MSI Claw A8 benchmarked: AMD's new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU tested against Intel Lunar Lake CPU

MSI's new Claw A8 gaming handheld has been benchmarked, with AMD's new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU tested against Intel's Lunar Lake processor.

In a new video from a Chinese content creator, MSI's new Claw A8 gaming handheld was tested as the new handheld has launched on Chinese e-commerce platforms, but it hasn't officially launched anywhere else. Inside, the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU has 8C/16T of Zen 5 processing power at up to 5.0GHz clock speeds, and 16 Compute Units of new RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU power.

This is a big upgrade over the lackluster Intel Meteor Lake processor inside the original MSI Claw gaming handheld, but the company did upgrade its Claw to the newer Intel Lunar Lake architecture, which is superior thanks to its improved Xe2 GPU architecture.

4

In the benchmarks of the MSI Claw A8 gaming handheld, the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU-powered system at 35W TDP scores over 3600 points for GPU and 8800 points for CPU in 3DMark Time Spy tests, matching the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU in graphics, but losing in CPU performance.

It easily outperforms the previous-gen Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, while at 12W, the new Z2 Extreme beats the Z1 Extreme by a long shot, close to matching the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. At 25W TDP and above, performance is close to the HX 370, with the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme offering improved power efficiency.

4

Moving over to real-world gaming performance, the MSI Claw A8 and its new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU has strong efficiency, especially in the low-to-mid power ranges. Starting with Ghost of Tsushima at 11-13W of power, it has the highest FPS and longest battery life with around 3 hours and 40 minutes.

In more demanding games like Expedition 33, the Claw A8 handheld pushes over 30FPS, while the Z1 Extreme APU is behind. In lighter gaming tests, the Z2 Extreme APU is superior in low power levels, offering up to 8.5 hours of battery life, but the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor is better in ultra-low-power gaming, maintaining 60FPS gaming at low power, offering a superior 11 hours of battery life in some gaming tests.

Chinese reviewers have claimed that MSI's new Claw A8 gaming handheld and its Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU are a strong performer for mobile gaming, with its new design, improved thermal system, and power efficiency. When compared against the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, the biggest differences lay in the lower CPU core count, and no NPU (which isn't needed for gaming handhelds).