AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H vs Intel Core i7-13850HX

AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H

The AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H is a processor for big (workstation) laptops based on the Rembrandt generation. The R9 6900HX integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.3 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.9 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (16 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 6 nm TSMC process. The 6950H is the professional version of the consumer R9 6900HX without overclocking features but with additional management features and the Microsoft Pluton Security processor.

The new Zen 3+ architecture 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 6950H as of August 2023, we have tested one system featuring the 6950HS, its slightly more power-efficient brother. Based on that, expect the 6950H to be slightly faster than the Ryzen 7 5800H, Ryzen 9 4900H, Ryzen 5 PRO 7640HS and also the Core i7-11800H. In other words, this is a higher-end chip that will handle almost any task with ease, as of late 2022.

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

Power consumption

This Ryzen has a default TDP of 45 W (also known as the PL1). A high-performance cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this one here.

Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H is built with TSMC's 6 nm process leading to great, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-13850HX

The Intel Core i7-13850HX is a fast high-end mobile processor of the Raptor Lake series. Is was announced in early 2023 and offers combined 20 cores and 28 threads. Eight fast Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with Hyper-Threading and eight Gracemont efficiency cores without HyperThreading. The 13850HX supports the full enterprise set of vPro management features.

The eight P-Cores are clocked from 2.1 GHz (base) up to 5.3 GHz (single core boost, all cores up to 4.7 GHz). The twelfe E-Cores clock between 1.5 (base) and 3.8 GHz (boost).

Compared to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake offers improved P-Cores (Raptor Cove micro-architecture) with bigger Caches and more E-Cores (same Gracemont micro-architecture). Furthermore, the chip supports faster DDR5 memory (up to 5600 MHz for the 13850HX).

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 13850HX as of August 2023, we fully expect the chip to be at least a couple pecentage points faster than the i9-12900HX, a CPU featuring eight P-cores and eight E-cores that run at nearly the same clock speeds as what the 13850HX has. Just how wide the performance delta will be will depend a lot on how competent the laptop's cooling solution is, and how high the CPU power limits are.

Power consumption

The chip's "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 45 W. Its Intel-recommended "Maximum Turbo" power consumption is 157 W while the Base power consumption is supposed to be around 55 W. Most laptop makers will probably go for a value much higher than 55 W to extract as much performance out of the chip as possible.

This Core i7 series processor is built with Intel's 4th generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.