Intel Core i9-11900H vs AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U

Intel Core i9-11900H

The Intel Core i9-11900H is a high end octa core SoC for gaming laptops and mobile workstations. It is based on the Tiger Lake H45 generation and was announced in mid 2021. It integrates eight Willow Cove processor cores (16 threads thanks to HyperThreading). The base clock speed depends on the TDP setting and at 45 Watt is at 2.5 GHz. The single core boost speed can reach up to 4.9 GHz, all cores can reach up to 4.5 GHz. The CPU offers 24 MB level 3 cache and supports DDR4-3200 memory. 

Thanks to the new Tiger Lake architecture, the i9-11900H should be similar or faster than the old Intel Core i9-10885H (Comet Lake-H, 2.4 - 5.3 GHz, 16 MB L3) in single and multi threaded performance and similar to the Ryzen 9 5800H (Zen 3, 3.2 - 4.4 GHz, 16 MB L3). Therefore, the i9 should be one of the fastest laptop CPUs in 2021 and well suited for even very demanding tasks.

The SoC also included the improved Xe graphics card called UHD graphics with all 32 EUs.

Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs add PCIe 4 support (20 lanes in the H45 series), AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6E in the chip.

The chip is produced on the improved 10nm process (called 10nm SuperFin) at Intel, which should be comparable to the 7nm process at TSMC (e.g. Ryzen 4000 series). The default TDP is rated at 45 W at 2.5 GHz base speed, at 35 Watt the base clock speed decreases to 2.1 GHz (cTDP down).

All articles on Tiger Lake can be found on our Tiger Lake architecture hub.

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U

The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U is a processor for thin and light laptops based of the Rembrandt generation. The Ryzen has six out of a possible eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 2.9 (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 6650U is the professional version of the consumer R5 6600U with additional management features and the Microsoft Pluton Security processor. Compared to the similar R5 6650H, the 6850U offers a lower base clock speed and a lower TDP.

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.

Performance

The average 6650U in our database is very close to the Core i7-1260P and the Core i7-10870H, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a really good result, as of late 2022.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 32 W, the ThinkPad T16 G1 is among the fastest laptops built around the 6650U that we know of. It can be about 20% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

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

The TDP of the APU is specified at 15 - 28 Watts (default). The power efficiency should be very good, thanks to the improved 6nm process and additional power saving features in the 6000 series.