Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS

Intel Core Ultra 7 255H

The Intel Core Ultra 7 255H is a mobile high-end CPU for larger notebooks based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It offers 16 cores consisting of 6 fast performance cores (Lion Cove) with up to 5.1 GHz and 8 smaller efficiency cores (Skymont) with up to 4.4 GHz clock speed and two additional "low power" efficiency cores with up to 2.5 GHz (Skymont). The CPU has access to 24 MB of cache and is specified with a TDP of 28 watt (PL1, 115W PL2).

The SoC integrates a small dedicated NPU called AI Boost with 13 TOPS (Int8) and optionally supports vPro Essentials. The integrated memory controller supports up to 192 GB LPDDR5/x-8400 or DDR5-6400 (dual channel). The integrated GPU (iGPU) is an Intel Arc 140T graphics card which offers eight Xe cores with up to 2.25 GHz.

Performance - High End

The Core Ultra 7 is superior to the top model Core Ultra 9 285H as only the maximum Turbo frequency is 200 MHz lower. Due to the improved IPC of the cores (especially the efficiency cores), the CPU should perform slightly below the level of the old Raptor Lake Core Core 9 270H (6 + 8 cores, max 5.8 / 4.1 GHz). This makes the CPU very suitable for demanding tasks such as high-end gaming and content creation.

Chiplet design

Like the desktop and HX chips, the Arrow Lake-H chips are based on individual chiplets that are placed on a 22nm base tile from Intel using Foveros 3D packaging. The CPU part comes from TSMC using the modern N3B (3nm) process. As with HX, the GPU also is produced at TSMC and is manufactured using the N5P process. SoC and I/O Tile are also from TSMC but in the older N6 process.

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.