The MSI Claw A8's GPU is slightly less powerful than an RTX 2050, here’s how it runs Cyberpunk 2077 at 17 W
YouTuber ETA Prime has released a first-look video of the MSI Claw A8, the company’s first AMD-powered handheld featuring the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU. In the video, he compares it directly to a handheld powered by the previous-generation Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor to evaluate performance differences.
The MSI Claw A8 is powered by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU, a Zen 5-based chip with 8 cores, 16 threads, and an RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU with 16 compute units, specifically, the Radeon 890M. The handheld includes 24 GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 8000 MHz, with 8 GB allocated to the GPU by default, leaving 16 GB for system use. The memory allocation can be reconfigured if needed.
ETA Prime tests the MSI Claw A8 using synthetic benchmarks and game performance comparisons, evaluating the Z2 Extreme APU against the older Z1 Extreme. In 3DMark Time Spy at a 17 W TDP, the Z1E scores 2917, while the Z2E reaches 3495 points. At 25 W, the Z1E achieves 3017, and the Z2E scores 3666.
The YouTuber also runs Geekbench 6 at a 30 W TDP, where the Z2E scores 2,781 in single-core and 12,086 in multi-core tests. In 3DMark Time Spy at 30 W, the APU achieves a score of 4066, slightly lower than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 in my Lenovo LOQ laptop which scored 4348.
In real-world gaming tests, Forza Horizon 5 runs at around 80 FPS on average at 1200p with Medium settings and a 17 W TDP. Cyberpunk 2077, running at 900p using the Steam Deck preset, delivers 35.5 FPS on the Z1E and 45.6 FPS on the Z2E, with both configurations using 8 GB of VRAM at 17 W.
At 1600p with Medium settings, IGTI upscaling, and a 25 W TDP, Spider-Man Remastered initially struggles to maintain 60 FPS. Enabling FSR frame generation increases performance to over 75 FPS at the same resolution.
At a 6 W TDP, while running Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge with RGB lighting disabled and screen brightness set to 50%, the system draws between 8.1 and 8.7 watts, resulting in over 9 hours of estimated battery life according to ETA Prime. Even at the default 17 W performance preset, the Claw A8 reportedly offers solid endurance.
The MSI Claw A8 includes a user-upgradeable 1 TB M.2 2280 SSD. It features an 8-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and variable refresh rate (VRR) support, the same panel found in the MSI Claw 8 AI, Intel-powered one, and the Lenovo Legion Go S.
You can watch the full video below for a more in-depth breakdown of the new AMD powered handheld gaming console.
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