Buyer Beware: Hardware Configurations Can Use Up To 25% Of Radeon 6800M Performance

Editor’s opinion: Asus’ new Radeon RX 6800M GPU Strix G15 appears to have serious performance flaws with native RAM, as well as when outputting to the internal monitor. Both of these problems can be fixed relatively easily, but it’s not a good start for the hardware-focused AMD Advantage initiative.

When is a GPU not the same as a GPU? When in a laptop!

Longtime gaming laptop buyers have been accustomed to buying weaker versions of graphics cards sold under the same name in the office space, with lower TDPs and fewer cores (even when that’s not expected!) – but plus those two factors However, the AMD RX 6800M appears to be powered by the rest of the laptop that enters it.

Reviewing the Asus ROG Strix G15, YouTuber JarrodsTech found that the laptop experienced huge performance losses when using the stock RAM and the laptop’s internal screen while it was running. The ROG G15, like many other gaming laptops, features a hybrid graphics switch between a discrete GPU and integrated CPU graphics; This improves battery life but limits bandwidth and consumes CPU power budget.

Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus can only force a separate graphics mode, but the G15 doesn’t have such an option, meaning it only achieves maximum performance when outputting to an external monitor. In addition, the loose timing in the memory provided by the manufacturer further compromises performance – as seen before in the Ryzen-powered Lenovo Legion 5 Pro – and the effect of these two factors is rather shocking when put together.

Find out what the RX 6800M could have done in the Strix G15 Advantage Edition if ASUS could have had better RAM + let’s turn the iGPU off 😱 pic.twitter.com/Lgb8LuNLyb

JarrodsTech June 4, 2021

Replacing the RAM and taking it out to an internal monitor allowed the G15 to go from an average of 102 to 135 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider; In relative terms, the 6800M was limited to barely better performance than the RTX 3060 when it could handle the punch with the high-powered RTX 3080.

This presents a serious problem for potential buyers. Our review of the Radeon 6800M here at Netcost-security.fr used the same Asus laptop and noticed a memory synchronization issue – we actually replaced it to compare Apple to the Apple GPU as we did. It ran some tests with the internal and external display output, but many others wouldn’t, leading consumers to see only a poorly performing AMD unit compared to its competitors Intel and Nvidia when in reality it is limited by poor factory decisions.

Seeing the G15 with these issues particularly dismayed the Red team, as it supposedly marked the beginning of the AMD Advantage Initiative, a set of goals that AMD has set for laptops when working with similar manufacturers. . or Intel Evo.

Asus’ recent close partnership with AMD—bringing Ryzen processors to the ultra-fast ROG Zephyrus G14 and Flow X13 laptops and even going so far with engineering efforts to use liquid metal thermal paste on them—makes these blunders even more confusing in design.

And while none of the Advantage requirements explicitly cover RAM, graphics switching, or even performance as a whole, the initiative is meant to be AMD’s collaboration with its partners to get the most out of the systems their chipsets are embedded in—and stifle poor implementation. those. The chips are two levels lower in the product package that hardly puts its best foot forward.