The gaming laptop I’m drooling for has no GPU (and it’s not a laptop)

One of my tech dilemmas is that I’ve somehow accumulated a disparate group of laptops with integrated GPUs. That means they’re great to write on but when it comes to graphics processing power — without using expletives — let’s just say they can’t play any big-name PC games.

My work laptop, for example, can handle just about any work app or program I need to run and is as compact and portable as heck, but will it let me potter for even a minute in Bethesda’s Starfield? Nope — not a chance.

That just means swapping hats on articles from tech pieces to gaming pieces for PCWorld is a little more cumbersome than it needs be. I need to also swap devices, or else I’m relegated to testing only pixilated indie games (not that I don’t love playing pixilated indie games — I’m really looking forward to the release of Cattle Country on Steam, by the way). But it would be nice to have a laptop that can do it all.

Alas, Asus has thrown me a lifeline with the 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13, which will, when I get my mitts on one, conveniently make that problem go away. Its specs, when they were revealed at CES 2025, really surprised me for one reason: It didn’t have a dedicated GPU listed.

That makes it very different. To be honest, previous year’s ROG Flow Z13 iterations haven’t blown me away. Not because they weren’t well-built, but because they have occupied a dubious gray area of performance, being less powerful than most fully fledged gaming laptops.

That’s despite the configurations having their own dGPUs and being fairly expensive. But the 2025 ROG Flow Z13 is inexorably more powerful than any model that has come before it, and that’s with no dGPU.

What makes it so special is its AMD Ryzen AI Max processor, the top model of which integrates a Radeon 8060S GPU consisting of 40 — yes, 40! — RDNA 3.5 GPU cores. This APU comes under the banner of AMD’s Strix Halo laptop hardware, which includes the AMD Ryzen AI Max platform announced earlier this year and shown off by AMD at CES 2025.

In case you missed it, AMD Ryzen AI Max is designed to be a unified computing solution for both CPU power and integrated graphics performance. In the top-tier 2025 ROG Flow Z13 model, that power is obvious — along with a huge iGPU, its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chiplet boasts 16 AMD Zen 5 cores and 32 threads with a maximum boost clock of 5.1GHz. So there’s serious compute power there for the taking. The chip feeds an impressive 128GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 8,000Hz too.

The fact that there’s no dGPU means it has killer portability. Yes, it’s a compact 13-inch size, which isn’t anything to rave about in itself, but Asus has also managed to keep the weight down to just 2.65 pounds (1.2kg) and achieved a maximum thickness of just 0.47 inches (12mm). It makes any alternative gaming laptop look like a chunky, heavy, overwrought beast.

Sounds great, but what’s the catch?

So, what’s the catch? Surely it must compromise on GPU power, considering it has no dGPU, right? No, in fact it doesn’t. Graphically it’s more than a match for most rivals, poised to shred in triple-A games.

Graphics folks are already comparing its chip’s graphics performance to mid-range Nvidia RTX 4070 GPUs and claiming it has a 2.5- to 3x boost in performance over Nivida dGPUs paired with AMD Strix Point processors, which is very solid performance for a processor/laptop with only an iGPU, if you ask me.

Furthermore, AMD claims it has demonstrated 1.4x faster gaming performance than Intel’s flagship Lunar Lake Core Ultra 9 288V processor, and 84 percent quicker rendering than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro.

On the power side the ROG Flow Z13 can draw to a maximum 120W TDP, so there’s more than enough grunt available too.

Asus

Indeed, at the Asus booth at CES 2025, the ROG Flow Z13 had no issues playing Black Myth: Wukong, on its 2.5K, 180Hz display, which is a very promising sign.

Okay, so granted it can shred in games and is portable, there must be something else we can catch this laptop out on, right? Admittedly, I do have a few lingering questions… Being a unified CPU / graphics solution, Strix Halo represents a kind of U-turn from previous AMD mobile processor platforms not just because the AMD Ryzen AI Max has an integrated GPU.

Looking at the stats charts it has a noticeable CPU processing advantage over AMD Strix Point, but it’s likely less power efficient (since it lacks scaled-down AMD Zen5c cores). That did get me thinking about the Z13’s battery life and also performance when power levels are lowered; Strix Point holds its own very well at lower power levels.

Still, initial reviews say the ROG Flow Z13’s battery life, in the very least, is quite good, lasting more than 10 hours (for lighter tasks. Battery life for gaming will be less than that.).

Asus

I’ve had slight concerns about its cooling too, considering the 120W maximum TDP (that’s a lot of power in a thin and lightweight laptop). But those too, for now at least, have mostly been abated, based on the list of the Z13’s cooling apparatus.

Asus has incorporated a specially designed vapor chamber and air vents that direct air behind the touchscreen. It also sports second-generation Arc Flow fans with 0.1mm fins to circulate air.

So, trusting that those things work as they should, this laptop sounds like quite the package. Not only is it extremely lightweight and thin and therefore portable, but it’s stacked with CPU power and, more importantly, GPU power (sans a dGPU), and without the chunkiness of a gaming laptop.

Of course, I’m looking forward to reading more reviews when they become available to get a better handle on the points I made about cooling and efficiency. Right now, though, my intention to get one of these laptops is unshakable.

Further reading: The best gaming laptops