We recently released our review of the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM, the only handheld gaming device to feature the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" CPU, which includes four E-cores and four P-cores, along with the Intel Arc 140V Xe2 GPU. In our testing, we adjusted various TDP values using the Manual power profile slider to assess gaming performance and compare it to other handhelds, mostly powered by AMD.
Intel informed us about the performance levels used in our testing and the official specification for Lunar Lake, stating that PL2 should always be at least 1 W higher than PL1 or set at 37 W, the maximum TDP value for Lunar Lake chips. This allows the CPU to extract an additional boost, resulting in up to 30% more performance, as demonstrated in our testing.
Initially, we utilized the Manual power profile, which allowed users to match PL2 to PL1. However, Intel indicated that setting PL2 to at least 1 W higher than PL1 can lead to a 10% performance increase across games, with potential for a 30% increase in certain scenarios. An update for the MSI Center M app now ensures that PL2 is always at least 1 W higher than PL1, preventing users from matching the two values as was possible before the update.
In our retest, Cyberpunk 2077 and Space Marine 2 showed nearly a 30% performance improvement with this setting. The Lunar Lake-based MSI Claw AI+ A2VM handheld proved to be the top-performing device we have tested, surpassing AMD-based devices in our suite of tests. In other games, a 10% baseline improvement was observed, consistent with Intel's notification. Our testing confirmed that Lunar Lake is now the most powerful gaming CPU for handheld devices.
15:57 UTC: We have updated some claims to better reflect the PL2 setting and our manual adjustment of TDP values. Below are the updated performance graphs. For more details, including 1080p testing and 1% lows, please refer to the MSI Claw 8 AI+ A2VM review.
