AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX vs AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS vs AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS

AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based on the Rembrandt generation. The R9 6980HX 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 "X" in the name indicates the overclocking capabilities of the CPU.

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 built around the 6980HX as of August 2023, we have tested at least one laptop featuring the 6950HS, a chip with very similar specs (8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.9 GHz, Zen 3+). Based on that, expect the 6980HX to be up to 10% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800H, Ryzen 9 4900H, Ryzen 5 PRO 7640HS and also the Core i7-11800H. In other words, this is an impressive laptop CPU that will handle almost any task with ease, as of mid 2023.

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 series APU has a default TDP, also known as the long-term power limit, of 45 W, with the letter X indicating that the chip is ready for some healthy bit of overclocking - which will lead to much higher power consumption, naturally.

The R9 6980HX is manufactured on a 6 nm process for higher-than-average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS

The Ryzen 7 8745HS is a China-only Hawk Point family chip that never received an official launch. Targeted at gaming and productivity laptops but widely used in mini-PCs, too, the 8745HS features 8 cores (16 threads thanks to SMT support) running at up to 4.9 GHz, along with the still fairly capable Radeon 780M iGPU. There is no NPU here.

As an APU meant for use within China, this Ryzen 7 should be fully compliant with the Chinese government-approved cryptography standards.

The only difference between the 8745HS and the 8745H is the slightly lower default wattage of the latter, potentially leading to slightly lower clock speeds.

Performance

We fully expect this Zen 4 architecture processor to be about as fast as the Ryzen 7 7745HX (8 Zen 4 cores, 3.6 GHz to 5.1 GHz) meaning its multi-thread performance is a little better than the Core Ultra 9 185H but a few percentage points behind the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

Architecture and Features

Unlike Zen 3, Zen 4 features AVX512 support along with other improvements, like larger caches/registers/buffers across the board. Elsewhere, the 8745HS has 16 MB of L3 cache and a fast RAM controller (up to LPDDR5x-7500 and up to DDR5-5600). There are 20 PCI-Express 4 lanes for connecting devices such as NVMe SSDs (1.97 GB/s per lane) and graphics cards; USB 4 / Thunderbolt support is onboard, too. Please note that the APU isn't overclockable and neither is it user-replaceable. It gets soldered on to the motherboard for good (FP7r2 or FP8 socket interfaces).

Graphics

The Radeon 780M (12 CUs / 768 shaders, up to 2,600 MHz) can drive 4 monitors simultaneously with resolutions as high as SUHD 4320p. It will also have little issue hardware-encoding and hardware-decoding the most widely used video codecs (AV1, AVC, HEVC). As far as gaming is concerned, many titles are still playable at 1080p as of early 2025 albeit with most settings dialed down do Lowest or Low.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 7 series chip has a long-term power limit (default TDP) of 35 W to 54 W, giving system makers a choice between improving battery life and making the system they're designing faster. Either way, an active cooling solution is a must for a laptop or a mini-PC built around this APU.

AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS

The Ryzen 7 8845HS is a powerful Hawk Point family chip that we believe to be a Ryzen 7 7840HS in disguise but with higher clock speeds on the Ryzen AI NPU. The R7 8845HS was brought to life in H2 2023; it features 8 cores (16 threads thanks to SMT support) running at up to 5.1 GHz. Last but not the least, the Radeon 780M serves as the integrated GPU.

Architecture & Features

Hawk Point family chips are powered by the Zen 4 architecture, much like Phoenix and Dragon Range family chips are. That's not to say that there is no difference between the three. With Hawk Point, AMD uncorks its 2nd generation Ryzen AI technology meaning the new processors are expected to deliver an up to 40% increase in generative AI performance over 7040 series APUs. Dozens of popular apps such as DaVinci Resolve support this technology, as of late 2023.

Unlike Zen 3, Zen 4 features AVX512 support and, thanks to a plethora of other improvements including larger caches/registers/buffers across the board, is slated to bring a double-digit IPC improvement over the former.

Elsewhere, the 8845HS has 16 MB of L3 cache and a seriously fast RAM controller (up to LPDDR5x-7500 and up to DDR5-5600, ECC-enabled memory included). PCI-Express speeds are capped at 1.97 GB/s per lane which corresponds to the 4.0 spec.

This Ryzen 7 series chip is designed to run 64-bit Windows 11, 64-bit Windows 10 or Linux; please note that it isn't overclockable and neither is it user-replaceable. It gets soldered to the motherboard for good instead (FP7, FP7r2, FP8 socket interfaces).

Performance

Since the 8845HS is a 7840HS in disguise, it's safe to expect it to be just slightly faster than the Core i9-13900H and also the Ryzen 9 7940HS, as far as multi-thread performance is concerned. This is a very fast chip, as of Q3 2023.

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

Graphics

The Radeon 780M (12 CUs / 768 shaders, up to 2,700 MHz) is capable of powering 4 monitors simultaneously with resolutions as high as SUHD 4320p. It will also have little issue hardware-encoding and hardware-decoding the most widely used video codecs (AV1, HEVC, AVC). As far as gaming is concerned, the thing will let you play most games at 1080p as long as you are fine with moderate quality settings. Long story short, this is the best iGPU money can buy, as of H2 2023.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are, how competent the cooling solution of your system is, how fast the RAM of your system is (there is no dedicated VRAM here).

Power consumption

This Ryzen 7 series chip has a long-term power limit (default TDP) of 35 W to 54 W, giving system makers a choice between improving battery life and making the system they're designing insanely fast. Either way, an active cooling solution is a must for a laptop or a mini-PC built around this APU.

The R7 8845HS is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for high, as of late 2023, energy efficiency.