Tuesday, March 31st 2020

XMG APEX 15 is a Laptop with AMD Ryzen 3950X CPU Inside
Have you ever wondered how a laptop with a desktop CPU that has 16 cores and 32 threads would look like on a laptop? Well, today is your lucky day as XMG, a German laptop maker, has decided to launch a laptop that has AMD's latest and greatest desktop CPU - the Ryzen 3950X 16C/32T monster. The 3950X CPU, while featuring a regular TDP of 105 W, has been configured to 65 W in Eco Mode, and it runs anywhere from 2.6 to 4.2 GHz. The CPU also isn't soldered to the motherboard and there is a full AM4 socket, that is capable of housing any 3000 series desktop CPU.
Besides a powerful CPU, there are options for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 graphics cards, which drive a 15.6-inch Full HD 144 Hz IPS panel equipped with anti-glare technology. The GPUs are a "Max-P incarnation" as XMG calls it, which presumably means that they are designed for maximum performance i.e. possibly higher boost speeds. Additionally, you can configure the laptop with up to 64 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM. This configuration, containing Ryzen 9 3950X, RTX 2070, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB NVM, costs around 2631 EUR. For more configuration options, you can check out this website. Availability is supposed to be in 6-8 weeks.
Source:
VideoCardz
Besides a powerful CPU, there are options for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 graphics cards, which drive a 15.6-inch Full HD 144 Hz IPS panel equipped with anti-glare technology. The GPUs are a "Max-P incarnation" as XMG calls it, which presumably means that they are designed for maximum performance i.e. possibly higher boost speeds. Additionally, you can configure the laptop with up to 64 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM. This configuration, containing Ryzen 9 3950X, RTX 2070, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB NVM, costs around 2631 EUR. For more configuration options, you can check out this website. Availability is supposed to be in 6-8 weeks.
56 Comments on XMG APEX 15 is a Laptop with AMD Ryzen 3950X CPU Inside
Wondering though, if so many people were up in arms about the new Intel chip and keeping it cool... where is the concern here? 45W 8c/16t vs 65W 16c/32t?
I also like how in the other article it was a mobil monstrosity.... but this is........? Are these all with the very high CL22 rating? I'm wonder what performances differences are between a more typical 3200 CL16. Likely only a couple percent loss, but still. I'd rather XMP support to feed such a beast of a cpu... especially an architecture that loves lower latency.
Case in point:
Our Intel i9-9980HK (TDP: 45W) can boost up to 105W in XMG PRO series.
Likewise, the Ryzen 9 3900 (TDP: 65W) takes no more than 88W (PPT) in this system.
We've done the math. It does not check out. :p
Cheers,
Tom
Where does this run all c/t (GHz) @ 88W?
Any consideration to enable xmp in the future so performance isnt left on the table?
This is all with Ryzen 9 3900 and RTX 2070.
CPU Temperature is CCD1 value.
What do you think?
Not sure about XMP. Raising memory speed beyond DDR4-3200 might increase temperature and affect system stability. I'll try to get a thorough answer in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers,
Tom
That said, we see significant throttling happening in the furmark+p95 test...back to the base clock of the cpu. While that isnt a realistic load, I wonder what happens if people use both for a heavy blender session or some other activity that uses both (which isnt a light activity such as gaming).
And again, the only options for memory are 3200mhz cl22/jedec, or less and jedec...yes?
This is a beefy rig, just dont understand the decision to run the new 3200mhz JEDEC spec ONLY instead of leaving some flexibility for the user. You've got an unsoldered chip, but stripped software functionality that could improve performance.
Edit: saw you added info about xmp... my concern is that it really limits options to what many would consider slow (the JEDEC timings are abhorrent compared to 3200 cl16 you can get).
All things considered, I just went through the configurator, even if its highly competitive price wise, you're still looking at over 2K EUR for this machine in its top config (and that is without anything special regarding storage (500GB OS SSD) and just 16GB RAM). It damn well better have the ability to access everything, IMO.
Regarding temps, that looks very sweet, especially the GPU temp under TW3. It shows you got a loaded system nicely under control, no heat bleeds to the GPU and GPU loads are also stable. And most of everything else is also a killing spree of great choices: 1080p, IPS high refresh, desktop CPU. Well played. Just that XMP left ;) This is a real desktop replacement and I like it a lot.
But JEDEC means it is guaranteed to work on any platform regardless of if it is Intel or Ryzen.
Taiwan is now going into hibernation until Monday (it's the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday weekend). We'll continue to answer comments and questions here and will see to supply more hard info next week.
Cheers,
Tom
How would you carry it? There are no so large backpacks.
There's a market for such devices, it's just a matter of how many would and could buy one. I know I'd buy a 17-inch laptop with high specs (maybe not this high-spec, but 8 cores would be pretty sweet, even more so considering form factor) if I could. Carrying it is the least of your troubles if you need/want to carry that much computing power around.
That aside, the price as spec'd to my liking isn't all that bad; looks to be pretty competitive price-wise with a high-end model ROG Zephyrus (trading battery life for more storage), though I'm waiting to see more 45w 4800/4900 mobile laptops first before I finalize.
And as has been reported and as you can read on many docking station reviews on Amazon, despite all the certification, Thunderbolt isn't really that "one size fits all" standard that it is marketed to be. Every vendors makes their own little exceptions, gets customized firmwares, difficult to update etc.
The only real use case for Thunderbolt is eGPU and those very rare cases where people have external storage units that exceed the 10 GBit/s speed of USB-C 3.1 Gen2.
If you want a docking state, look for USB-C/DP MST hubs. They forward the native DP signal from the USB-C port and deliver everything else (LAN, Audio, USB) through standard USB interfaces with little to no compatibility issues. They are also much cheaper than full-bown Thunderbolt docks.
Example:
i-tec.cz/produkt/catriple4kdockpd-3/
It carries "Thunderbolt 3" in the title (because it's compatible with Thunderbolt-Ports, since USB-C/DP is a feature subset of TBT), but when you look at the spec sheet, you'll see it "only" uses USB-C for data and DisplayPort for video - guaranteed to deliver up to 4K@60Hz but it also works with 144Hz, G-SYNC etc. - because it's native DP signal.
(Sorry, I always get carried away on the Thunderbolt topic...) Thank you! We're working on 4800H as well and 4900HS is under consideration. :)
Cheers,
Tom
But a 22 inch laptop that is twice the thickness of a similar panel, why not! :roll::roll::roll::roll: Well, usually the lack of continued range of a certain diagonal is far more telling than 'company X has one product'. Companies try things, it says nothing about whether there is actually a market for them. It only tells us they tried.
/edit: They haven't replied to me yet.
// Tom
www.acmeportable.com/rugged-laptops
Yes, this company is called ACME. Like in Road Runner. Any more questions?
// Tom
www.acmeportable.com/products/notepac-iii