The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 has been established as the “most powerful x86 APU” on the market for AI computing, according to official benchmarks. The processor features a 16-core architecture with 32 threads, delivering a peak AI performance of over 50 AI TOPS via its XDNA 2 NPU. Additionally, it integrates Radeon 8060S graphics with 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units, making it particularly adept at handling AI workloads, including those in applications like LM Studio.
AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395: The most powerful x86 APU for AI computing
AMD’s published benchmarks for the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 highlight its performance in terms of ‘tokens per second’ and ‘time to first token’ within LM Studio, comparing it directly to competitors.
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Notably, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, housed in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 with 64GB RAM, was measured against an Asus Zenbook S14, which has 32GB RAM and utilizes the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V APU along with its Arc integrated graphics. AMD’s chipset demonstrated at least double the effective tokens per second in various large language models compared to its rival, such as DeepSeek R1, Phi 4 Mini Instruct, and Llama 3.2.
The differences in performance are pronounced when evaluating time to first token in text models. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 showed performance boosts of up to 12.2 times faster in the DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14b model, and a similar advantage of 11.3 times in Phi 4 14b. It varied from 4x to 9x faster in Llama 3.2 and other distilled models from DeepSeek R1.
In vision models, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is reportedly up to seven times quicker in terms of time to first token, exemplified by its performance in IBM Granite Vision 3.2 2B. The processor also exhibited a six-fold increase in speed when compared to Google Gemma 3 12b, though performance halved against Gemma 3 4b.
Comparative analysis with Intel’s APU
The architectural differences between AMD and its competitor Intel clarify the performance gap. The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is an eight-core, eight-thread processor with a maximum boost clock of 4.8 GHz and a thermal design power (TDP) of 37W. Conversely, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 boasts 16 cores, 32 threads, a boost clock reaching 5.1 GHz, and a default TDP of 55W, configurable up to 120W, which exemplifies a significant disparity in hardware capability.
The benchmark results are also influenced by the differences in the tested devices: the high-performance Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming laptop compared to the midrange Asus Zenbook S14 ultrabook, which received a four-star review for its solid performance with the Lunar Lake processor, released in September 2024. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 was recently launched in March 2025.
Beyond laptops, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is being adopted in various mini PCs targeting productivity and gaming applications. Companies like GMKTec and Aoostar are racing to launch powerful AI-oriented mini PCs, with releases anticipated from mid-March to mid-May.
Featured image credit: AMD
