• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

AMD's Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 Delivers up to 12x AI LLM Performance Compared to Intel's "Lunar Lake"

AleksandarK

News Editor
Staff member
Joined
Aug 19, 2017
Messages
2,887 (1.04/day)
AMD's latest flagship APU, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 "Strix Halo," demonstrates some impressive performance advantages over Intel's "Lunar Lake" processors in large language model (LLM) inference workloads, according to recent benchmarks on AMD's blog. Featuring 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, and over 50 AI TOPS via its XDNA 2 NPU, the processor achieves up to 12.2x faster response times than Intel's Core Ultra 258V in specific LLM scenarios. Notably, Intel's Lunar Lake has four E-cores and four P-cores, which in total is half of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 CPU core count, but the performance difference is much more pronounced than the 2x core gap. The performance delta becomes even more notable with model complexity, particularly with 14-billion parameter models approaching the limit of what standard 32 GB laptops can handle.

In LM Studio benchmarks using an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 with 64 GB unified memory, the integrated Radeon 8060S GPU delivered 2.2x higher token throughput than Intel's Arc 140V across various model architectures. Time-to-first-token metrics revealed a 4x advantage in smaller models like Llama 3.2 3B Instruct, expanding to 9.1x with 7-8B parameter models such as DeepSeek R1 Distill variants. AMD's architecture particularly excels in multimodal vision tasks, where the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processed complex visual inputs up to 7x faster in IBM Granite Vision 3.2 3B and 6x faster in Google Gemma 3 12B compared to Intel's offering. The platform's support for AMD Variable Graphics Memory allows allocating up to 96 GB as VRAM from systems equipped with 128 GB unified memory, enabling the deployment of state-of-the-art models like Google Gemma 3 27B Vision. The processor's performance advantages extend to practical AI applications, including medical image analysis and coding assistance via higher-precision 6-bit quantization in the DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B model.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
7,881 (3.31/day)
Location
California
System Name His & Hers
Processor R7 5800X/ R7 7950X3D Stock
Motherboard X670E Aorus Pro X/ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
Cooling Corsair h150 elite/ Corsair h115i Platinum
Memory Trident Z5 Neo 6000/ 32 GB 3200 CL14 @3800 CL16 Team T Force Nighthawk
Video Card(s) Evga FTW 3 Ultra 3080ti/ Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090
Storage lots of SSD.
Display(s) A whole bunch OLED, VA, IPS.....
Case 011 Dynamic XL/ Phanteks Evolv X
Audio Device(s) Arctis Pro + gaming Dac/ Corsair sp 2500/ Logitech G560/Samsung Q990B
Power Supply Seasonic Ultra Prime Titanium 1000w/850w
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed/ Logitech G Pro Hero.
Keyboard Logitech - G915 LIGHTSPEED / Logitech G Pro
No one can stop the AI train!!!! Choo-Choo all aboard suckas!!!
 
Joined
May 10, 2023
Messages
758 (1.11/day)
Location
Brazil
Processor 5950x
Motherboard B550 ProArt
Cooling Fuma 2
Memory 4x32GB 3200MHz Corsair LPX
Video Card(s) 2x RTX 3090
Display(s) LG 42" C2 4k OLED
Power Supply XPG Core Reactor 850W
Software I use Arch btw
Given that Strix Halo has almost DOUBLE the memory bandwidth of the LNL CPU, (128-bit@8533MT/s, 136.5GB/s vs 256-bit@8000MT/s, 256GB/s), has 5x more compute units (40 vs 8), and almost 6x the TDP, it'd be really shameful if it didn't manage to beat the ultra low power competitor to begin with.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2013
Messages
6,510 (1.56/day)
Location
If you don't know by now, it's TOO LATE sucka !
System Name The Little One
Processor i5-11320H @4.4GHZ
Motherboard AZW SEI
Cooling Fan w/heat pipes + side & rear vents
Memory 64GB Crucial DDR4-3200 (2x 32GB)
Video Card(s) Iris XE
Storage WD Black SN850X 8TB m.2, Seagate 2TB SSD + SN850 8TB x2 in an external enclosure
Display(s) 2x Samsung 43" & 2x 32"
Case Practically identical to a mac mini, just purrtier in slate blue, & with 3x usb ports on the front !
Audio Device(s) Yamaha ATS-1060 Bluetooth Soundbar & Subwoofer
Power Supply 65w brick
Mouse Logitech MX Master 2
Keyboard Logitech G613 mechanical wireless
VR HMD Whahdatiz ???
Software Windows 10 pro, with all the unnecessary background shitzu turned OFF !
Benchmark Scores PDQ
"It don't take money, don't take no fame, You don't need no credit card, to ride this train" - Huey Lewis

Why, you may ask yourself...

Cause da AI already has all your personal & financial info, so just go for it !
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2016
Messages
2,430 (0.80/day)
Given that Strix Halo has almost DOUBLE the memory bandwidth of the LNL CPU, (128-bit@8533MT/s, 136.5GB/s vs 256-bit@8000MT/s, 256GB/s), has 5x more compute units (40 vs 8), and almost 6x the TDP, it'd be really shameful if it didn't manage to beat the ultra low power competitor to begin with.
While all true and I'm sure Strix Halo is more expensive than Lunar Lake, I think the main point is that you can get all of that in a similar laptop form factor as one with Lunar Lake. So if you need a laptop to do AI, don't settle for the top brand...they can't do it like AMD can and that's the message.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
7,786 (1.79/day)
No one can stop the AI train!!!! Choo-Choo all aboard suckas!!!
Wall Street Halloween GIF by Imagine Dragons
Wall Street Yes GIF by Imagine Dragons

Wall Street Dancing GIF by Imagine Dragons
Serious Wall Street GIF by Imagine Dragons

Cause da AI already has all your personal & financial info, so just go for it !
And soon it'll have/own you as well, so be ready to be slaves again!
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
236 (0.14/day)
It'd be nice to see leaps and bounds performance per watt boost... still waiting to upgrade my 2020 laptop for something much more energy efficient. I think AMD has the huge upper hand compared to InTel on efficiency....we'll see with this new gen.
 
Joined
May 19, 2011
Messages
221 (0.04/day)
Really looking forward to Lunar Lake Halo now (btw has anybody heard any news about it?). Seems like when it comes to APUs, AMD is only winning in outright CPU performance but Intel is winning in efficiency. AI benches will be a whole new frontier.
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2023
Messages
44 (0.07/day)
It'd be nice to see leaps and bounds performance per watt boost... still waiting to upgrade my 2020 laptop for something much more energy efficient. I think AMD has the huge upper hand compared to InTel on efficiency....we'll see with this new gen.
What are you using your laptop for? For lower power stuff I'd say Lunar Lake has an edge over Strix Point, but AMD will win in higher power tasks. Might be worth trying some laptops out in person to see how they actually handle in real life.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,641 (0.86/day)
Location
Athens, Greece
System Name 3 desktop systems: Gaming / Internet / HTPC
Processor Ryzen 5 7600 / Ryzen 5 4600G / Ryzen 5 5500
Motherboard X670E Gaming Plus WiFi / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (1) / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (2)
Cooling Aigo ICE 400SE / Segotep T4 / Îťoctua U12S
Memory Kingston FURY Beast 32GB DDR5 6000 / 16GB JUHOR / 32GB G.Skill RIPJAWS 3600 + Aegis 3200
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 6600 / Vega 7 integrated / Radeon RX 580
Storage NVMes, ONLY NVMes / NVMes, SATA Storage / NVMe, SATA, external storage
Display(s) Philips 43PUS8857/12 UHD TV (120Hz, HDR, FreeSync Premium) / 19'' HP monitor + BlitzWolf BW-V5
Case Sharkoon Rebel 12 / CoolerMaster Elite 361 / Xigmatek Midguard
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Chieftec 850W / Silver Power 400W / Sharkoon 650W
Mouse CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Keyboard CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Software Windows 10 / Windows 10&Windows 11 / Windows 10
but Intel is winning in efficiency
Intel started optimizing for efficiency 15+ years ago, hoping to win some market share in tablets from ARM. They had the manufacturing advantage back then, while also started developing Atom cores to fight ARM. AMD was also playing with little cores for a few years, like Jaguar and Temash, but Su stopped those little cores when she took over, in an effort to cut costs. It makes sense Intel to be ahead in efficiency in many cases, especially at low watts, because of their experience and probably architecture choices over the years.
 
Joined
May 10, 2023
Messages
758 (1.11/day)
Location
Brazil
Processor 5950x
Motherboard B550 ProArt
Cooling Fuma 2
Memory 4x32GB 3200MHz Corsair LPX
Video Card(s) 2x RTX 3090
Display(s) LG 42" C2 4k OLED
Power Supply XPG Core Reactor 850W
Software I use Arch btw
While all true and I'm sure Strix Halo is more expensive than Lunar Lake, I think the main point is that you can get all of that in a similar laptop form factor as one with Lunar Lake. So if you need a laptop to do AI, don't settle for the top brand...they can't do it like AMD can and that's the message.
If by "similar form factor" you mean just being a laptop, then ok.
If not, those will be in really different segments. Strix halo will be present in laptops that closely resemble gaming laptops, way chonkier and with way higher power consumption.
Lunar lake at most competes with Strix Point (at least there are notebooks in the same form factor with both options), and more realistically with krackan point given the low power focus.
Really looking forward to Lunar Lake Halo now (btw has anybody heard any news about it?). Seems like when it comes to APUs, AMD is only winning in outright CPU performance but Intel is winning in efficiency. AI benches will be a whole new frontier.
i believe this was just a rumor. LNL is a one-off thing, won't see any other improvements or a next iteration.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
533 (0.10/day)
System Name Very old, but all I've got ®
Processor So old, you don't wanna know... Really!
No one can stop the AI train!!!! Choo-Choo all aboard suckas!!!
Stay cool, baby! ©

On a serious note, it would be really nice to cut the dumb NPU "cores", and place more CPU cores/GPU CUs, on both Strix Halo, and Strix Point.
So many wasted silicon/die area, just for the sake of dump useless copilot, that phones home 24/7, ath the expence of the user's resources and power.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,641 (0.86/day)
Location
Athens, Greece
System Name 3 desktop systems: Gaming / Internet / HTPC
Processor Ryzen 5 7600 / Ryzen 5 4600G / Ryzen 5 5500
Motherboard X670E Gaming Plus WiFi / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (1) / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (2)
Cooling Aigo ICE 400SE / Segotep T4 / Îťoctua U12S
Memory Kingston FURY Beast 32GB DDR5 6000 / 16GB JUHOR / 32GB G.Skill RIPJAWS 3600 + Aegis 3200
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 6600 / Vega 7 integrated / Radeon RX 580
Storage NVMes, ONLY NVMes / NVMes, SATA Storage / NVMe, SATA, external storage
Display(s) Philips 43PUS8857/12 UHD TV (120Hz, HDR, FreeSync Premium) / 19'' HP monitor + BlitzWolf BW-V5
Case Sharkoon Rebel 12 / CoolerMaster Elite 361 / Xigmatek Midguard
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Chieftec 850W / Silver Power 400W / Sharkoon 650W
Mouse CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Keyboard CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / CoolerMaster Devastator / Logitech
Software Windows 10 / Windows 10&Windows 11 / Windows 10
On a serious note, it would be really nice to cut the dumb NPU "cores", and place more CPU cores/GPU CUs, on both Strix Halo, and Strix Point.
So many wasted silicon/die area, just for the sake of dump useless copilot, that phones home 24/7, ath the expence of the user's resources and power.
If I am not mistaken, MS requires an NPU for it's AI apps to work in Windows. An NPU with minimum 40 TOPS. If I am not mistaken, then the NPU will not just be a mandatory part of probably every future CPU, but we might start getting refreshes where only the NPU is changed. Imagine waiting a year to get a new CPU line, only to see the same CPU and iGPU parts and only the NPU getting a 10-20% performance increase.
 
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
533 (0.10/day)
System Name Very old, but all I've got ®
Processor So old, you don't wanna know... Really!
If I am not mistaken, MS requires an NPU for it's AI apps to work in Windows. An NPU with minimum 40 TOPS. If I am not mistaken, then the NPU will not just be a mandatory part of probably every future CPU, but we might start getting refreshes where only the NPU is changed. Imagine waiting a year to get a new CPU line, only to see the same CPU and iGPU parts and only the NPU getting a 10-20% performance increase.
Exactly. That's why I've mentioned wasting die area for useless copilot. more "regular" CPU or GPU compute power, could do more good work, intead of generating the lazy tastless obscure images of n*de waifus, or siphoning the private data from the PC with windows OS and SW.
 
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,849 (0.61/day)
Location
NH, USA
System Name Lightbringer
Processor Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming
Cooling Enermax Liqmax Iii 360mm AIO
Memory G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (8GBx4) 3200Mhz CL 14
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 5700XT Nitro+
Storage Hp EX950 2TB NVMe M.2, HP EX950 1TB NVMe M.2, Samsung 860 EVO 2TB
Display(s) LG 34BK95U-W 34" 5120 x 2160
Case Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic (White)
Power Supply BeQuiet Straight Power 11 850w Gold Rated PSU
Mouse Glorious Model O (Matte White)
Keyboard Royal Kludge RK71
Software Windows 10
Given that Strix Halo has almost DOUBLE the memory bandwidth of the LNL CPU, (128-bit@8533MT/s, 136.5GB/s vs 256-bit@8000MT/s, 256GB/s), has 5x more compute units (40 vs 8), and almost 6x the TDP, it'd be really shameful if it didn't manage to beat the ultra low power competitor to begin with.
If they're in the same price range, than it's a worthwhile comparison
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2023
Messages
22 (0.03/day)
Surely if you were seriously looking for a laptop that could run a LLM (for whatever reason), a MacBook Pro with an M4 Max would be the most obvious competition for the Strix Halo. How does it fare in that comparison?
 
Joined
May 10, 2023
Messages
758 (1.11/day)
Location
Brazil
Processor 5950x
Motherboard B550 ProArt
Cooling Fuma 2
Memory 4x32GB 3200MHz Corsair LPX
Video Card(s) 2x RTX 3090
Display(s) LG 42" C2 4k OLED
Power Supply XPG Core Reactor 850W
Software I use Arch btw
If they're in the same price range, than it's a worthwhile comparison
So far Strix Halo products seem to go for a bit more than LNL/Strix Point laptops.
Surely if you were seriously looking for a laptop that could run a LLM (for whatever reason), a MacBook Pro with an M4 Max would be the most obvious competition for the Strix Halo. How does it fare in that comparison?
It fares far wore, given that a M4 Max has pretty much double the memory bandwidth.
However, a M4 Max is also a tad more expensive than an strix halo config. Strix Halo is closer to a M4 Pro in performance when it comes to LLM stuff.
 
Joined
Jun 18, 2021
Messages
2,718 (1.98/day)
12 times the performance in the 0 products where it's available?

This is a chip I want in my next laptop, but none are available to buy. Not even the mini-pc options are available yet!

On a serious note, it would be really nice to cut the dumb NPU "cores", and place more CPU cores/GPU CUs, on both Strix Halo, and Strix Point.
So many wasted silicon/die area, just for the sake of dump useless copilot, that phones home 24/7, ath the expence of the user's resources and power.

That NPU can do specific tasks a lot more efficiently than tapping the GPU compute units, it's just that at the moment that task is just running the stupid microsoft copilot. If developers start tapping the npu to do more usefull stuff it's just another processing unit, if it continues to be reserved for microsoft yeah, waste of sand
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2023
Messages
22 (0.03/day)
It fares far wore, given that a M4 Max has pretty much double the memory bandwidth.
However, a M4 Max is also a tad more expensive than an strix halo config. Strix Halo is closer to a M4 Pro in performance when it comes to LLM stuff.
Thanks for that information. I could only find information about the M4 Pro and it looked pretty close to the Strix Halo, so I figured the Max would be faster.

AMD is also comparing their highest end full power laptop chip to Intel's best thin and light chip. A more honest comparison would have been with the 285HX. I'm sure the Strix Halo would still win since it has the superior memory and GPU, but I bet it would be closer.
 
Joined
Jun 18, 2021
Messages
2,718 (1.98/day)
AMD is also comparing their highest end full power laptop chip to Intel's best thin and light chip. A more honest comparison would have been with the 285HX. I'm sure the Strix Halo would still win since it has the superior memory and GPU, but I bet it would be closer.

It's a scummy tactic but the result wouldn't be that different, the ammount of compute units on Strix Halo combined with the larger bandwidth of the 256 mem bus is really on a different level to any of the Intel offerings - in a way it makes this a bit pathetic because of just how different Lunar Lake and Strix Halo are, the more relevant comparison would really be Strix Point or Kraken Point which are regular CPU like Lunar Lake.
 
Joined
Mar 13, 2025
Messages
30 (5.00/day)
System Name My Gamer
Processor 9900X3D
Motherboard As Rock X870E Taichi
Cooling Thermalright Elite 360
Memory Gskill DDR5 64GB 30 1.35 volts
Video Card(s) 7900XT
Storage Corsair MP700 boot
Display(s) FV43U
Case 7000D Airflow
Audio Device(s) Void Headset, Creatibe Speakers
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex 1000W
Mouse AsusTuf M300
I don't care what anyone says. This chip is a Unicorn in every single way. The Specs are insane. The performance is also insane. If these ever come to desktop get As Rock for some APU love. Not many people are aware that As Rock is the only MB vendor that provides 120Hz support on DP and HDMI on the MB. I know we have 240 and 360 hz monitors in the space now but this chip is crazy good and puts many DGPU laptops to shame.

12 times the performance in the 0 products where it's available?

This is a chip I want in my next laptop, but none are available to buy. Not even the mini-pc options are available yet!



That NPU can do specific tasks a lot more efficiently than tapping the GPU compute units, it's just that at the moment that task is just running the stupid microsoft copilot. If developers start tapping the npu to do more usefull stuff it's just another processing unit, if it continues to be reserved for microsoft yeah, waste of sand
There is apparently an Asus laptop with it. I have seen reviewers talking about it.
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2022
Messages
278 (0.29/day)
If I am not mistaken, MS requires an NPU for it's AI apps to work in Windows. An NPU with minimum 40 TOPS. If I am not mistaken, then the NPU will not just be a mandatory part of probably every future CPU, but we might start getting refreshes where only the NPU is changed. Imagine waiting a year to get a new CPU line, only to see the same CPU and iGPU parts and only the NPU getting a 10-20% performance increase.
Isn't that exactly what AMD's mobile Ryzen 8040 series was? So the refreshes with only updated NPUs are already happening. Sad.
 
Joined
Apr 23, 2020
Messages
134 (0.07/day)
NPUs arrived late on PCs, there are already NPUs on cell phones.

Do you wish that only cell phones had NPUs and not PCs?
 
Top