Wednesday, February 21st 2024
AMD Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" APU Exceeds Expectations in 10 W TDP Gaming Test
AMD Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" mobile processors continue to roll out in all sorts of review sample guises—mostly within laptops/notebooks and handheld gaming PC segments. An example of the latter would be GPD's Hawk Point-refreshed Win Max 2 model—Cary Golomb, a tech reviewer and self-described evangelist of "PC Gaming Handhelds Since 2016" has acquired this device for benchmark comparison purposes. A Ryzen 7 8840U-powered GPD Win Max 2 model was pitched against similar devices that house older Team Red APU technologies. Golomb's collection included Valve's Steam Deck LCD model, and three "Phoenix" Ryzen 7840U-based GPD models. He did not have any top-of-the-line ASUS or Lenovo handhelds within reach, but the onboard Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU is a close relative of 7840U.
Golomb's social media post included a screenshot of a Batman: Arkham Knight "average frames per second" comparison chart—all devices were running on a low 10 W TDP setting. The overall verdict favors AMD's new Hawk Point part: "Steam Deck low TDP performance finally dethroned...GPD continues to make the best AMD devices. 8840U shouldn't be better, but everywhere I'm testing, it is consistently better across every TDP. TSP measuring similar." Hawk Point appears to be a slight upgrade over Phoenix—most of the generational improvements reside within a more capable XDNA NPU, so it is interesting to see that the 8840U outperforms its predecessor. They both sport AMD's Radeon 780M integrated graphics solution (RDNA 3), while the standard/first iteration Steam Deck makes do with an RDNA 2-era "Van Gogh" iGPU. Golomb found that the: "three other GPD 7840U devices behaved somewhat consistently."
Sources:
Cary Golomb Tweet, VideoCardz
Golomb's social media post included a screenshot of a Batman: Arkham Knight "average frames per second" comparison chart—all devices were running on a low 10 W TDP setting. The overall verdict favors AMD's new Hawk Point part: "Steam Deck low TDP performance finally dethroned...GPD continues to make the best AMD devices. 8840U shouldn't be better, but everywhere I'm testing, it is consistently better across every TDP. TSP measuring similar." Hawk Point appears to be a slight upgrade over Phoenix—most of the generational improvements reside within a more capable XDNA NPU, so it is interesting to see that the 8840U outperforms its predecessor. They both sport AMD's Radeon 780M integrated graphics solution (RDNA 3), while the standard/first iteration Steam Deck makes do with an RDNA 2-era "Van Gogh" iGPU. Golomb found that the: "three other GPD 7840U devices behaved somewhat consistently."
22 Comments on AMD Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" APU Exceeds Expectations in 10 W TDP Gaming Test
unless I read something wrong...
I mean it makes me happy, cause I am a Steam Deck fanboy, just confuses me lol
The Sephiroth APU in the Steam Deck OLED is able to utilize the 10W TDP effectively unlike on the 8C 7840U/8840U where it has to still share power with those 4 extra cores which most games still don't really need yet. That power could be better used on the iGPU instead.
If you have a Legion Go (since it's the only Ryzen Z1 Extreme device that allows you to disable the cores in the BIOS), you can test this theory by setting it to 4C/8T. I get an extra hour of battery life, the APU is not running as hot and the iGPU is able to get more power (if I'm running at 20+ W TDP). I still can't match the efficiency of the Sephiroth APU but it can get close.
If they had used Zen 4 cores and RDNA3 in the same 4C/8T/8CU configuration, then you will definitely see huge gains compared to Aerith/Sephiroth, since power can be allocated to just those 4 CPU cores and 8 GPU CUs.
I just wish ASUS would do the same and allow the cores to be disabled on their ROG Ally, through the BIOS or Armory Crate SE.