AMD Ryzen AI delivers gaming performance up to 75% higher than Intel.

AMD has recently presented some internal results of its Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. Although several months have passed since the launch of the Ryzen AI 300 series, AMD now decides to compare its CPU with Intel's Lunar Lake, achieving very favorable figures for its best processor aimed at thin and light laptops.

First, AMD pits the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 against the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. AMD's processor features 12 cores (four from the Zen 5 architecture and eight from Zen 5c) and 24 threads, along with 36 MB of combined cache. Its maximum frequency reaches up to 5.1 GHz, and it offers a configurable thermal design that varies between 15 and 54 W. On the other hand, Intel's chip has eight cores (four performance and four efficiency), eight threads, a maximum frequency of 4.8 GHz, 12 MB of cache, and a TDP ranging from 17 to 37 W. Both processors include a neural processing unit (NPU), and here AMD also takes the victory, as its NPU offers 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS), compared to Intel's 47 TOPS, although the difference is small.

Delving into the results, AMD evaluates both processors across several video games, claiming that its model is on average 75% faster than Intel's. Some titles, such as F1 24 and Forza Horizon 5, show significant increases of over 50 frames per second (fps) at 1080p with medium settings. It is important to note that both laptops were utilizing all available gaming optimization technologies during this test. For AMD, this includes FSR 3 where applicable, as well as its one-click game enhancement solution, AMD HYPR-RX.

Additionally, AMD compared native performance without optimizations with FSR 3 and Intel's rival scaler, XeSS. In this case, the results are more balanced, showing that the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and the Core Ultra 7 258V are quite competitive in titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost of Tsushima, and F1 24. However, Intel's native performance surpasses that of AMD in Hitman 3 and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, while in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, AMD clearly prevails.

The analysis of FSR 3's capability against XeSS reveals that AMD's gaming technology has no competition in any of the tested titles. The final test compares the base version of FSR with AMD's HYPR-RX, where Intel also shows a decent increase with FSR, which is available for GPUs from all manufacturers, unlike Nvidia's DLSS 3. Nevertheless, AMD continues to lead by a wide margin, although the native performance is not as far apart.

The timing of these tests is interesting, considering that both the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel's Lunar Lake have been available for some time. Furthermore, the Lunar Lake processor cannot be considered a direct equivalent of the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which could explain part of the performance difference. Despite this, AMD's performance enhancement technology is promising for thin and light devices. It has already been seen in action in laptops like the Asus Zenbook S 16, where it has shown impressive performance. Additionally, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is also set to appear in a mini-PC from GMKtec—similar to the Intel NUC—and in portable devices. This type of technology can be especially useful in these devices, as, without a discrete GPU, its performance may be essential.