Integrated GPUs, built into the processor of your computer, have long been seen as the bottom rung of the gaming hardware ladder — pigeonholed as ultra-low-tier performers best suited for those who enjoy gaming at frame rates comparable to a slide projector.
It's discrete graphics, separate processors with their own dedicated memory, that get most gamers swooning, typically offering unrivaled performance in games, video editing, and more.
However, AMD APUs have been slowly breaking that mold, not only powering quality handheld gaming PCs like Valve's Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally X but now directly challenging discrete mobile GPUs from Nvidia following early benchmarks of its new Ryzen "Strix Halo," AI Max chipset.
AMD's Ryzen Strix Halo dazzled us in January, winning our best-in-show award during CES 2025, and with good reason. Outfitted with up to 128GB of memory that can be weighted between CPU, iGPU, or NPU as required, the new Ryzen AI Max chipsets showcase some phenomenal performance, with leaked benchmarks from earlier this month appearing too good to be true.
With the curtain rising on Ryzen AI Max 300 reviews, it appears, in this particular instance at least, that what glitters, is gold.
AMD Ryzen Strix Halo performance: The numbers don't lie
According to several benchmarks shared by Hardware Canucks, AMD's Ryzen Strix Halo, with its iGPU, doesn't just clip at the heels of Nvidia's RTX 4070 mobile GPU — it outperforms it in several gaming tests.
In particular, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 APU was able to run Cyberpunk 2077 in 1600p resolution at its highest graphics settings at an average of 39.4 frames per second (fps), while an RTX 4070 mobile GPU using the Ryzen 9 8945HS processor managed an average of 37.3 fps.
Similarly, AMD's Strix Halo APU also outperformed its discrete GPU counterpart while running Bethesda's Starfield in 1600p resolution at its highest settings, running at an average of 36.8 fps compared to the RTX 4070's 34.7 fps.
It wasn't a clean sheet of victories, however. The RTX 4070 retained the lead in titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, Doom Eternal, and Rainbow 6: Siege — though not by a wide margin.
Beyond gaming, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 was also able to reach near Apple M4 Pro levels of performance in the Cinebench 2024 multi-core benchmark, netting a score of 1,669, just shy of the M4 Pro's 1,715 rating.
Is the iGPU back?
For something to come back, it generally needs to go away first. To give iGPUs their credit, they've been capable of some solid feats in recent years, and have serviced many budget gamers before that.
However, the integrated GPU is definitely having something of a revival period, with not only AMD showcasing some impressive gaming flair but Intel also, whose Arc 140T iGPUs found in its Arrow Lake chips also impressed during our Elden Ring gaming test using the Asus Zenbook Duo.
There's still some ways to go before the iGPU stands to challenge more powerful discrete GPUs in laptops, and even mid-level GPUs when it comes to Nvidia's ray-tracing prowess, but the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395's performance and lower power draw paint a bright future ahead for integrated graphics and could go some way to eliminating the stigma surrounding these options.
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