For some very fun Linux benchmarking on this [1]21st anniversary of starting Phoronix is looking at the Ryzen AI Max (PRO) 390 Linux performance, the 12-core Strix Halo SoC with [2]Radeon 8050S Graphics . While there have been various benchmarks of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ (PRO) 395 in recent weeks on Phoronix and other publications, the other Ryzen AI Max " [3]Strix Halo " SoCs haven't been as widely seen in the industry yet. The 12-core Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 was tested within another HP ZBook Ultra G1a for a very interesting look at the high-end/premium Linux laptop/workstation performance.

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In a separate article today are benchmarks looking at the [5]AMD Radeon 8050S integrated graphics performance found with this Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 SoC. The Radeon 8050S Graphics have 32 graphics cores compared to 40 cores with the Radeon 8060S flagship model. So as shown there, you are good for ~80%+ the graphics performance and all-around a very nice experience at least from the open-source Linux side. The benchmarks in this article are now focused on the CPU side for this 12-core Zen 5 Strix Halo SoC.

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The Ryzen AI Max (PRO) 390 features 12 cores plus SMT for 24 threads total, Zen 5 cores with AVX-512 and all the usual features, a 3.2GHz base clock, 5.0GHz maximum boost clock, 12MB L2 cache, and a 64MB L3 cache. The flagship Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 SKU meanwhile is 16 cores / 32 threads with a 3.0GHz base clock and a 5.1GHz maximum boost clock. Besides the four extra cores, the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 has an extra 100MHz to its boost clock but the Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 has a 200MHz advantage on the base clock speed. Both of these Strix Halo SoCs have a 64MB L3 cache while the top-end model has a 16MB L2 cache rather than 12MB, given the extra cores. Both of these SoCs have a default TDP of 55 Watts and a cTDP from 45 to 120 Watts.

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Like the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395, the Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 can also handle up to 128GB of LPDDR5x-8000 memory, two USB 4 40Gbps native interfaces, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 interfaces, a 50 TOPS Ryzen AI NPU, and other common features with the rest of the Ryzen AI 300 series line-up.

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As I have already written extensively around the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 / Strix Halo in several Phoronix articles over the past few weeks, there isn't much else to add in regards to the Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 -- especially being within an HP ZBook Ultra G1a. Thanks to HP for supplying the ZBook Ultra G1a for having made this Strix Halo Linux testing possible. For the HP ZBook Ultra G1a the main Linux caveat is the web camera but I'll be posting my review on the HP ZBook Ultra G1a itself in the next week or two. In terms of all the Strix Halo functionality you're basically in good shape if running a modern Linux distribution like Ubuntu 25.04 and Fedora 42 with even the Radeon 8050S Graphics being in good shape with the upstream Linux kernel and Mesa.

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With all the bases covered, let's move on to looking at the Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 Linux performance. All of the laptops tested for this article have been recently re-tested under Ubuntu 25.04 with Linux 6.14 and other default packages. The laptops/SoCs tested based upon the recent-generation laptops I had available in the lab to compare included:

- Core i7 8550U - Dell XPS 9370

- Core i7 8565U - Dell XPS 9380

- Core i7 1065G7 - Dell XPS 7390

- Core i7 1165G7 - Dell XPS 9310

- Core i7 1185G7 - Dell XPS 9310

- Core i7 1280P - MSI Prestige 14Evo

- Core Ultra 7 155H - Acer Swift Go 14

- Core Ultra 7 256V - ASUS Zenbook S14

- Core Ultra 7 258V - Lenovo SpeX1 Carbon G13

- Ryzen 7 4700U - Lenovo IdeaPad 5

- Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U - ThinkPad T14s G2a

- Ryzen 9 5900HX - ASUS ROG Strix G513QY

- Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U - ThinkPad X13 G3

- Ryzen 7 7840U - Acer Swift Edge 16

- Ryzen 7 7840U - Framework 13

- Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U - ThinkPad P14s G4

- Ryzen 7 7840HS - Framework 16

- Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 - ThinkPad T14s G6

- Ryzen AI 9 365 - ASUS Zenbook S16

- Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 - ASUS Zenbook S16

- Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 - Framework 13

- Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 - HP ZBook Ultra G1a

- Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 - HP ZBook Ultra G1a

- Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 - HP ZBook Ultra G1a - low-power

- Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 - HP Zbook Ultra G1a - performance

With the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 395 testing in a separate article I had covered the [10]HP ZBook Ultra G1a Platform Profile impact separately. For this Ryzen AI Max 390 testing to avoid being too redundant, I included the results straight-away from the Ryzen AI Max PRO 390 in its default/out-of-the-box (balanced) platform profile along with the results from the "performance" platform profile for peak performance and then similarly the "low-power" platform profile for a look at the impact when running in that more power-optimized mode.

In addition to looking at the raw CPU performance, the CPU power consumption was also monitored for the performance-per-Watt based on the exposed CPU RAPL/PowerCap interface under Linux.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Phoronix-Turns-21

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-radeon-8050s-graphics

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Strix+Halo

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=amd-ryzen-ai-max-390&image=ryzen_ai_max_390_1_lrg

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-radeon-8050s-graphics

[6] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=amd-ryzen-ai-max-390&image=ryzen_ai_max_390_3_lrg

[7] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=amd-ryzen-ai-max-390&image=ryzen_ai_max_390_6_lrg

[8] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=amd-ryzen-ai-max-390&image=ryzen_ai_max_390_2_lrg

[9] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=amd-ryzen-ai-max-390&image=ryzen_ai_max_390_7_lrg

[10] https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-strix-halo-platform-profile