ETA PRIME has taken a first look at the MSI CLAW gaming handheld. MSI raised a few eyebrows when they announced the CLAW due to their Intel ARC based designed as opposed to the far more popular AMD based units. Concerns about power usage and performance were raised fairly early on, and unfortunately, seemed to have been valid. The CLAW struggles against AMD powered offerings in the performance department while also being less power efficient.
An interesting note is that ETA PRIME was able to recover some performance while adjusting the turbo modes, and stated that the power balance appears to be in need of tweaking as too much was going to the CPU and not enough to the GPU.
While it’s unlikely the MSI CLAW will gain much market share over the AMD powered handhelds, it is good to see Intel attempting to compete with AMD in this market. ARC graphics have come a very long way since their debut, and offer excellent performance for creators. Intel’s XeSS Super Sampling and ray tracing performance has also exceeded the AMD equivalents. With time and development, ARC will hopefully become a more viable alternative for gamers.
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