AMD Ryzen AI MAX 395 “Strix Halo” APU in 3DMark Time Spy: iGPU performance at RTX 3060 level

The latest benchmark leaks for the AMD Ryzen AI MAX 395 “Strix Halo” APU make you sit up and take notice. The integrated graphics unit Radeon 8060S has made significant gains compared to the previous AMD top class, the Radeon 890M, and is now even better than dedicated GPUs such as the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB or Radeon RX 7600. While AMD is still holding back with advertising superlatives, the figures speak for themselves.

Double iGPU cores for triple the performance? Really now?

Strix Halo relies on Zen 5 cores paired with RDNA 3.5 graphics and up to 40 compute units. According to the first benchmarks from 3DMark Time Spy, the Radeon 8060S achieves a graphics score of 10,106 points. The Radeon 890M, on the other hand, only achieves a good third of this with 3,367 points. Whether this is solely due to more shaders, higher clock rates or the better memory connection? Probably a healthy mixture of everything. The CPU score of 5,571 points, on the other hand, is almost sobering. Not bad, but not an aha moment either. Nevertheless, if you want a high-performance iGPU, you will hardly be able to avoid the Strix Halo.

iGPU at mid-range GPU level – really?

If you compare the values with dedicated GPUs, it becomes clear that the Radeon 8060S is actually scratching at the lower mid-range.

Impressive? Definitely. The performance is slightly below the Radeon RX 7600 and the RTX 4060, but far above what we’ve been used to from APUs so far.

More TDP, more bandwidth, more performance – but how much does that cost in practice?

Probably the biggest difference to the previous APU generation is the energy consumption. Strix Halo can consume up to 120 watts, whereas the previous Strix models had to make do with a maximum of 45 watts. More energy means more performance, but also more waste heat and probably a real challenge for notebook manufacturers. The bandwidth of up to 256 GB/s is also likely to play a decisive role. Compared to conventional APUs, this gives the Radeon 8060S enough leeway to avoid choking in the memory bottle neck. Will this be enough to put it on a par with dedicated GPUs in real-world applications? Only time will tell.

Strix Halo: More than just another APU update?

According to current information, there are four variants:

Market entry and conclusion: The iGPU that doesn’t want to be an iGPU?

The first notebooks and PCs with Strix Halo are expected in the first half of 2025. AMD could thus shake up the market for mobile workstations and gaming notebooks – at least for those who want to do without a dedicated GPU. The leaps in performance are considerable, but what about efficiency and real-world performance in games and applications? Benchmarks are all well and good, but practice is the deciding factor. Anyone who has always dreamed of an APU at RTX 3060 level might actually be paying attention here for the first time. AMD has significantly raised the bar for integrated graphics – let’s see how long it takes for Intel and NVIDIA to follow suit.

Source: HXL (9550pro)