Laptop Mag loves a good benchmark comparison, especially when a product eclipses the competition, but not every comparison is a fair one.
This morning, AMD published new AI benchmarks pitting the powerhouse Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chipset in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025) against Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V in the Asus Zenbook S14 (UX5406).
AMD tested both systems in AI performance through the GPU tile, and as you might expect, Intel's mid-range Lunar Lake chipset couldn't keep up with the Ryzen AI Max Strix Halo APU.
The problem is those benchmark charts only focus on the AMD and Intel rivalry, leaving out the far more pressing Apple competition. So, for a more fair comparison, we went ahead and did the hard comparison work for you.
AMD's AI findings aren't a surprise
Rather than use standardized industry benchmarks, AMD's comparisons use a "tokens per second" speed rating on how Lunar Lake and Strix Halo handle various Large Language Model (LLM) and Small Language Model (SLM) AI frameworks like DeepSeek and Microsoft's Phi 4.
As you might expect, the robust GPU tile on the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 outperforms Lunar Lake's smaller Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics.
After all, Intel's Lunar Lake chips were designed for ultra-portable AI PC laptops and operate at a much lower power threshold than the Ryzen AI Max+. Additionally, no one expects the same GPU performance from an ultra-thin notebook as they do from a gaming machine like the Flow Z13.
True, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and Intel Core Ultra 200V series are both x86 CPUs that can handle AI workloads. Comparing AI power on the Zenbook S14 and the ROG Flow Z13 is a lot like comparing the gaming performance of the Asus ROG Ally X to the ROG Strix Scar 18. They're completely different devices, with different hardware, designed for different uses.
Plus, AMD already has a Lunar Lake competitor in the Strix Point and Krackan Point Ryzen AI 300 series.
Since AMD's performance benchmarks don't use standardized tests or report hard score numbers, we checked AMD's findings with our own lab benchmarks.
AMD vs Apple M4
AMD titled the AI performance benchmarks "Most Powerful x86 processor for LLMs" and that is true. But Strix Halo isn't a standard mobile CPU design. It has more in common with Apple's Arm-based M4 Max or M3 Ultra. While that is an x86 vs Arm comparison, Apple's high-end chipsets are in a similar CPU class as the Ryzen AI Max, whereas Lunar Lake just isn't.
While we don't have benchmarks for the M4 Max or M3 Ultra yet, we do have testing results from the "most powerful Apple laptop we've ever tested," the MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Pro chipset.
Of course, for a proper chip and product comparison, the other launch system for the Ryzen AI Max APU would have been a better choice for facing off with the MacBook Pro. Apple's premium laptops have long been a standard for design professionals, and so the HP ZBook 14 Ultra would have been a fantastic test to run against the MacBook Pro 16.
Unfortunately, we haven't been able to test the ZBook 14 Ultra G1a just yet. So we had to use the Flow Z13 instead.
We kept the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V-powered Asus Zenbook S14 in the comparison to verify AMD's claims, and we weren't really surprised to see the Zenbook S14 on the low end compared to the Apple and AMD powerhouses.
While the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 in the ROG Flow Z13 does have the edge on gaming performance, the M4 Pro does give it some solid competition on GPU-bound AI performance, based on the Geekbench AI benchmark.
Click to view chart data in table format
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI Max+ 395) | Asus Zenbook S14 (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V) | Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
Geekbench 6: Single core (Higher is better) | 2,995 | 2,751 | 3,910 |
Geekbench 6: Multicore (Higher is better) | 19,457 | 11,157 | 22,822 |
Geekbench AI: ONNX GPU: Single Precision (Higher is better) | 20,501 | 6,190 | 15,207 |
Geekbench AI: ONNX GPU: Half Precision (Higher is better) | 25,605 | 10,283 | 17,046 |
Geekbench AI: ONNX GPU: Quantized (Higher is better) | 16,673 | 4,306 | 15,110 |
3DMark: Steel Nomad (Higher is better) | 1,707 | 812 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
Borderlands 3: 1080p (fps, Higher is better) | 78.65 | 23.66 | 42.8 |
Ryzen AI Max lives up to its name
While the Geekbench AI benchmark does have its own drawbacks in measuring AI performance, it is a cross-platform benchmark designed to compare CPUs and GPUs where AMD's reported "Tokens per second" benchmarks are a bit more difficult to repeat in outside testing.
Just because the Apple MacBook Pro 16 offers solid competition to the Flow Z13 in our benchmarks, it doesn't mean the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 isn't a massively powerful chipset. It's a heavy-hitting, multi-purpose chip that we've seen crush creative and gaming performance. It's a new take on the x86 processor design. And it was our Best-in-Show winner for CES 2025 for good reason.
We loved seeing its power in the ROG Flow Z13, and we're excited to get our hands on the PRO-version in the HP ZBook 14 Ultra. We'd also love to see AMD put the Ryzen AI Max in more systems, so we have more points of benchmark comparison.
After all, Apple Silicon could always use stronger competition.
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