GPD WIN MAX 2 Review – Work laptop and gaming handheld!

On our GPD Win MAX 2 review today we are checking out the Intel 1260P gaming handheld. We will be doing all the usual unboxing and overview of the Windows handheld. Then performing some system and games benchmarks, followed by game and emulator testing.

GPD WIN MAX 2 Review Video

Unboxing the GPD WIN MAX 2

Lifting the box lid reveals the GPD Win MAX 2, we will show this in more detail shortly.

Underneath is a user manual which is in Chinese and English, it contains everything you need to use the Win MAX 2. There is a bag containing a screw for securing a m.2 SSD inside. There is a USB Type-C cable for charging the Win Max 2.

And last but not least is a charger, we will include the correct adaptor for your country.

Overview of the GPD WIN MAX 2

When folded the Win MAX 2 measures 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.9 (22.7 × 16.0 × 2.3 cm) and weighs 1005 grams.

The display is a 10.1 inch touchscreen with a native resolution of 1920×1200, but it supports up to 2560×1600. Below the display is a 2MP high refresh rate camera  which is good for video calls. There is a clickable touchpad for mouse style navigation.

Below is a QWERTY keyboard that has two levels of backlight control. But where’s the gaming controls? There are two covers which hide them if you want to use your Win MAX 2 at work for example. The covers slide into two slots on the back of the device, it’s a nice idea by GPD.

You have the usual gaming controls, dual clickable analogue hall sensor sticks, D-Pad and gaming buttons. On the front is a power button which has a built-in fingerprint sensor for fast logging into Windows. On the left side are Micro and SD Card slots. And on the right side are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

On the back are Left & Right shoulder and trigger buttons. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB 3.2 port. Next is a HDMI port for connecting to a TV or monitor. There are two USB Type-C ports, one is Thunderbolt 4 for connecting an eGPU for example.   And above are the two slots where the controller covers are stored.

On the bottom of the case are two mappable buttons for gaming. On the left side is a m.2 2280 expansion slot. And on the right is a space for a separately sold 4G LTE module

GPD WIN MAX 2 Technical Specifications

	Intel 1260P	AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
CPU	Intel Core i7-1260P 12 cores, 16 threads Up to 4.70 GHz 20W-28W TDP	AMD Ryzen 7 6800U 8 cores, 16 threads Up to 4.7 GHz 15W-28W TDP
GPU	Intel Iris Xe Graphics @ 1.4GHz	AMD Radeon 680M @2.2GHz
RAM	16GB LPDDR5 5200	16GB / 32GB LPDDR5 6400
STORAGE	1TB M.2 SSD	1TB M.2 SSD
COMMUNICATIONS	WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 4G LTE (module sold separately)	WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 4G LTE (module sold separately)
BATTERY	67Wh Li-Polymer 8 hours idle on desktop 3 hours 30 mins on full load	67Wh Li-Polymer Battery life TBA

Battery tests conducted at 20W TDP running Cinebench.

System Benchmarks

We continue our GPD WIN MAX 2 review with some system benchmarks to see and compare the performance with other handheld gaming PC’s.

PassMark

PassMark pushes the CPU, GPU, RAM and storage to their maximum in a series of tests. The GPD Win MAX 2 scores 4233. We will be comparing the results with other handhelds shortly.

3DMark

3DMark tests the CPU and GPU to see how well they work together in video processing tasks.

The Max 2 scores 1,682 at 20W TDP. Comparing it to other models and at different TDP’s we can see that the Win MAX 2 overall runs slower than the ONEXPLAYER Gundam which has the same 1260-P processor. But it does run faster than the best available AMD model, and faster than the MAX 2021

Cinebench

Cinebench tests the CPU to see its performance with either single or multi-core tests. We are testing on multi-core and get a score of 6491 which is pretty good.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark runs a series of tests on the storage to see its performance across different read/write patterns.

We get a maximum read speed of 2090, and write speed of 1957 MB/sec. It’s not the fastest we have seen, but very far from being the slowest.

Gaming Benchmarks

Next in our GPD WIN MAX 2 review we will be running game benchmarks at 11, 20 and 35W TDP to see the difference between them and how well TDP scales up in performance.

Forza Horizon 5

We start the gaming benchmarks with Forza Horizon 5 running at 1280×800 on the lowest graphics settings. 

At the end of the benchmark we get an average frames per second of 26, 54 and 59 at their respective TDP’s. Surprisingly the FPS is overall lower than the other three models. This might be down to different game versions but we should not see a difference that large.

Street Fighter V

Up next we have Street Fighter V and we are running at 1280×800 on the maximum graphics settings.

At the end of the first match we get an average of 32.64 at 11W, and hitting the maximum 60 FPS at 20W and above. We can see at 11W that the MAX 2 falls behind the other models in performance, but at 20W it gets that 60 frames per second beating the AMD and previous MAX model.

Final Fantasy XIV

On the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark we are running at 1280×800 on the Maximum graphics settings.

We got final scores of 2868, 6347 and 7038. Again it is noticeably different to the ONEXPLAYER and very surprisingly the MAX 2021.

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

Our final games benchmark is Shadow of the Tomb Raider running at 1280×800 on the lowest graphics settings.

At the end of the benchmark we get average frames per second of 21, 43, and 50. Again we see the MAX 2 behind other models in performance across all of the TDP. We double checked the benchmark results and got similar scores so everything seems to be fine.

How does the GPD WIN MAX 2 compare?

The benchmark results are quite mixed for the GPD WIN MAX 2. In system and gaming tests we see it fall behind, often with a large gap, compared to the ONEXPLAYER Gundam which has the same processor. We were expecting a close gap but there is a noticeable performance difference.

	GPD WIN MAX 2	ONEXPLAYER GUNDAM	AYANEO NEXT PRO	GPD WIN MAX 2021
3DMARK	1682	1813	1455	1017
FORZA HORIZON 5	54 FPS	64 FPS	78 FPS	63 FPS
STREET FIGHTER V	60 FPS	60 FPS	56.39 FPS	57.73 FPS
FINAL FANTASY XIV	6347	7169	5388	5694
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER	43 FPS	53 FPS	58 FPS	48 FPS

Compared to the AYA NEO NEXT PRO there are performance increases over its AMD rival in the benchmarks which Intel is usually higher scoring than AMD. However when the tables are turned, such as on Forza Horizon 5 we can still see a 10 frames per second gap.

	GPD WIN MAX 2	ONEXPLAYER GUNDAM	AYANEO NEXT PRO	GPD WIN MAX 2021
3DMARK	1947	2036	1458	1834
FORZA HORIZON 5	59 FPS	68 FPS	85 FPS	59 FPS
STREET FIGHTER V	60 FPS	60 FPS	58.77 FPS	60 FPS
FINAL FANTASY XIV	7038	8008	5721	7347
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER	50 FPS	59 FPS	62 FPS	64 FPS

Compared to the GPD WIN MAX 2021 there were some surprising results, in two of the five comparable benchmarks, the MAX 2021 beat the MAX 2 on 35W as well as other TDP. This could be for a number of reasons such as drivers or optimisation as the 1260-P is a fairly new processor.

Game Testing

We will try a few games followed by some emulator tests at playable settings.

Neon Abyss

We will start off with the recently released Neo Abyss which we are running at 1920×1080 on the games default graphics settings at 20W TDP. We are getting a solid 60 frames per second throughout the game. It looks and plays great on the MAX 2!

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge

Also recently released is TMNT Shredder’s Revenge. We are playing this great game at 20W TDP,  at 2400×1350 resolution and at the game’s default graphics settings. We are getting a solid 60 frames per second, it’s a fairly basic game to be fair. You can lower the TDP and still get 60 FPS.

Doom Eternal

And something a little older but more demanding is Doom Eternal. We are running at 1280×800 on the default Low graphics settings. We are getting above 60 frames per second for the majority of the game and some minor dips below now and again. This game is better optimised for AMD but it still runs fairly well on Intel devices.

Emulator Testing

The GPD WIN MAX 2 is more than powerful enough to run all the 8 and 16-bit consoles  up to Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 era, so we will skip those and check out some of the more recent or demanding systems.

PCSX2

We start with PlayStation 3 and PCSX2. This is still a work in progress emulator so not all games will run well. We tried a few games and got mixed results as expected. Tekken 6 works perfectly as an example of a game running great. With other games that do not run full speed, you can limit the frame rate to 30 and usually get great results.

Citra

Next up we have the 3D dual screen emulator Citra. Again this is a mixed bag of what works and doesn’t as the emulator is still in active development. We tried a few games and Sonic Generations for example is very playable once you have generated the shader caches. Other games also work great, while some are slow due to incompatibility or generating many caches at once.

PSP

We are trying the PlayStation Portable emulator PPSSPP with God of War and are getting pretty much a solid 60 frames per second. You can increase the graphics resolution, as well as some other tweaks for the majority of games and get great looking games at full speed.

Dolphin

Up next we are checking out the Dolphin emulator. Burnout 2 works perfectly at 60 frames per second. Ultimate Spiderman which is a game known for being highly demanding runs at a solid 25 frames per second which looks like the limit for this game without using a hack.

On the other system Dolphin emulates we are again seeing some great results. The Last Story is blazing along at high frame rates. 

Xemu

The OG Xbox emulator Xemu runs a fair number of titles very well. MASHED and Soul Calibur are running at playable frame rates. Not every game will work as well, keep in mind this emulator is still in development. But a good number of games are playable.

Yuzu

And we finish off with something a bit more recent. Yuzu and RyuJinx emulators are both in development so performance and compatibility can vary between releases. We tried a number of games both first and third party titles and got some great results with many running at full or near full speed. 

Final Thoughts

We finish our GPD WIN MAX 2 review with some of our thoughts. Overall the GPD WIN MAX 2 is a good alternative to the AMD offerings that are currently available. It is a shame that the performance does not quite meet the ONEXPLAYER Gundam edition which unfortunately is not available to buy outside China.

If you have one of the other current generation handhelds then it might be worth holding out a bit longer to upgrade as there is not a massive difference in performance. If it is your first Windows handheld experience then the MAX 2 Intel is a good option, but do consider waiting for the GPD WIN MAX 2 AMD model which had a successful Indiegogo campaign, as this will have higher performance.

And also do take into account that it’s not just a gaming handheld, It has a great keyboard that I used to type out the notes for this review. It can very easily replace your laptop and after a hard day’s work, simply transform into a gaming handheld.

Sadly the GPD WIN MAX 2 Intel model has been cancelled in favour of the AMD 6800U model. You can pre-order the GPD WIN MAX 2 here. If you cant wait, browse our wide range of handheld gaming PC’s, especially the GPD Win 4 as an alternative.

That wraps up our GPD WIN MAX 2 review, we hope you have enjoyed it. If you would like to see another video with more games or emulators, let us know in the comments.