Notebookcheck Logo

CES 2025 | AMD Strix Halo lineup led by Ryzen AI Max+ 395 zealously aims to overtake Apple M4 Pro, Core Ultra 9 288V; 2x faster than RTX 4090 in AI with 87% less power

AMD Ryzen AI Max+ aims to take on Apple and Nvidia flagships. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ aims to take on Apple and Nvidia flagships. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD has unveiled its most powerful Copilot+ PC APU lineup. Dubbed the Ryzen AI Max series, the Strix Halo series led by the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 offers up to 16C/32T configurations with a 50 TOPS NPU and RDNA 3.5 GPU with up to 40 CUs. AMD is aiming to take on the M4 Pro Macs, the Core Ultra 9 288V, and even the RTX 4090 with these new APUs.

Rumors about AMD Strix Halo APUs first started doing the rounds back in early 2023, and today the new APU lineup is finally official led by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395.

AMD is offering a total of four SKUs under Strix Halo. The flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and its Pro variant features 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.1 GHz boost, 80 MB cache, and 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units (CUs). Following this are the Ryzen AI Max/Pro 390 with 12/24T and the Ryzen AI Max/Pro 385 featuring 8C/16T. Both the Ryzen AI Max 390 and Ryzen AI 385 are equipped with 32 CU RDNA 3.5 iGPUs.

The entry SKU — the Ryzen AI Max Pro 380 with 6 cores, 12 threads, 4.9 GHz boost, 22 MB cache, and 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs — is not available in a non-Pro variant and is likely designed for businesses that could benefit from AI smarts but aren't chasing performance charts.

All Ryzen AI Max Strix Halo APUs are also equipped with a 50 TOPS XDNA 2 NPU, up to 256 GB/s memory bandwidth, and are configurable with a TDP between 45 and 120 W.

AMD is going after the M4 MacBook Pro with Strix Halo. The company showed off significantly faster Blender, V-Ray, and Corona rendering with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 compared to the Apple M4 Pro 12-core and M4 Pro 14-core SoCs.

The company also claims 2.6x faster 3D rendering and 1.4x faster graphics performance with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 over the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V.

The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is slated to be the first Copilot+ PC processor to run a 70 billion LLM locally. Not just that, AMD is also going all out to claim that the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is 2.2x faster AI performance than the 450 W GeForce RTX 4090 desktop at an 87% lower TDP than Nvidia's current monster consumer GPU.

Laptops powered by the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 are expected to be available from Q1-Q2 2025.

Buy the Acer Nitro 16 with Ryzen 7 7840HS and RTX 4050 on Amazon

AMD Ryzen AI Max Strix Halo SKUs (Image Source: AMD)
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs Core Ultra 9 288V in 3D rendering. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs Core Ultra 9 288V in graphics. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs M4 MacBook Pro in 3d rendering. (Image Source: AMD)
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 vs RTX 4090 in LLM performance. (Image Source: AMD)

Source(s)

AMD CES 2025 press brief

Read all 6 comments / answer
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
Mail Logo
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 01 > AMD Strix Halo lineup led by Ryzen AI Max+ 395 zealously aims to overtake Apple M4 Pro, Core Ultra 9 288V; 2x faster than RTX 4090 in AI with 87% less power
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2025-01- 6 (Update: 2025-01- 6)