This is an ASUS laptop, specifically the ROG Strix Scar 15, which has been leaked in more than interesting details. Logically, what strikes most is its processor, or rather APU, although the term is obsolete although it is correct. Although the laptop is in NDA, the FCC has released a picture of the main features and well… Intel won’t have it as easy as it looks.
The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, a worthy successor?
The specs are by no means complete, but we already know that the top of the line for laptops will be called the Ryzen 9 6900HX, which will have the Zen 3+ architecture with V-Cache and will also repeat the cores and threads configuration. : 8 cores and 16 threads. This is not a new thing, because AMD will also repeat this configuration in Zen 4, but the microprocessor will introduce an improvement that is much awaited by all and that we have already seen two months ago: an iGPU RNA2.
This is the first APU that will have a graphics card integrated into this architecture, which will involve putting a lot of ground between Intel and directly attacking NVIDIA and its MX series. Therefore, and considering the fact that the Xe iGPUs have made a good jump in performance and come closer to the RDNA1 as such, that NVIDIA is always faster with the MX450, the scenario that presents itself is more than interesting to see and know. version of these iGPU will work.
DDR5 to support performance
If there is anything that is decisive in an iGPU, it is precisely the performance and the bandwidth of the RAM memory. Therefore, and being a little surprising due to the brevity of the implementation, AMD will have in its new DDR5 memory APUWhile we have already seen that it is currently not much higher than DDR4 despite having a much higher frequency, latency in games matters as well.
It is true that due to the internal typology of an APU, the bandwidth is even greater, it is therefore to be expected that the performance jump between the RDNA1 iGPU and the one that includes the RDNA2 will be more than ‘important.
Although it was not disclosed, it is speculated with the inclusion of PCIe 4.0 to support the latest generation graphics cards, although this may be limited to 8 lines alone. This is also important because, as we predicted last week, NVIDIA has its RTX 3080 Ti ready for laptops, which is already confirmed with this leak. All of these products are expected to be unveiled at CES 2022.
