XMG introduced its first Dragon Range-based gaming laptop, boasting the flagship AMD Ryzen 7945HX CPU with RTX 40 series GPUs.
XMG APEX 17 MAX Laptop delivers a 100% DCI-P3 color space on a WQHD display powered by RTX 40 GPUs & AMD Ryzen 7045HX "Dragon Range" CPUs
XMG, the brand that produces gaming laptops and desktops has just announced its first gaming laptop, featuring the flagship Dragon Range CPU. The APEX 17 MAX is a 17-inch gaming laptop based on the Ryzen 9 7945HX and the mid-range NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs. According to XMG, the APEX 17 MAX is equivalent to the XMG NEO 17, an Intel-based laptop but offers higher efficiency.
XMG already has some APEX 17 models but they boast either Ryzen 7 7840HS or the Ryzen 7 7735HS processors for the mid-range gaming market. The new APEX 17 MAX is both powerful in terms of specifications as well as battery life.
The APEX 17 MAX will feature either RTX 4070 or 4060 that will power the 16:9 ratio 2560x1440p display. The screen will feature an IPS panel with a color space coverage of 100% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB for vibrant color reproduction. Moreover, the display can run up to 165H refresh rate and supports AMD FreeSync for a fluid and pleasant gaming experience.
With up to 330 nits of brightness, users will have a bright and vivid display for gaming and multimedia but those who care about the battery life can switch to the power-saving 60Hz mode. As for the battery life, it's equipped with a decent 73Wh battery, which is also replaceable. To further extend the battery life, users can also enable the iGPU-only mode, which can be selected from the Control Center. This will activated after the NVIDIA dGPU is deactivated and the laptop is restarted.
MUX switch is also provided to switch the connection between the dGPU and iGPU for either performance or power-saving mode. As per the testing by XMG, the APEX 17 MAX can deliver 29682 points against 30164 points by XMG NEO 17, which features the Core i9 14900HX processor in the Cinebench R23 Multi-core test. However, XMG claims that the APEX 17 MAX can deliver up to 72% higher efficiency by operating at 80W compared to 140W on the XMG NEO 17. This results in a staggering 371 points per watt compared to 215ppw of the NEO 17.
In the single-core Cinebench R23 test, the APEX 17 MAX can provide a lead of 2% over the NEO 17 but loses by 11% as the i9 14900HX offers higher single-core performance. The Ryzen 7945HX on the APEX 17 MAX is able to go head to head in various other benchmarks while remaining more power-efficient.
The APEX 17 MAX brings two M.2 SSDs and up to 96GB RAM support. The memory can operate at up to 5200MHz with 64GB RAM configuration and at 4800MHz with 96GB RAM kit. It also brings the latest connectivity features such as WiFi 6E, Bluetooth, USB C 3.2 Gen2 ports, HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4a, and a Gigabit LAN.
The XMG APEX 17 MAX starts at €1,599 with 19% VAT included. The price will go up with the RTX 4070 laptop GPU and with the addition of more RAM and storage capacity. XMG Apex 17 MAX can be configured on Bestware where users can start the configuration from RTX 4060, 16GB DDR5-5200 RAM, and a 500GB SSD.
| Tech Specs - XMG APEX 17 MAX (M24) | |
| Product ID | XAP17XM24 |
| Display | 17.3" IPS | 2560×1440 px | 16:9 | 165 Hz | 330 nits | FreeSync | 100 % sRGB/DCI-P3 | non-glare |
| alternatively 60 Hz settable | |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX | 16 cores/32 threads | up to 5.4 GHz | 64 MB L3 cache |
| Graphics | integrated (iGPU): |
| AMD Radeon 610M | 2 Compute Units | |
| dedicated (dGPU): | |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop | 8 GB GDDR6 | 115 W TGP (+ 10 W Dynamic Boost)¹⁾ | |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop | 8 GB GDDR6 | 115 W TGP (+ 10 W Dynamic Boost)¹⁾ | |
| ¹⁾NVIDIA Dynamic Boost is controlled by NVIDIA drivers about CPU power consumption. | |
| Display connection | internal display connection: |
| iGPU with NVIDIA Optimus or dGPU (via MUX switch) | |
| HDMI 2.1 and Mini DisplayPort 1.4a connection: | |
| dGPU | |
| DisplayPort 1.4a via USB-C connection: | |
| iGPU with NVIDIA Optimus | |
| three external displays directly addressable | |
| additional external displays are possible with a docking station/adapter | |
| VR Ready | |
| Cooling system | composite cooling system with copper heat pipes |
| two fans, each 60 mm in diameter, 11 mm in height, and 67 fan blades | |
| four air outlets with a total of 232 copper cooling fins | |
| air intake via bottom case | |
| Power limits | CPU + GPU: 180/165 watts (peak/sustained) |
| GPU-only: 125/115 watts (for up to 30 seconds/sustained) | |
| CPU-only: 95/70 watts (peak/sustained) | |
| Thermals and sustained power limits may vary with room temperature and airflow. Values represent average capabilities under normal conditions. |
|
| Software features | control center with customizable fan curves, battery charging profiles, keyboard macros, etc. |
| four pre-configured performance profiles (quickly changeable with Fn+F3) | |
| Windows installation without additional third-party software (for configurations with operating system) | |
| Memory | 2x DDR5 SO-DIMM | Dual Channel | max. 96 GB | max. 5200 MHz | max. 1.1 V |
| Storage | 2x M.2 2280 SSD via PCI Express 4.0 x4 (supports RAID 0/1) |
| Audio & webcam | stereo speakers |
| Sound Blaster Studio+ | |
| microphone with noise canceling | |
| Full HD webcam with Temporal Noise Reduction (Windows Hello compatible) | |
| Keyboard | backlit keyboard with a full-fledged numeric keypad and full-size arrow keys |
| 15 color options | |
| Touchpad | Microsoft Precision Touchpad, two integrated buttons | 150 x 90 mm (B x T) |
| automatic palm recognition to avoid false inputs | |
| supports scrolling, tapping, swiping, and other multi-finger gestures as defined by the operating system | |
| Ports (clockwise) |
Left: |
| 2-in-1-audio (headphone + mic) | |
| USB-A 3.2 Gen1 (5 Gbps) | |
| Rear: | |
| USB-C 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps | DisplayPort 1.4a | no Power Delivery)²⁾ | |
| DC-in (5.5/2.5 x 10 mm; IEC 60130-10) | |
| HDMI 2.1 (G-SYNC compatible | HDCP 2.3 | 48 Gbps) | |
| RJ45 Port (Gigabit) | |
| Mini DisplayPort 1.4a (G-SYNC compatible | 2 streams with a total of 32.4 Gbps) | |
| Right: | |
| USB-C 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps | 100 W Power Delivery | no DisplayPort) | |
| USB-A 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) | |
| ²⁾details: power supply for peripherals: max. 5V/3A (15 watts) right USB-C supports USB Power Delivery (exclusively with 20V/5A resp. 100 watts) rear USB-C supports 2 DisplayPort streams with a total of 32.4 Gbps no support for VR headsets no support for G-SYNC (proprietary), but compatible with Adaptive Sync (incl. FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible) |
|
| Network | Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth 5 |
| Realtek Gigabit LAN (supports Wake on LAN and LAN/PXE boot) | |
| Security | Kensington Lock (left side) |
| TPM 2.0 (via dTPM) | |
| SecureBoot | |
| physical webcam shutter | |
| support for hardware encryption with compatible SSDs | |
| Power supply | 230 watts (155 x 75 x 25 mm | 675 g incl. EU power cable) |
| power cable socket: C6 | |
| Battery | changeable 73 Wh Li-poly battery (internally screwed) |
| different battery charging profiles selectable in control center or BIOS (FlexiCharger) | |
| iGPU-only operating mode selectable | |
| Chassis | display lid made of aluminium |
| display lid, top and bottom case made of plastic | |
| 130° display opening angle | |
| one-hand opening | |
| PH 1 screw heads | |
| Weight | ca. 2.85 kg |
| Dimensions | 402 x 265 x 28.6 mm (W x D x H) |
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