The XMG APEX 15 MAX
The XMG APEX 15 MAX has now been made compatible with AMD’s top-notch gaming CPUs through a BIOS update. Being the first laptop in the world shipping with AMD’s signature 3D V-Cache technology, expect no half measures. This laptop is equipped with NVIDIA’s RTX 3060, which can be upgraded to an RTX 3070. Many suggest that AMD’s own RX 6000 series with the included SAM support might have been a better pick. Now, let’s talk about the CPU itself. Starting off, this CPU will cost you around €342 more than the base R5 5600X. Locked at 88W of power, this CPU can deliver optimum performance because its PPT is just ~20W lower than the actual TDP of 105W. AMD’s V-Cache does not translate linearly to synthetic benchmarks and heavy workloads so bear that in mind.
Performance
As highlighted by Videocardz, XMG has showcased a few performance benchmarks and they are exactly what we expected. Following the aforementioned text, a marginal performance decrement is seen in Cinebench. However, the main deal is the gaming performance. This CPU can deliver up to ~30% more FPS in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. In other titles, expect the performance uplift to lie in the same ballpark of 20–30%.
Release Date
This laptop can be purchased here at bestware. Note that the base-model ships with the Ryzen 5 5600X, an RTX 3060, 2x8GB of DDR4-3200 Samsung memory, 500GB of M.2 Samsung PCIe 3.0 x 4 NVMe and a 15.6″ Full HD 240Hz IPS panel. Up until the 11th of October, all configurations for this laptop are €300 cheaper at bestware. This makes the XMG APEX 15 MAX equipped with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D come in at around €1,420.99.
