MSI's AMD-based Claw A8 handheld seems to have a slight edge over the one with Intel Lunar Lake, as shown by the benchmarks in multiple games.
Direct Comparison Between Claw A8 and Claw 8 AI+ Shows Better Performance Per Watt by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme Chip Versus Intel Lunar Lake and Superior 1% Lows
AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen Z2 lineup is shining on the charts, and once again, it has started to dominate the benchmarks as seen in the latest comparison between two of MSI's best gaming handhelds yet. The Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which was launched this year, was recently deployed in MSI's Claw A8 handheld, which is an iteration of MSI Claw 8 AI+ based on Lunar Lake. Both handhelds are mostly similar in specs, but there are a few major and minor differences.
The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which is also the top-of-the-line SoC in the Z2 lineup, is showing noticeably higher performance on the Claw A8 when compared to the Claw 8 AI+. The latter uses the Lunar Lake Ultra 7 258V, an 8-core/8-thread chip based on the TSMC N3B process node, which brings the Eight Xe2-based GPU cores. The Z2 Extreme, on the other hand, is based on the older TSMC 4nm node but offers 8 cores and 16 threads with clocks reaching up to 5.0 GHz. The iGPU is equivalent to the Radeon 890M, bringing 16 compute units based on RDNA 3.5 architecture.
As shown in the charts, in many games, the Claw A8 was offering somewhat better frame rates, reaching up to 27% uplifts in titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, but the difference remained under 5% in most instances. Overall, the performance gap is noticeable, particularly when we switch from 30W to 17W.
The 1% lows are also better on the AMD-based handheld, indicating smoother performance. It's interesting to see that both gaming handhelds are priced competitively and can be bought for around $900-$1000.
- MSI Claw A8 (Z2 Extreme) vs Claw 8 AI+ (Lunar Lake) @ 30W@ = +5.7% Faster at 1080p
- MSI Claw A8 (Z2 Extreme) vs Claw 8 AI+ (Lunar Lake) @ 17W@ = +7.4% Faster at 1080p
With such improvements on the MSI Claw A8, naturally, gamers will likely pick the Z2-based version for smoother performance, particularly when it offers a higher TDP range, which can go as high as 35W. Nonetheless, Lunar Lake still shows impressive performance and could bring similar or better value if the price for the Claw 8 AI+ is lowered.
Up until now, most handheld manufacturers opted for the custom Ryzen APUs and Strix Point chips for their latest handhelds, and the Ryzen Z2 lineup offers a solution for every budget (from 4-core to 8-core APUs). Intel Lunar Lake, on the other hand, doesn't offer versatile options and sticks to only 8-core chips.
News Sources: Bilibili, @9550pro
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