AMD’s new RDNA 2 mobile graphics are here for laptops, and I’ve got the top end RX
6800M in this machine to test out and show you some game benchmarks so let’s dive right
into the specs of these new laptop GPUs.
These are the three new laptop GPUs that are being announced today, the Radeon RX 6600M,
6700M and 6800M, and they range from 8 gigs of GDDR6 memory up to 12.
Like RDNA 2 on the desktop side, the mobile chips feature ray accelerators, meaning ray
tracing should be available in supported games.
The 6600M is recommended for 1080p gaming, the 6700M is suggested for a mix of 1080p
and 1440p, while the 6800M is suggested for 1440p gaming with 145 watt and above power
limits.
Here’s how AMD says that their top end 6800M compares against Nvidia RTX 3070 and 3080
laptops, though these are games that tend to do well with Radeon graphics, I’ll show
you performance in some of the usual games I test later in this video.
Here’s how the lower 6600M compares against Nvidia’s RTX 3060, again primarily games
that do better on Radeon graphics, but still looking competitive.
Rough benchmarks for the 6700M weren’t provided, and it’s noted here that that model is shipping
soon, whereas the 6800M and 6600M are shipping now, so not sure when to expect the middle
tier 6700M.
Now AMD is announcing two new gaming laptops featuring these new GPUs, but I’m sure there
will be more to come.
First up we’ve got the ASUS Strix G15m which is what I’ve got here.
The new all AMD version is quite a bit different to the previous G15, so make sure you’re
subscribed for my upcoming full review on this gaming laptop.
This one will be available from early June with up to Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and Radeon
RX 6800M graphics, which is the configuration I’ve got.
It’s also got up to 1080p 300Hz or 1440p 165Hz screen options with FreeSync Premium,
and it’s got liquid metal on both the CPU and GPU.
I don’t recall seeing FreeSync Premium in laptops before, but basically this means the
screen is at least 120Hz or higher with support for low framerate compensation, or LFC.
It was also interesting to hear that there would be liquid metal used on the 6800M here,
usually when companies add liquid metal to their laptop they only do it to the CPU rather
than the GPU, as there’s typically diminishing returns in doing it to the Nvidia graphics,
so is this a sign that the Radeon graphics might run hotter?
I haven’t tested thermals yet so I can’t say, again stay tuned for the full review
of this laptop.
Next up is the HP Omen 16 which you might have already heard about, as HP announced
it a few days ago, though this one just says “available soon” so not sure when exactly
that is.
Again this model goes up to Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, but RX 6600M graphics here.
It’s using a 16” 165Hz screen, again with FreeSync premium.
There are going to be more all AMD models later in the year from both MSI and Lenovo.
I’m guessing MSI will have a new model after their Alpha 15 and Bravo 15 models as they’ve
had those all AMD designs in the past, but I think this will be the first time Lenovo
has gotten on board the all AMD gaming laptop train, so that will be interesting to check
out given their success with the Legion 5.
These all AMD models also make use of smartshift, which dynamically allocates power between
the CPU and GPU based on the workload, so like Dynamic boost on the Nvidia side, plus
they’re also using resizeable BAR, aka AMD’s smart access memory or SAM, and when combined
these features should offer a further performance boost in games.
Speaking of all AMD, they’re also announcing AMD advantage, which is basically a way of
ensuring laptops meet a number of minimum requirements such as good displays, good I/O,
good build quality, certain amounts of battery life, good thermals and storage speeds, so
in theory buying an AMD advantage laptop means there’s a level of user experience that
can be expected as a baseline.
AMD also announced that what is essentially their version of DLSS which will be available
from the 22nd of June.
It’s called FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR for short, and it increases performance
by upscaling.
It’s open source and will apparently work on Nvidia GPUs too.
AMD says more than 10 games will integrate FSR in 2021 with the first supported games
coming later this month.
Tim over at Hardware Unboxed will be checking out the quality from FSR once it’s available,
so make sure you’re subscribed to their channel for that content.
Now let’s check out how well this 6800M laptop actually performs in some games that
I regularly test.
It’s worth noting that the display of the Strix G15 connects to the Integrated graphics
rather than directly to the 6800M, so I would expect better performance with an external
screen compared to what I’m about to show.
I also noticed that the memory appears to be the same as the lenovo legion 5 pro, and
as I’ve shown in another video, it is possible to easily boost performance by 10% at 1080p
using memory with faster timings, so that may be holding back the 6800M in these examples.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode at the highest ultra setting preset.
The average FPS is doing better than a full powered RTX 2070 Super in the Scar 15 just
below it, and it’s just slightly behind the RTX 3070 in the HP Omen 15 just above
it, granted the Omen doesn’t have the full GPU power limit.
The Strix G15 doesn’t look too bad in the averages, but the 1% lows are a fair bit lower
compared to Nvidia alternatives.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the games benchmark at max settings, and the
Strix G15 is in the same position out of this same selection of laptops.
The results aren’t crazy or anything, but above 100 FPS at max settings is still a nice
result in this test, and the 6800M is around 48% ahead of the 5600M from last generation,
so pretty nice gains in just a year.
Far Cry 5 was also tested with the games benchmark at max settings.
This test tends to favour Intel processors, but even others with Ryzen 5000 like the HP
Omen 15 which was only just above the Strix G15 in the past few games is now about 10%
ahead in average FPS.
The 6800M is closer to 1660 Ti options here.
Don’t worry, I will test newer games soon.
Now I will be testing the G15 with an external screen to find out what the differences are,
and I’ll also be testing it in 10 plus games in the upcoming game benchmark video.
It’s also possible that it might do better at the higher 1440p resolution, as the GPU
can better stretch its legs there.
I’ve just tested 1080p here because that’s what I have data for, and also because I was
sent the model with the 1080p screen rather than the 1440p screen.
Outside of laptops, we’ve also got some new Zen 3 based APUs coming later in the year,
the 8 core Ryzen 7 5700G and 6 core Ryzen 5 5600G.
We’ve already seen how well Zen 3 processors do, so it will be interesting to see how these
new APUs stack up once available from August 5th, especially with all the GPU availability
issues.
So there have been plenty of new announcements from AMD at Computex 2021, again make sure
you’re subscribed for all of my upcoming content around the ASUS Strix G15 and the
RX 6800M graphics.
Come and join the community in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting
the channel on Patreon, and while you wait for those G15 videos why not check out one
of these ones next.