Strix Point APU handheld performance simulation: Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 shines in gaming even when tested at just 17 W

After tons of leaks and much anticipation, the first devices based on AMD Zen 5 Strix Point APUs dropped recently and it has become clear that the Ryzen AI 9 365 and AI 9 HX 370 bring a noticeable performance and efficiency improvement over their predecessors. For instance, we noted In our review of the Zenbook S 16 that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 performs much better than the Ryzen 7 8840HS in both single-core and multi-core tests while using less power.

The efficiency advantage enjoyed by the Strix Point APU was also clearly established in our detailed Strix Point analysis where we showed that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was considerably faster than the Zen 4 and Meteor Lake chips when matched for power. 

What’s particularly interesting here is that the Strix Point APU’s multi-core performance at lower TDPs like 15 W and 20 W was much better than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, the APU that is featured inside the Asus ROG Ally X. This also remains true for the Radeon 890M iGPU of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

At 15 W and 20 W, the Radeon 890M proved to be 13.5% and 11% faster than the Radeon 780M inside the ROG Ally X in the 3DMark Time Spy, respectively, during our testing.

This begs the question: What kind of gaming performance can we expect from a hypothetical handheld device running the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370?

Thanks to AMD APU Gaming on YouTube, we now have a pretty good look at the possible handheld gaming performance of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 when capped at 17 W.

Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 could deliver a solid handheld experience at 1080p

When tested with Doom Eternal at high settings, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 managed to post more than 45 FPS. The APU also played Resident Evil 4 (high) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium) at more than 30 FPS with FSR “Quality”.

Furthermore, GTA V and F1 2023 were also tested with graphics “near maxed out” and “high” with more than 60 and 50 FPS respectively. In God of War, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 consistently managed to hit 40+ FPS with PS4 graphics settings

Finally, Hellblade 2, a graphical masterpiece and, consequently, a demanding game, ran at 30 FPS with a mix of low and medium settings and FSR “Quality”.

If you want to see an even deeper dive into the potential of Strix Point APU as a handheld chip, check out our analysis where we tested the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 against the Ryzen Z1 Extreme with TDPs of 17 W, 25 W, and 30 W.

All in all, it appears that even in its current state where the APU is not optimized for the scenario and is TDP limited, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and its Radeon 890M are doing pretty well. Seeing this, it is not hard to imagine the APU offering noticeably better performance when optimized for use in a handheld console.

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