A Powerhouse of Innovation
The AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor represents a monumental advancement in the capabilities of ultra-thin laptops, particularly in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. This processor isn’t just an incremental upgrade; it’s a transformative leap, offering performance levels previously unattainable in such a compact form factor. It significantly outperforms the competition, providing a premium experience for users who demand both portability and power.
At the heart of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 lies a foundation of cutting-edge technology. It’s built upon AMD’s latest ‘Zen 5’ CPU cores, known for their exceptional efficiency and performance. Complementing the CPU is a powerful XDNA 2 NPU (Neural Processing Unit), specifically designed to accelerate AI workloads. This NPU boasts over 50 peak AI TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second), a metric that directly reflects its AI processing capability. Finally, the integrated GPU is driven by 40 AMD RDNA 3.5 Compute Units, providing substantial graphics horsepower for both gaming and compute-intensive tasks.
This synergistic combination of high-performance components – CPU, NPU, and GPU – allows the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 to deliver an unprecedented level of processing power within the thermal and power constraints of a thin and light laptop design. It’s a testament to AMD’s engineering prowess, achieving a balance that was previously considered impossible. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 comes with configurations ranging from 32 GB up to 128 GB of unified memory. A key feature is AMD’s Variable Graphics Memory, which can convert a large amount (up to 96GB) of that unified memory to VRAM.
Local AI: The Future is Now
One of the most compelling and forward-looking aspects of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 is its ability to handle demanding consumer AI workloads locally, with exceptional efficiency and speed. This means that users can run sophisticated AI models directly on their laptops, without relying on cloud connectivity or external servers. This capability is transformative, opening up a new era of possibilities for personal computing.
A prime example of this local AI prowess is the processor’s performance in LM Studio, a user-friendly application that democratizes access to the latest language models. LM Studio allows anyone, regardless of their technical expertise, to run these models locally. This eliminates the need for specialized knowledge or complex setup procedures, making cutting-edge AI accessible to a much broader audience.
With the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 and LM Studio, users can interact with state-of-the-art AI text and vision models directly on their laptops. They can experiment with different models, explore their capabilities, and integrate them into their workflows. This level of accessibility and control was previously unimaginable in such a compact and portable device. The ‘Strix Halo’ platform, on which the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 is based, solidifies AMD’s leadership in this domain, empowering users to experience AI in a way that was once the exclusive realm of high-end desktops or cloud-based services.
Memory: Shattering the Bottleneck
A critical limitation of many competing processors in the thin and light laptop category is their constrained memory capacity. Many are limited by their on-package memory, often maxing out at 32GB. While 32GB may be sufficient for running some smaller large language models (LLMs), it creates a significant bottleneck for more demanding AI applications, particularly those involving larger models or multi-modal processing (combining text, images, and other data types).
The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, however, decisively breaks through this memory barrier. It supports configurations with up to 128GB of unified memory, a massive increase compared to the typical 32GB limit. This expanded memory capacity is crucial for running larger and more complex AI models, enabling a level of performance and responsiveness that is simply unattainable with memory-constrained systems. Furthermore, AMD’s Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) technology allows a significant portion of this unified memory (up to 96GB) to be dynamically allocated as VRAM (Video RAM), further boosting performance in graphics-intensive AI tasks.
Benchmarking Excellence: Real-World Performance
To truly appreciate the performance advantage of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, it’s essential to examine real-world benchmarks. These benchmarks, conducted using an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 equipped with 64GB of unified memory, provide concrete evidence of the processor’s capabilities. To ensure a fair comparison with competitors, which typically offer laptops with a maximum of 32GB of memory, the LLM size was restricted to models that fit within a 16GB footprint. This ensures that the comparison focuses on the processing power of the chip itself, rather than the advantage of having more memory available.
The results are striking and demonstrate a clear performance leadership for the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395:
Token Throughput: The ASUS ROG Flow Z13, powered by the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, achieved up to 2.2 times the token throughput of a laptop featuring an Intel Arc 140V. Token throughput is a key metric for measuring the speed at which an LLM can process text, representing the number of tokens (words or sub-word units) processed per second. This significant performance uplift remained remarkably consistent across various model types and parameter sizes, indicating a robust and reliable advantage.
Time to First Token: This metric is crucial for measuring the responsiveness of an AI model. It represents the time it takes for the model to generate the first token of output after receiving a prompt. A lower time to first token translates to a more interactive and fluid user experience. The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 demonstrated a significant advantage in this area, being up to 4 times faster than the competition in smaller models like Llama 3.2 3b Instruct. This responsiveness is particularly noticeable in conversational AI applications, where quick responses are essential for a natural and engaging interaction.
Scaling with Model Size: The performance gap widens even further as the size of the LLM increases. With 7 billion and 8 billion parameter models, such as DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7b and DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8b, the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 was up to 9.1 times faster. This demonstrates the processor’s superior ability to handle the computational demands of larger and more complex models. When tackling 14 billion parameter models, the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 was an astonishing 12.2 times faster than an Intel Core Ultra 258V powered laptop – a difference of more than an order of magnitude. This highlights the significant advantage of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 for users who want to work with the most advanced and capable LLMs.
This data reveals a clear and consistent trend: the larger the LLM, the more pronounced the performance advantage of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 becomes. Whether a user is engaging in a conversational exchange with the model or assigning it complex summarization tasks involving thousands of tokens, the AMD-powered machine provides a significantly faster and more responsive experience. The advantage is directly proportional to the prompt length, meaning that the more demanding the task, the greater the benefit derived from the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395’s processing power.
Beyond Text: Embracing Multi-Modal AI
The evolution of AI is rapidly moving beyond text-only LLMs. The rise of highly capable multi-modal models, which incorporate vision adapters and visual reasoning capabilities, is transforming the landscape of AI applications. These models can process and understand both text and images, opening up new possibilities for tasks such as image captioning, visual question answering, and content creation.
Examples of these advanced multi-modal models include IBM Granite Vision and the recently launched Google Gemma 3 family of models. Both of these model families offer sophisticated vision capabilities, and they are specifically designed to run efficiently on the next generation of AMD AI PCs. The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor provides an ideal platform for these models, delivering exceptional performance and responsiveness.
When working with vision models, the ‘time to first token’ metric effectively represents the time it takes for the model to analyze the input image and begin generating output. The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 delivers impressive performance improvements in this area:
- Up to 7 times faster in IBM Granite Vision 3.2 3b.
- Up to 4.6 times faster in Google Gemma 3 4b.
- Up to 6x faster in Google Gemma 3 12b.
Furthermore, the 64GB memory option of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 allows it to effortlessly run the Google Gemma 3 27B Vision model, which is widely considered the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) vision model. This demonstrates the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395’s ability to handle even the most demanding multi-modal AI workloads, providing a seamless and responsive experience for users working with cutting-edge vision models.
Practical Applications: Coding with AI
The power of the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 extends beyond theoretical benchmarks and into practical, real-world applications. One compelling example is its ability to accelerate software development through AI-powered coding assistance.
By running the DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32b model in 6-bit precision, users can leverage the power of AI to significantly speed up the coding process. This configuration enables users to code a classic game, such as a simple platformer or puzzle game, in a remarkably short timeframe – approximately 5 minutes. This showcases the practical potential of AI-powered development, allowing developers to rapidly prototype ideas, automate repetitive tasks, and focus on the more creative aspects of software engineering.
Optimizing for LLM Performance
To maximize the performance of LLMs on AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processors, including the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, several key steps are recommended. These optimizations ensure that the hardware and software are working together efficiently to deliver the best possible results:
Driver Updates: Ensure you are using the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition driver. AMD regularly releases driver updates that include performance optimizations and bug fixes, so keeping your drivers up-to-date is crucial for optimal performance.
Variable Graphics Memory (VGM): AMD laptops equipped with these processors feature VGM. Enabling VGM, specifically setting it to ‘High,’ is highly recommended for LLM workloads. This helps improve token throughput and allows larger models to run efficiently. VGM effectively allocates a portion of the system’s unified memory to be used as VRAM, providing a significant boost to graphics-intensive AI tasks. VGM options can be accessed through the Performance > Tuning tab in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
Manual Parameter Selection: When running LLMs, select ‘manually select parameters’ and set the GPU Offload setting to ‘MAX.’ This ensures that the maximum amount of processing is offloaded to the GPU, leveraging its parallel processing capabilities for faster LLM performance.
Quantization: AMD recommends using Q4 K M quantization for everyday use and Q6 or Q8 for coding tasks. Quantization is a technique that reduces the precision of the model’s weights and activations, resulting in a smaller model size and faster inference speed. Q4 K M quantization provides a good balance between accuracy and performance for general use, while Q6 or Q8 quantization can further improve performance for coding tasks, where a slight reduction in accuracy may be acceptable.
A New Era of Mobile AI
The AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor represents a paradigm shift in the capabilities of thin and light laptops. It’s not just about incremental improvements; it’s about fundamentally changing what’s possible in a portable form factor. By combining cutting-edge hardware with intelligent software optimizations, AMD has created a platform that empowers users to experience state-of-the-art AI models in a way that was previously unimaginable.
This processor is not just about faster speeds; it’s about enabling a new era of mobile AI experiences. It allows users to seamlessly interact with advanced AI models for a wide range of tasks, from creative endeavors like writing and image generation to complex problem-solving and data analysis. The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 truly redefines what’s possible in a thin and light form factor, blurring the lines between portability and high-performance computing.
The ability to locally run powerful AI models, once confined to desktop systems or cloud services, opens up unprecedented opportunities for innovation and productivity on the go. Whether it is gaming, content creation, or everyday productivity, this chip is a game-changer. It empowers users to take their AI workflows with them, wherever they go, without sacrificing performance or functionality. The Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 is a testament to AMD’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of mobile computing and delivering transformative experiences to users.