AMD Just Announced New 300-Series APUs - and One Looks Perfect for a New Gaming Handheld
One of the new models in particular looks to be tackling a key shortcoming of existing high end models when used for gaming.
Yesterday AMD made a hell of a lot announcements at CES. As expected, there was a significant focus on AI workloads - something we don't have much of a desire to cover in detail here - but there was also some exciting developments in the APU space - including one particular Ryzen 300-series model I'm pretty excited about.
We've seen a variety of different APUs used in gaming handhelds over the last few years, from the first generation, custom APU used in the original Valve Steam Deck to the frankly wild choice of using the Ryzen AI Max 395+ in the GPD Win 5.
AMD's Strix Halo lineup provides some really powerful CPU and iGPU performance at very reasonable TDPs.
But where the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 falls short as the brains behind a gaming handheld is its high core count. 16C/32T might be perfect for productivity, content creation and AI uses when paired with the 8060S iGPU (40 graphics cores), but for a pure gaming experience it's just too many cores - and too many cores means higher power usage, likely higher temps, lower core bosts and lower efficiency.
There's previously been a lower core option in the Ryzen AI Max 385 (8C/16T), but this model also featured a reduced 8050S iGPU with only 30 graphics cores, reducing the graphics performance accordingly.
Ryzen AI Max+ 388 - a Blueprint for Next Generation Handhelds?
| Name | Graphics Model | # of CPU Cores | # of Threads | Max. Boost Clock | Base Clock | Graphics Core Count | Default TDP |
| AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 395 | Radeon 8060S Graphics | 16 | 32 | Up to 5.1 GHz | 3 GHz | 40 | 55W |
| NEW AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 392 | Radeon 8060S Graphics | 12 | 24 | Up to 5 GHz | 3.2 GHz | 40 | 55W |
| AMD Ryzen™ AI Max 390 | Radeon 8050S Graphics | 12 | 24 | Up to 5 GHz | 3.2 GHz | 32 | 55W |
| NEW AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 388 | Radeon 8060S Graphics | 8 | 16 | Up to 5 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 40 | 55W |
| AMD Ryzen™ AI Max 385 | Radeon 8050S Graphics | 8 | 16 | Up to 5 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 32 | 55W |
This is where the the Ryzen AI Max+ 388 comes in. Despite the somewhat unusual model number on this one, it's placed really well for a gaming APU and includes the best of both the 395 and 385.
In the 388, users get the same (more gaming-optimised) core count of the 385, but paired with the 40 graphics cores of the 8060S from the 395. This is likely to be the absolute sweet spot for a new gaming handheld, which require the raw graphics power of the 395 but not the cores.
For those needing slightly more cores (but not the full 16), the new Ryzen AI Max+ 392 provides the 12C/24T CPU of the existing 390 model, but once again with the top spec 8060S iGPU.
We're yet to see any handhelds announced using these new APUs, but hopefully over the coming weeks and months the picture should start to become a little clearer in terms of what to expect.
And for those gaming on desktop, the new 9850X3D provides a bit of a facelift to the existing 9800X3D model, with the max boost clock increasing from 5.2GHz to a whopping 5.6GHz.
There had been some rumours that AMD would announce a pair of processors (likely a 9800X3D and 9950X3D successor) that would pump up the 3D V-Cache and place it across both CCDs, negating scheduling challenges faced getting processes onto the right core to take best advantage of the higher L3 cache, but in the end it looks as though these announcements are unlikely to eventuate.
Are you excited for new gaming APUs? Or perhaps the more powerful desktop gaming experience from the 9850X3D? Join the conversation over on Mastodon and let us know!