It's been a while since AMD launched its Zen 5 mobile chips. The Strix Halo is the most powerful Zen 5-based chip ever, offering up to a staggering 16 cores/32 threads. However, most PCs on the market today, including AI mini PCs and laptops, are primarily equipped with the top-of-the-line model, although AMD has also launched a few other SKUs in the lineup.
AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro 395 is usually found in high-end mobile devices with 16 cores/32 threads and Radeon 8060S GPU, but this is probably the first time we've seen a mid-range SKU with 8 cores/16 threads. That's the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385, which features 8 Zen 5 cores with a base clock of 3.6 GHz, boost clock up to 5 GHz, and integrated Radeon 8050S graphics based on RDNA 3.5 architecture. Unlike the Pro 395, the Pro 385 is significantly weaker in terms of CPU but quite powerful when it comes to integrated graphics (iGPU).
While the iGPU needs to be tested for a detailed comparison, the Radeon 8050S is only 8 Compute Units behind the Radeon 8060S. This certainly puts the Radeon 8060S at a significant advantage in terms of graphics performance, but the Radeon 8050S is probably the second most powerful iGPU available on the mainstream market. Back to the CPU itself, the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 is used in the HP ZBook Ultra G1a 14-inch mobile workstation laptop. We've seen laptops and mini PCs like this with faster versions of the Strix Halo, but it's nice to see manufacturers coming up with more affordable options.
This processor scored 2489 in the single-core test and 14136 in the multi-core test on Geekbench 6, but these scores can vary greatly between different tests, and we all know that Geekbench 6 is not an absolutely reliable CPU testing platform.
More importantly, we could finally see cheaper alternatives to Ryzen AI Max Pro 395-based devices that still offer great iGPU performance. Mini PCs and laptops powered by the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 can easily play games at 1080p with playable framerates, but it's worth noting that many of these devices will be aimed at professionals and content creators.
With the ability to deliver up to 50 TOPS NPU AI performance and over 100 TOPS total, the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 could also be a solid choice for AI tasks. Laptops and mini PCs based on the Ryzen AI Max Pro 395 typically cost close to $2,000 or more, but with the arrival of the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385, we could finally see systems under the $1,500 mark.