Previously, AMD didn’t really have mobile graphics cards that could properly take on Nvidia’s line of RTX 30-series laptop GPUs, but that changes today with the introduction of AMD’s new line of Radeon RX 6000M mobile GPUs.
Based on AMD’s latest RDNA 2 architecture, the new RX 6000M line is comprised of three new mobile GPUs designed for a range of power targets and price tags, headlined by the flagship Radeon RX 6800M. But for more details here’s a breakdown of AMD’s new mobile GPUs:
- The Radeon RX 6800M will target systems of 145 watts and up and feature 12GB of GDDR6 vRAM, 96MB of Infinity Cache, and 40 compute units and ray accelerators. AMD says this graphics card is intended to provide a solid gaming experience at 1440p/120 fps.
- The Radeon RX 6700M will target systems with up to 135 watts of power and feature 10GB of GDDR6 vRAM, 80MB of Infinity Cache, and 36 compute units and ray accelerators, with AMD claiming the card is designed to support gaming at 1440p/100 fps.
- The Radeon RX 6600M will target systems with up to 100 watts of power and feature 8GB of GDDR6 vRAM, 32MB of Infinity Cache, and 28 compute units and ray accelerators. AMD says this card is meant for gaming at 1080p/100fps.
While I haven’t had a chance to test all these GPUs out yet, during my time using RX 6800M on the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition, I found that the 6800M offers similar performance to an Nvidia RTX 3070 card or better, depending on the specific title and how well the game is optimised for AMD GPUs. Those are some pretty encouraging figures, so depending on how much these cards cost to put into retail devices, AMD’s new mobile GPUs look like they will put some serious competitive pressure on all the Nvidia-based gaming laptops out there.
However, new mobile GPUs aren’t the only tricks AMD has up its sleeve, because now with competitive products in both the CPU and GPU segments, AMD is also introducing the new AMD Advantage Design Framework. The idea behind AMD Advantage is that not only does it provide an extra boost in performance and battery life for new systems with a full suite of AMD silicon (thanks to things like Infinity Cache, SmartShift, and Smart Access Memory), it also outlines a range of important specs and features device makers will need to support in order to earn AMD’s seal of approval.
Notable criteria that will be required on new AMD Advantage systems include IPS or OLED screens (no TA or VN panels) with 300+ nits of brightness, displays with refresh rates of 144Hz or higher, support for AMD FreeSync Premium, cooling good enough to prevent a system’s WASD keys from hitting 40C, and more. In short, you can think of AMD Advantage as AMD’s take on Intel’s Evo platform, but for gaming laptops.
And if that wasn’t enough, AMD is also expanding support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (which is AMD’s take on Nvidia’s DLSS tech) to multiple generations of GPUs (including Radeon RX 6000, Radeon RX 5000, RX Vega, and more) and individual games like Godfall, though the latter method will be on a case-by-case basis as developers will need to tweak the software to support FidelityFX Super Resolution individually. By offering greater control and balance over image quality and resolution, AMD claims FSR can boost performance by up to 250% in some cases.
But the bigger picture is that while Nvidia will continue to enjoy a lead when it comes to mobile graphics (due in large part to AMD not having a real answer to the RTX 3080 on mobile), for all but the most beastly high-end systems, AMD should now have a competitive discrete graphics option for a variety of systems and prices.
The first two laptops to feature AMD Advantage certification will be Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition and the HP Omen 16, with more laptops from practically all the big-name notebook makers expected to arrive later this winter and into spring.