This AI chip, for example, is manifesting initial signs of finding end users and beginning mainstream benchmarks. Case in point, the octa-core Ryzen AI Max 385 is listed in Geekbench, suggesting that AMD has some serious ambitions to take its advanced AI and gaming capabilities to a wider market.
This particular Ryzen AI Max 385 was discovered working within the innards of an HP ZBook Ultra G1a. In case you don't know, Strix Halo was launched at CES under the Ryzen AI 300 Max banner, the leading APU family for AMD this generation to cover everyone from an AI developer to a serious gamer. The original glitz was about the high-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and 390, which are found inside high-end mini-PCs-some of which were built to cost exorbitantly, from $2,000, and in ultra-high-end laptops, like that ZBook and the Asus ROG Flow Z13, which could set you back over $5,000 when fully kitted out.
And what does the Ryzen AI Max 385 have? Based on the latest Zen 5 architecture, it consists of eight cores and sixteen threads. It also has an integrated Radeon 8050S GPU based on RDNA 3.5 with 32 Compute Units. And of course, a dedicated NPU for 50 TOPS worth of AI workloads. According to AMD, this chip can boost to a mere below 5 GHz, just slightly less than the flagship model. Thus, it may suggest the same kind of single-core punch, but for now, early benchmarks tell a slightly different story.
In terms of benchmarks, Geekbench summed up this Ryzen AI Max 385 sample's scores as follows: single-core: 2,489; multi-core: 14,136. These numbers seem slightly lower than those of its bigger sibling, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (which often scores in the 2,900 to 3,000 range for single-core), but all-important here are caveats. Early leaks! There are several influences on this measure, such as particular laptop power settings, specific test runs, and this not being an official, final product review. Apparently, the chip could reach its advertised clock speeds, so there's no thermal throttling.
This chip was spotted in the HP ZBook Ultra G1a, priced a whopping $2,599 on HP's site with a whopping 32GB of LPDDR5x memory. Asus seems yet to offer anything less than the 12-core Ryzen AI Max 390 under Flow Z13. The Framework Desktop should be releasing the Ryzen AI Max 385, with shipping expected to commence on the third quarter of 2025. There could be some speculation that entry-level hexacore Ryzen AI Max 380 will come into the offering features of HP's next Z2 Mini G1a mini workstations.
It has been a while since AMD rolled out its top-tier Zen 5 mobile chips, and Strix Halo is definitely the strongest in terms of its mobile line-up, with options going up to a massive 16 cores and 32 threads. Until now, most of the devices we have seen feature only top-end models. Therefore, it is a positive sign to see mid-range 8-core/16-thread options such as the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 (which, apparently, is yet another name for this SKU, clocked at 3.6 GHz base with a 5 GHz boost) coming to market.
While the performance of this CPU may not top out as absolute, the built-in graphics for the Ryzen AI Max Pro 385, the Radeon 8050S, is indeed very decent. It has just 8 Compute Units less than the Radeon 8060S specification in the flagship model, and so it should end up being one of the best integrated graphics offerings available on the mainstream market. This is great news for gamers who want playable framerates at 1080p without the necessity of a separate, power-hungry graphics card.
Moreover, these chips will have a good chance of winning AI workloads-the never-before-seen NPU capabilities over 100 TOPS will always be combined. If flagship Strix Halo devices are nearing the $2,000 price mark, the new Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 might finally allow many potent systems prepared for AI workloads at a cost lower than $1,500. That's something worth waiting for!
