The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D: The Fastest Gaming CPU for Laptops
The fastest gaming CPU for laptops is the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. It’s the first time the company has reached the top spot, and it’s only recently that we’ve had the opportunity to test it out. The chip takes the evolution of the Ryzen 9 family and adds an extra dimension to it.
It’s no surprise that AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology has turned out to be so capable. The company’s engineers have developed a way to package memory that allows it to be seen as a single pool of fast memory, improving data access for games that can be accessed by all the cores. It’s a brute force method of improving gaming performance, but it’s one that is being used by both AMD and Nvidia to enhance its CPUs and graphics cards.
That said, the performance improvements we see in testing are largely GPU bound, especially when playing demanding games with high settings. Lower settings and less demanding games may see a larger performance increase, but the overall boost is likely to be more noticeable at lower settings.
The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is faster than the previous fastest gaming laptop CPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and on average more than 15% faster than the standard Ryzen 9 7945HX. It will be able to handle the best graphics card resolutions and even the most demanding games, but you’ll still need a good GPU to go with it.
The availability of the chip is limited at the moment, with the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 being the only laptop that’s been announced to feature it. It’s an unusual form factor and one that doesn’t look like it’ll catch on, meaning that this particular model may not be a bestseller.
It’s an odd decision to restrict the technology to one laptop model, but the idea of having the fastest mobile gaming CPU available restricted to a single model is a little disappointing. It’s a missed opportunity to create a powerful lineup of gaming notebooks that could outperform Intel’s offerings, especially if other laptop manufacturers get on board.
Despite that, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is still the most powerful gaming laptop processor available, and the performance boost should be more noticeable than ever before in games. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 will be available to buy in March, and we’ll update this review once we’ve had a chance to test it out.
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The fastest gaming laptop CPU is also the most expensive
The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is faster than the previous fastest gaming laptop CPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and on average more than 15% faster than the standard Ryzen 9 7945HX.
Expect to pay a premium for the fastest gaming laptop CPU, as the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is the priciest chip around. The performance uplift over its predecessor is impressive, but you’ll largely be GPU bound, especially in demanding games with high settings. Lower settings and less demanding games should see a larger performance increase, but it’s still worth bearing in mind that the improvements may not be as noticeable.
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 will be available to buy in March and we’ll update this review once we’ve had a chance to test it out. The price of the laptop alone will be enough to put some off, but the performance will be the best of the bunch.
Pros
Cons
The Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is still considered the most powerful gaming laptop processor available.
The Ryzen 9 7945HX3D features AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, which adds an extra 64MB of cache to improve gaming performance.
It’s an odd decision to restrict the technology to one laptop model, but the idea of having the fastest mobile gaming CPU available restricted to a single model is a little disappointing.
The Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is faster than the previous fastest gaming laptop CPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and on average more than 15% faster than the standard Ryzen 9 7945HX.
The performance increase in games at 1080p settings is around 10-12%.
The performance improvement may be more noticeable at lower settings and in less demanding games.
The Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is a significant improvement over previous mobile CPUs and offers impressive gaming performance.
The Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is the fastest mobile gaming CPU available, but it has limitations in heavily multithreaded applications compared to the non-3D V-Cache version.
AMD’s decision to restrict the technology to one laptop model, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, is seen as limiting.
It is suggested that AMD should offer the technology in other laptop models, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 or the Razer Blade 14.
Despite that, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is still considered the most powerful gaming laptop processor available.
The 3D V-Cache technology increases the amount of L3 cache available to the CPU, improving memory access and