AMD Says Its New Laptop Chips Can Beat Apple — But Still Has to Prove It

2024 is shaping up to be a historic year for technology, with Microsoft finally positioning Windows laptops as serious competitors to the MacBook. This progress has been primarily driven by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chips, which boast a homogeneous architecture, enhanced clock speeds, and competitive power efficiency matching Apple’s processors. Now, AMD has stepped into the ring, asserting that its new chips can take on the MacBook and maintain its relevance in the processor market.

Last week, AMD held a comprehensive two-day event in Los Angeles to showcase its latest Strix Point Ryzen AI chips built on the innovative Zen 5 architecture. This new architecture promises significant advancements over AMD’s previous generation, claiming higher instructions per clock cycle and better gaming frame rates with just 15W of power.

Bold Claims and Missing Proof

During the event, AMD confidently stated that its new Ryzen chip “exceeds the performance of what MacBook Air has to offer in multitasking, image processing, 3D rendering, and gaming.” The company also boasted that the chip is “15 percent faster than the M3 Pro” in Cinebench and can support up to four displays, unlike the MacBook Air’s two-display limit.

AMD further claimed its integrated graphics surpass Qualcomm’s current-gen and Intel’s last-gen offerings, emphasizing its ability to power “triple-A games in full HD,” including titles that reportedly “don’t work on some of our competitors.” The company also highlighted that its NPU performs 50 trillion floating point operations per second, outpacing any Microsoft Copilot Plus laptop competitors expected this year.

However, these bold claims came without tangible proof. Games purportedly running faster on AMD’s new iGPU were unavailable for testing. Most AI demos were not running on AMD’s NPU, and those that were did not exhibit responsiveness. The most intriguing AI demo, Asus’ automatic file consolidation and organization program, wasn’t available for hands-on testing, and AMD’s most powerful gaming laptop showcased at the event ran games on Nvidia graphics with Nvidia upscaling, not AMD’s own integrated graphics.

Architectural Improvements

Despite the lack of hands-on proof, the architectural improvements in Ryzen AI suggest a notable performance leap. AMD claims the new Zen 5 CPU architecture delivers 16 percent more instructions per clock cycle (IPC) on average, boosting task performance without increasing clock speed.

In gaming, AMD states that its CPU cores provide a 10 percent IPC uplift in games like Far Cry 6, while the new RDNA 3.5 GPU architecture offers between 19 percent and 32 percent more graphics performance per watt at 15 watts. This could potentially translate to more frames per second, reduced power consumption, or a balance of both.

Battery Life Uncertainties

While AMD’s chips are theoretically more efficient, the company was vague about battery life improvements. At the event, AMD only mentioned that battery life would last “all day,” defined as “eight hours or more.” There was no specific data from Asus representatives on the actual battery life of demoed laptops.

Historically, thin and light productivity laptops have surpassed the eight-hour mark. Given AMD’s architectural enhancements, it’s reasonable to expect similar performance. However, real-world usage often falls short of manufacturers' promises. For example, an Asus representative stated that the Ryzen AI Zenbook S16 achieves about 12 hours of battery life, compared to 18 hours for the Qualcomm Vivobook S15. In contrast, the MacBook Air M3 achieved approximately 18 hours in testing.

Competing on Thin and Light

AMD’s Jack Huynh, senior vice president and GM of computing and graphics, expressed the ambition to build notebooks “faster than MacBook Pro, thinner and lighter than MacBook Air.” However, the Zenbook S16, upon inspection, didn’t feel lighter or thinner than the MacBook Air.

The Zenbook S16 matches the 15-inch MacBook Air in weight and thickness, at 3.3lbs (1.5kg) and approximately 0.45 inches thick. While impressive, these specifications are not enough to definitively claim superiority over the MacBook Air.

The World’s Fastest Mobile NPU?

AMD touted its 50 TOPS NPU as the world’s fastest mobile NPU, claiming it is over five times faster than Intel’s Meteor Lake. Yet, the demos provided no clear comparative performance data. Image generation programs on the Zenbook S16 and ProArt used either the CPU or integrated graphics, not the NPU.

A demo on an MSI Prestige laptop showcased webcam effects but still heavily taxed the CPU and memory. Story Cube, an AI-powered app from Asus, was discussed but not demonstrated, leaving its performance unverified.

Graphics Performance Questions

AMD claimed its Radeon 890M iGPU could achieve impressive frame rates in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2, but these games were not available for testing. Instead, Fallout 4 and Lies of Pi were showcased without confirming the graphics settings or resolution. Frame rates for these games were inconsistent, with Lies of Pi locked at 60fps and Fallout 4 ranging between 75fps and 95fps.

Awaiting Reviews

The first laptops with AMD’s Strix Point chips, including Asus’ Zenbook S16, ProArt P16, and ProArt PX13, will be available starting July 28th. With MacBooks and Snapdragon laptops already on the market, this is a critical moment for AMD to prove its Zen 5 architecture’s capabilities against its ARM competitors.

If AMD succeeds, it will increase the pressure on Intel ahead of its Lunar Lake release. If not, Intel will have the opportunity to reassert the competitiveness of x86 chips.

As we wait for the reviews, AMD's bold claims remain just that — claims. The true test will be in real-world performance and user experiences.

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