AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H vs AMD Ryzen 9 6980HS

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H

The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based of the Rembrandt generation. The R5 6650H integrates six of the eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.3 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.5 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (12 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 6 nm TSMC process. The Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H is the professional version of the consumer R5 6600H with additional management features and the Microsoft Pluton Security processor.

The new Zen 3+ is a refresh of the Zen 3 architecture and should not offer a lot of changes. The chip itself however, offers a lot of new features, like support for USB 4 (40 Gbps), PCI-E Gen 4, DDR5-4800 or LPDDR5-6400, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth LE 5.2, DisplayPort 2, and AV1 decode.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system powered by the Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H as of August 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be about as fast as the 6600HS.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how comfortable the cooling solution of your system is.

In the 6000 series, AMD finally switched to the current RDNA 2 graphics architecture for the iGPU. The 6650H only offers the slower Radeon 660M with 6 of the 12 CUs enabled and 1.9 GHz max. clock rate.

The TDP of the APU is specified at 45 Watts (default). The power efficiency should be very good, thanks to the improved 6 nm process and additional power saving features in the 6000 series.

AMD Ryzen 9 6980HS

The AMD Ryzen 9 6980HS is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based on the Rembrandt generation. R9 6980HS integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.3 (guaranteed base clock) to 5 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (16 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 6 nm TSMC process. 

The new Zen 3+ is a refresh of the Zen 3 architecture and should not offer a lot of changes. The chip itself however, offers a lot of new features, like support for USB 4 (40 Gbps), PCI-E Gen 4, DDR5-4800MT/s or LPDDR5-6400MT/s, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth LE 5.2, DisplayPort 2, and AV1 decode.

A big novelty is the integrated GPU Radeon 680M, that is now based on the RDNA2 architecture and offers 12 CUs at up to 2.4 GHz. It should be the fastest iGPU of all at the time of announcement.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system powered by the 6980HS as of August 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be about as fast as the 6950HS, 6950H, 6980HX.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are, and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Power Consumption

This Ryzen 9 has a default TDP of 35 W (also known as the PL1). Which is definitely too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The APU is built with TSMC's 6 nm process for great, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.