AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX vs Apple M3 Max 14-Core vs AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX

AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX is a fast high-end laptop processor of the Dragon Range series. It offers 12 of the 16 cores based on the Zen 4 architecture that supports hyperthreading (24 threads). The cores clock from 3 (base) up to 5.2 GHz (single core boost). The 7845HX is the second-fastest mobile Ryzen CPU at launch and derived from the desktop Ryzen 9 7900X.

The Dragon Range series still uses a chiplet design with two CCD-clusters (each with 8 possible cores) in 5nm and an IO-die (including the memory controller and the Radeon 610M iGPU) in 6nm. The chip integrates 4x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) ports (no USB4), 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (for GPU and SSDs) and a dual-channel DDR5-5200 memory controller.

Performance

The average 7845HX in our database is in the same league as the Core i9-13900HX, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a super-fast chip, as of mid 2023; of course, your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is and how high the CPU power limits are.

The R9 7845HX is rated at a TDP of 55 Watt and can be configured from 45 to 75 Watt (cTDP).

Apple M3 Max 14-Core

The Apple M3 Max 14 core CPU is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was introduced towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a more powerful 16-core variant with 40 GPU cores.

Thanks to the higher clock rates and architectural improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 Max in benchmarks and can keep up with the fastest mobile CPUs.

The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the cheaper model, 30 of the chip's 40 cores are used and support up to 5 displays simultaneously (internal and 4 external).

GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 36 and 96 GB variants and offers 400 GB/s maximum bandwidth (512 bit bus).

The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (compared to 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now also supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded. Like its predecessor, the Max chip offers two video engines and can therefore encode and decode two streams simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the integrated WLAN only continues to support WiFi 6E (no WiFi 7), unlike the small M3 SoC thunderbolt 4 is also supported (max 40 Gbit/s).

The chip is manufactured in the current 3nm process (N3B) at TSMC and contains 92 billion transistors (+37% vs. Apple M2 Max).

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX is a fast high-end laptop processor of the Dragon Range series. It offers 16 cores based on the Zen 4 architecture that supports hyperthreading (32 threads). The cores clock from 2.5 (base) up to 5.4 GHz (single core boost). The 7945HX is the fastest mobile Ryzen CPU at launch and derived from the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X.

The Dragon Range series still uses a chiplet design with two CCD-clusters (each with 8 possible cores) in 5nm and an IO-die (including the memory controller and the Radeon 610M iGPU) in 6nm. The chip integrates 4x USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) ports (no USB4), 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (for GPU and SSDs) and a dual-channel DDR5-5200 memory controller.

Performance

The Ryzen 9 7945HX is among the fastest processors in our database, as of August 2023. It is in the same league as the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D and noticeably ahead of the Core i9-13980HX, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. It is outrageously, unbelievably fast, and those fortunate enough to purchase a laptop built around this CPU will have no performance issues for at least three years.

Thanks to its powerful cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 128 W, the ROG Strix Scar 17 G733PY-XS96 is one of the fastest laptops built around the 7945HX that we know of.

The R9 7945HX is rated at a TDP of 55 Watt and can be configured up to 75 Watt (cTDP).