Intel Arc G3 Extreme first impressions with MSI's Claw 8 EX AI+ - Incredible power for an extreme price

Introduction and Intel Arc G3 Specifications

It's been over four years since Valve launched the Steam Deck, a device that sparked a wave of consumer and manufacturer interest in gaming handhelds. But with few exceptions, the market has been dominated by devices with AMD SoCs. Intel's 'Meteor Lake' and 'Lunar Lake' Core Ultra series failed to pick up design wins versus the stronger AMD Z1 and Z2 series. That's all changed now as Intel has come out swinging with its purpose-built Arc G3 SoC based on its 'Panther Lake' architecture. Straight up, this is one powerful SoC, and it's become the chip to beat, although you'll have to pay a steep price for the privilege of owning a handheld that houses one.

We received an MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ from Intel, specifically the CG3EM model, which features the Arc G3 Extreme processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB SSD. But the kicker is the price. The second and third of those aforementioned specs are a major factor in the Claw 8 EX AI+'s $1,799 USD price. That's pretty scary indeed. At the time of writing, it was available at Newegg for $1,699, though it was out of stock. That's nearly double the price of an ASUS ROG Ally X, and closer to three times the price of a Steam Deck OLED. In fairness, the prices of the latter are rising too.

Our sample took a bit longer to ship to my base in Thailand, so for now I'll share some first impressions and an overview. An in-depth review with comparisons will come at a later date.

The Intel Arc G3 Extreme and the slightly lesser Arc G3 are Intel's first SoCs designed from the ground up for the gaming handheld market. They're designed to optimize performance at power levels lower than those on a gaming laptop. The Arc G3 places a much heavier emphasis on graphics performance.

The Arc G3 SoC contains three tiles. A Compute tile, a GPU tile, and a Platform Controller tile.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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How much of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ price is likely driven by the 32GB LPDDR5X-8533 RAM and 1TB SSD versus the Arc G3 Extreme SoC itself?

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Question 02

Can the Claw 8 EX AI+ reliably be used as a desktop replacement via the included Thunderbolt 4 dock for extended Windows 11 productivity sessions?

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Question 03

What battery life should buyers expect when using XeSS multi-frame generation or other upscaling/frame generation features compared with the tested 15 W and default profiles?

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Question 04

If users prefer lower noise, are there accessible fan profile or power/thermals settings in MSI Center M or Xbox Mode to reduce the Claw's aggressive default fan behavior?

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The Compute Tile contains the CPU cores, L3 cache, a 46 TOPS NPU, the media engine, and the display engine. The 14 CPU cores consist of 2 Cougar Cove P-cores, 8 Darkmont E-cores, and 4 Darkmont low-power E-cores. We won't spend too much time on the CPU side of things in this article. Instead, we'll focus on the GPU side and the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+.

Compared to previous-generation Core Ultra Series 3 models, the Arc G3 loses 2 P-Cores, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, and 2 display outputs. That allowed Intel to shift the balance towards GPU performance and power optimization, which are the main bottlenecks in handheld gaming performance.

The Platform Controller Tile contains the SoC's 8x PCIe 4.0 and 4x PCIe 5.0 lanes, Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. Those Thunderbolt 4 ports are critical for use with an external dock, which can effectively turn an Arc G3 device into a powerful little PC in its own right.

The GPU tile is where the really cool stuff happens. It has 12 Xe Cores (10 for the Arc G3) that Intel refers to as the B390. The Arc G3 Extreme's 12-core configuration is 50% higher than the 8 cores of a Core Ultra 200V-series chip with Xe2 graphics. That alone gives it a lot more horsepower. A 12-core configuration gives it 96 Xe Vector Engines (XVEs), 96 XMX AI Engines, and 12 Ray Tracing Units (RTUs). Other key improvements include 256 KB of L1 cache (a 33% increase), doubling of the L2 cache to 16 MB, and a variable register that increases thread utilization by up to 25%.

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Combined, the B390 GPU has much more graphics power than Xe2, but it also has additional resources to power XeSS AI upscaling, frame generation, and ray tracing.

A gaming handheld is limited by its power budget, so upscaling and frame generation technologies are critical for improving performance while maintaining visual quality, smoothness, and responsiveness. It's an area Intel has invested major resources in. Part of the reason Xe2 handhelds never appeared in significant numbers was a lack of software and driver polish compared to AMD alternatives.

XeSS 3 introduces AI-based Multi-Frame Generation (XeSS-MFG). Combined with AI-based XeSS Super Resolution (XeSS-SR). At the time of writing, about 110 games supported XeSS multi-frame generation. However, some of these games don't explicitly support XeSS 3 and instead require a driver override or an overlay toggle. It's those little things Intel needs to polish for a truly seamless end-user experience.

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ CG3EM Preview

A deep purple beast

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For our testing, Intel sent over an MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ along with an OWC Thunderbolt 4 dock and a set of Samsung Galaxy Buds 4. That particular dock can turn a humble gaming handheld into a proper, fully functional PC. Note that this is a review kit. A retail package from MSI won't reflect what the end user will receive.

Physically, the Claw 8 EX AI+ is a big device. I have large hands, and it still feels big, though I found it to be ergonomically sound. The grips fit my fingers well, and the palm rests felt comfortable. Even holding it in one hand, I never felt like there was a risk of me dropping it. I'll need to have some long gaming sessions with it to properly judge the unit's ergonomics, but my first impressions are highly positive.

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It's packed with a full array of buttons and dual hall-effect thumbsticks. The buttons can be assigned using MSI's Center M software. The unit comes with an attractive purple color scheme.

Aside from the Intel Arc G3 Extreme, the Claw features specs that rival those of some seriously powerful (and expensive) laptops. Our test unit came with 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory (!) and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. My laptop is envious. You also get WiFi 7, Bluetooth 6 and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports.

The Claw 8 EX AI+ comes with an 8-in 1920 x 1200 16:10 IPS screen. It's a 120Hz touchscreen with VRR support. The colors are vivid. The contrast is also good. Surprisingly so, even at night. It's a good screen, but an OLED panel would be preferred, especially at its $1,800 asking price.

I'm going to assume that most gamers using handhelds won't pay too much attention to the built-in speakers, instead opting for headphones. At just 2 W, they aren't going to pump out EDM tracks, but there's enough bass there to provide satisfying gunshots, and I was happy lying in bed at night playing YouTube videos with clear speech.

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Windows 11 Home is included. I don't feel comfortable using Windows without a keyboard and mouse, or at least a trackpad, but it's there if you want a handheld that can easily double as a portable PC.

Just as important as the hardware is MSI's Center M, Intel's GPU software, and Xbox Mode. I feel Xbox Mode has come a long way, and as a pure gaming device, there's not much of a need to navigate away from it. I like how it integrates the different storefronts and games into a single screen.

My full review will go into further details.

Benchmarks- first tests

Due to limited time and a temporary lack of comparison results, I will limit benchmark testing for now. I'll be back in the near future with a complete set of benchmark results. I did take the opportunity to run Cyberpunk 2077 to get a feel for the MSI Claw EX AI+'s performance.

At 1920 x 1200, with low ray tracing settings and no upscaling, the result was a rather staggering 47.24 FPS. Turning off ray tracing and changing the preset to high resulted in 57.23 FPS. Though I'm still working on comparative results, it's very safe to say that handhelds with AMD's SoCs cannot match that.

Using Intel's supplied numbers, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is nearly 70% faster than the MSI Claw 8 AI+ with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V.

There's no doubt the speedy 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 helps to keep the GPU fed. We'd never expect MSI to tell us how much that configuration adds to the cost of the Claw 8 EX AI+, but it's got to be a LOT.

Battery life is a critical measure for any gaming handheld. None of it matters if the darn thing runs out of gas. The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ includes an 80Wh battery. I looped the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark with default settings and got 105 minutes. Using the 15 W profile, that number stretched to 207 minutes. That's closing in on 3.5 hours. Bear in mind the Arc G3 Extreme is still highly capable at 15W.

Temperatures are highly dependent on workload. The CPU cores can get hot, up to 90 degrees under a heavy load. That's still acceptable for a mobile CPU, and it's not like people are buying a handheld to render or encode videos.

Under full gaming load, the Claw's GPU topped out at 81 degrees; again, that's not a bad result. That number will drop, of course, under the power-optimized endurance modes.

I felt the Claw's fan profile was quite aggressive by default, but at least it didn't have to spin up and down, which would be very annoying. I'll take a closer look at that in the full review.

Initial Thoughts

My first impressions of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ and the Intel Arc G3 Extreme are highly positive. For many years, AMD's Z1 and Z2 variants have led the way in graphics performance, but with the Arc G3, Intel has come roaring back. It obliterates its Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake predecessors and puts the pressure right back on AMD.

Performance-wise, the Arc G3 Extreme is capable of proper 1200p gaming, even without frame generation or upscaling. Even ray tracing has taken a dramatic leap forward. If you can get 45 FPS+ in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing, well, pretty much every other game will be playable at the very least, even without having to lower the resolution below native. The Arc G3 Extreme is a beast of a gaming SoC, and it achieves it without resorting to unreasonable power levels.

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The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is a well-built device that feels very comfortable in my hands. I like its big screen and variable refresh rate, though there's a solid argument that MSI should have opted for an OLED screen. The speakers are more than acceptable, and the review unit with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD has specs that let it function perfectly well as an ultra-portable PC, though it will be much more efficient as a Windows PC with a mouse.

The elephant in the room is the price of the Claw 8 EX AI+, but that's not an MSI or an Intel problem. Any Arc G3 Extreme handheld with comparable specs will be just as expensive.

I'll be back at a later date with a full review and some longer-term usage impressions, but for now, I'm not going out on a limb by saying that the Arc G3 Extreme is the best gaming SoC on the market right now. Even without XeSS 3 and frame generation, it's a very capable SoC, and if Intel can keep pushing hard on its work on software, driver development, and 0-day game support, there's no reason Intel cannot stay at the top for the foreseeable future.

Stay tuned!