AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX vs Intel Core i7-9700

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.

Intel Core i7-9700

The Intel Core i7-9700 is a high end desktop processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It integrates 8 cores (no Hyperthreading therefore also 8 threads) clocked at 3 - 4.7 GHz. Compared to the similar named Core i7-9700K, the 9700 has no open multiplicator for easy overclocking, offers lower clock speeds and offers a reduced TDP.

Compared to the old Core i7-8700, the 9700 offers two more real cores but no Hyperthreading. Therefore, the performance gain is not that big - depending on the app. The single core performance was slightly improved thanks to the higher Turbo clocks. As a high end desktop CPU, the i7-9700 is well suited for demanding tasks and gaming.

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics card is clocked at up to 1.2 GHz and offers no advantage compared to previous generations. As it is a very low end GPU, only some low demanding games like Hearthstone can be played with it (see GPU page for benchmarks).

Intel specifies the TDP at 65 Watt (instead of the 95W of the faster models) and therefore the CPU wont need a high end desktop cooling system.