STEAM DECK NEWS – A new model from one of Steam Deck’s competitors is giving a run for its money to a newer version of a popular AMD-based competitor, based on initial test results.

MSI has shared the first test results of the Claw 8 AI+, and according to the company, it can deliver an average of 20% more performance at the same power consumption (17W) than the Asus ROG Ally X, which is not an Intel-based machine. The machine’s release is still a few weeks away, but they’ve summarized the test results for us in the video below. Of course, the company wants to present its own product in a positive light, but it does indicate that MSI’s machine will be more muscular thanks to Intel’s Lunar Lake APU (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V – 8-core, 8-thread APU, while the Asus machine has Ryzen Z1 Extreme on AMD Zen 4 chips).

22 games were tested by MSI, including Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, but there were also some less demanding titles (such as BioShock Infinite and Watch Dogs: Legion) that still use the GPU and GPU power. According to MSI, the frame rate in the heavier games can stay above 30 fps, while older, less intense games can climb to over 100 fps. If these numbers are relatively accurate, the MSI Claw 8 AI+ should be more powerful than the Asus ROG Ally X. It also has the same battery life (80Wh), Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 7 support and Bluetooth.

The machine has 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory with 8533 MT/s. MSI will sell the Claw 8 AI+ for $800, which is a very competitive price. If a smaller display is enough for you, MSI will also sell the Claw 7 AI+ for $700 with the same specs!

Source: WCCFTech