gaming performance heights in a unified memory architecture. We've also seen another AMD Strix Halo APU benchmarks leak showcasing the might of a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 on Geekbench, and it surpassed an RTX 4060 laptop GPU's performance.
The power of an RTX 4060 in more lightweight and power-efficient devices? That sounds like a recipe for success, and if our Asus ROG Flow Z13 hands-on is anything to go by, the future of gaming on laptops, tablets and handhelds is looking bright.
AMD is winning at integrated graphics
The idea of bringing high-quality gaming to more portable devices has gained a lot of traction over the years, with the best gaming handheld consoles boasting what a portable device can manage to pull off. Nowhere near the might of an RTX 5090 GPU, though, but AMD's Strix Halo appears to be closing that gap.
Asus' 2-in-1 gaming tablet lineup have tried to achieve better performance by offering lower-end RTX 3050 GPUs along with external mobile GPUs boasting up to an RTX 3080. While impressive, gaming performance can be disappointing without the external GPU attached.
With a chip like the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, and its expected specs to be in line with a mid-tier but powerful RTX 4060 desktop GPU, it leads the way for desktop-level performance coming to portable gaming devices.
The 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13 is already looking to offer great performance gains with its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip, all with lower TDP (Thermal Design Power) and on a 70Wh battery. If it's able to handle the heat and can manage efficiency to bring its claimed 10-hour battery life while playing RTX 4060-level gaming, then I'm looking forward to what the future of portable gaming holds.
More from Tom's Guide
- AMD Fire Range Ryzen 9000HX CPUs in laptops set to release in March — with RTX 5090 GPUs
- Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU is the best-performing laptop processor according to new benchmarks — but Apple still beats it in this key area
- Nvidia RTX 50-series gaming laptop pre-order date confirmed — here's when to grab one
