MSI Claw gaming handhelds benched: AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme + Intel Core Ultra 7 258V side-by-side

MSI's new Claw A8 and Claw 8 AI+ gaming handhelds are powered by the AMD Strix Point APU and Intel Lunar Lake CPU, respectively, and have undergone some side-by-side benchmarking by Chinese content creator and reviewer Golden Pig Upgrade.

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The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU features a 3+5 configuration for the CPU -- 3 x Zen 5 and 5 x Zen 5c cores -- while the GPU side is the Radeon 890M which is powered by 16 CUs of RDNA 3.5-based GPU. On the Intel side of things, the Core Ultra 7 258V uses a 4+4 configuration of Skymont and Lion Cove cores, with Xe2-LPG graphics containing 8 Xe2 GPU cores.

Golden Pig Upgrade tested both variants of the Intel and AMD chips inside of the MSI Claw gaming handhelds spanning 10 games at 1080p, using 17W and 30W power targets.

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At 17W you can see that the Claw A8 powered by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU comes out on top across the board, ranging from Far Cry 6, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077, through to F1 2024. The same goes for the 30W target, with the Claw A8 + Strix Point APU beating out the Claw 8 AI+ with its Lunar Lake CPU, but Intel comes out on top in 5 of the games tested when it's drawing the full 30W.

Intel does flex some power efficiency muscle with its Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" CPU inside of the Claw 8 AI+ handheld, with power efficiency getting very close to the efficiency of the Valve Steam Deck handheld. Impressive to see.