Key Takeaways
1. The Radeon 890M GPU is AMD’s top-tier integrated graphics option, known for its high performance.
2. The Radeon 860M GPU underperformed significantly, lagging 40-45% behind the Radeon 780M and 25-30% behind the Radeon 760M.
3. The 860M is essentially a rebranded version of the 760M but does not perform as expected.
4. The Asus Vivobook 16 M1606K, which features the 860M, may have performance issues due to being a low-cost model that could be underclocked.
5. More testing is needed to fully understand the performance of the Radeon 860M, and casual gamers should be cautious when considering it.
AMD often promotes its top-tier Radeon 890M GPU, and for good reason—it’s among the fastest integrated graphics options on the market. However, the Radeon 860M, a lesser model, doesn’t get much attention in their marketing efforts. It’s easy to understand why AMD might want to downplay this particular GPU after testing our first laptop equipped with the 860M.
Performance Comparison
During our experience with the Asus Vivobook 16 M1606K, which features the integrated Radeon 860M, we found the GPU to be underperforming compared to the Radeon 780M, lagging behind by about 40 to 45 percent. Moreover, it was roughly 25 to 30 percent slower than the Radeon 760M, which it is meant to replace, as per our benchmark findings detailed below. While this is just a single instance of the 760M, this initial performance is quite disappointing for what should be a midrange iGPU from AMD’s new Ryzen AI CPU series.
Concerns About Specs
It’s puzzling that the 860M underperforms compared to many 760M laptops, especially since it is basically a rebranded iGPU that shares the same number of unified pipelines and RT cores as the 760M. Our specific model of the Vivobook 16 could potentially have been underclocked, given that it is a low-cost budget option. More testing with additional samples is certainly necessary for a clearer understanding. Until more data is available, casual gamers looking for solid performance from the Radeon 760M should proceed with caution.
