AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 brings Core i9-14900HX performance to much smaller laptops

The Core i9-14900HX is one of Intel's fastest mobile processors commonly found on large gaming laptops like the 18-inch Asus ROG Strix Scar or 18-inch MSI TItan. Nevertheless, its Raptor Lake architecture is starting to show its age as newer Zen 5 options from AMD are beginning to offer much more on nearly all fronts with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 being the latest example.

Our graphs below compare the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 as found on the small 13-inch Asus ROG Flow Z13 or 14-inch HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14 to much larger laptops with the Core i9-14900HX. Raw multi-thread performance is within just a few percentage points on average between the AMD and Intel CPUs despite the massive differences in screen sizes. Meanwhile, there is no 14-inch laptop with the Core i9-14900HX processor to date.

The AMD CPU offers additional features not found on the Intel CPU on top of its raw multi-thread potential including an integrated 50 TOPS NPU and Radeon RX 8060S to be both CoPilot ready and gaming ready, respectively. On the other hand, laptops with the Core i9-14900HX are almost almost paired with a discrete Nvidia GPU to make up for its weaker integrated GPU and lack of an integrated NPU.

The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 can still be quite power-hungry demanding just over 100 W when running Prime95 on our ZBook Ultra G1a 14 or almost 2x more than most U-series 14-inch laptops. Its single-thread performance also falls a bit short by up to 15 percent when compared to the Core i9-14900HX. Even so, its ability to rival larger18-inch gaming laptops of 2024 in CPU-heavy workloads is noteworthy for performance hunters looking at thin-and-light options.