Intel Core 10th generation H series versus Ryzen 4000 Mobile in a first comparison

Intel announced in the past few hours the tenth generation Core processors for gaming and professional notebooks, codenamed Comet Lake-H. Waiting to get their hands on the first laptops and compare them with the new AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile, codenamed Renoir, the Notebookcheck website has published a first comparison between the two proposals, based in particular on Cinebench R15 and R20.

The comparison involves the CPU Core i9-10880H, Core i7-10750H and Core i5-10300H as for the new Intel generation, the AMD processors Ryzen 9 4900HS and Ryzen 7 4800H (here details on the specifications) and the previous generation chips Core i9-9880H, Core i7-9750H and Core i5-9300H. All the results of the 10th generation Intel Core CPUs have been obtained on notebooks with 16 GB of DDR4-2666 memory in dual-channel (they support DDR4-2933 MHz), while in the case of the other processors the results could have been achieved with different configurations of memory. For example in the case of the 4900HS, RAM operates at 3200 MHz.

It is therefore about preliminary scores and to have a clear and definitive picture it is necessary to wait the spread of new laptops, but it is still "something" to get a first rough idea of ​​the values ​​in the field in terms of computing power. In addition, it should not be forgotten that numbers may vary by notebook due to cooling and configuration.

Regarding single-core performance (where the highest peak frequencies of the new series should weigh), Notebookcheck has recorded for the latest Core i9 and Core i7 a performance increase of almost 10% compared to the Ryzen 9 4900HS in the single-core Cinebench R15 test. The Core i9-10880H is 8% faster than the Core i9-9980HK, 13% faster than the Core i9-9880H and 11% faster than the Ryzen 9 4900HS. The Ryzen 9 4900HS is at the level of the Core i5-10300H.

The differences in Cinebench R20 single-core decrease, with the Core i9-10880H which is only 3% faster than the Ryzen 9 4900HS and 8% faster than the Core i9-9980HK, while the advantage rises to 11% compared to the Core i9-9880H. The Core i9-10880H and Core i7-10750H processors are paired as far as single core performance is concerned, which stands out in favor of the new Core i7 as an ideal CPU for gaming.

One can therefore guess that the 10th generation cores, thanks to the higher frequencies, have the credentials to maintain the scepter of single-core performance, even if AMD seems to have reduced the gap. On the performance front multi-core, the situation looks diametrically different. In Cinebench R15 multi-core, the Ryzen 9 4900HS and Ryzen 7 4800H are 4% ahead of the Core i9-10880H, although the latter shows good progress compared to the predecessor. Turning to Cinebench R20, the two Ryzen appear 24% ahead of the Core i9-10880H, in turn 5% higher than the Core i9-9980HK.

Notebookcheck also included other tests in the comparison, such as the 3DMark Time Spy CPU, where Core i9-10880H and Ryzen 9 4900HS are close. Intel's new Core i9 chip shows 25% more performance than its Core i9-9880H predecessor. However, there are some anomalies in the other tests, so it is better to refer to Cinebench to get a first overview: the challenge seems more fiery than ever, with Intel capable of squeezing further performance in single core and AMD which has recovered ground, simultaneously popping up higher performance in multi-core.

A picture that seems to follow almost everything seen in the desktop environment and that we also recorded in our test of the first notebook that came to the editorial office with the AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile CPU, the Zephyrus G14. What can be said is that, except for engineering errors by the manufacturers, the technical offer in terms of notebooks this year appears to be overall excellent.