AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D reviewed, the fastest gaming mobile CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D launches with ASUS ROG Scar 17

Reviews for ASUS’s first Ryzen X3D laptop have just been released. Gamers on the move have eagerly awaited the arrival of a 3D V-Cache CPU, but it appears that AMD’s decision to go with the powerful 16-core variant for this venture will significantly limit access to this technology due to its high price.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX is a 16-core Zen4 CPU equipped with 128MB of 3D V-Cache. This CPU can reach a turbo boost clock speed of up to 5.4 GHz and operates within a thermal design power (TDP) range of 55 to 75W. The cache is positioned atop one of the chiplets, mirroring the configuration seen in the Ryzen 7000X3D series, where only one chiplet uses the 96MB cache, while the other retains the default 32MB.

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D in gaming, Source: Notebookcheck

AMD has introduced a special PPM Provision Driver and 3D V-Cache Performance Optimizer software that collaborates with Windows Game Mode to determine which tasks should utilize the 3D V-Cache chiplet or the other. It’s worth noting that some games cannot take advantage of the 3D V-Cache, resulting in no improvement in frame rates for such titles.

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D in Cinebench, Source: AnandTech

Turning to the reviews themselves, there aren’t many available. AMD and ASUS decided to provide the laptop for review to a very limited group of testers. Their consensus is that the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is the top CPU for gaming at a 1080p resolution. However, the CPU experiences some performance drop at QHD resolution (the configuration used by the ROG Scar 17 laptop) and shows no improvement at 4K, which is typical for laptops equipped with less powerful GPUs.

AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D reviews:

• AnandTech
• Notebookcheck [video]
• HotHardware
• Matthew Moniz

Regrettably, none of the reviewers were able to provide a final price for the Scar 17 laptop, which somewhat defeats the purpose of the review. However, it is anticipated to cost upwards of $3000-3500 USD, making it far from an affordable gaming laptop. Hopefully, AMD will consider releasing an 8-core X3D SKU with more budget-friendly graphics at some point.