AMD’s Mobile Revival: Redefining the Notebook Business with the Ryzen 9 4900HS (A Review)
by Dr. Ian Cutress on April 9, 2020 9:00 AM ESTGPU Benchmarks
Graphics is going to be a bit more challenging than the CPU tests. Games that test both the CPU and the GPU to the limits are going to find different tradeoffs with each of these systems.
The ASUS Zephyrus G14 is smaller and more thermally limited. It doesn’t have an AMD GPU, so it can’t take advantage of AMD’s new features like SmartShift that can manage power between the CPU and GPU. It technically has the stronger CPU, and while the graphics card is the same, ASUS has the Max-Q version of the RTX 2060, which is optimized for power and efficiency, and exhibits lower clocks. Technically the base frequency of this configuration is higher, at 975 MHz, the turbo is lower at 1185 MHz, and the GDDR6 memory is a lot lower at 1375 MHz (11Gbps/pin).
The Razer Blade 15 has the bigger chassis, and we assume is built for a larger overall TDP. While it has the ‘weaker’ CPU of the two, with fewer cores and lower frequency, it is paired with a full-fat GTX 2060 graphics card. We looked at the data for this card, and it exhibits a lower 960 MHz base frequency, it has the higher 1200 MHz turbo, 1750 MHz memory, and has a direct PCIe 3.0 x16 connection with the processor, while the ASUS system is only an x8.
For our tests, I’ve taken an older test (CS:Source), a couple of modern tests (Civ 6, FFXV) and a new test in Borderlands 3. We used the following settings:
- Final Fantasy, 1080p Fullscreen, Standard Quality
- Borderlands 3, 1080p, Medium Pre-Set
- Civilization 6, 1080p Maximum Preset No MSAA / 1K Occlusion Textures
- Civilization 6, 1080p Maximum Preset 8x MSAA / 2K Occlusion Textures
- Counter Strike Source, 1080p Maximum
In Final Fantasy, the results were around 10% different, favoring the AMD system.
Borderlands 3 was actually fairly close, with less than 5% between them, but still favoring AMD. I did notice that we were fairly close to the cutoff here between being CPU limited and GPU limited.
Civilization 6 is well known for constantly updating and being optimized, and here it seems the more powerful GPU wins out by a large 10 FPS margin.
However, if we add in some more compute and detail, we move to a more GPU limited scenario where the results are essentially equal.
Counter Strike is an odd one, given how old the game is. Here the game favors the Intel machine, with a ~10% advantage.
Like in the CPU tests, I did some of these gaming tests with the power cord removed and on battery saver mode. Results were interesting, to say the least, and can be found on the next page.
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neblogai - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
Yes, it is probably not too bad performance wise- U-series set to 25W + LPDDR4X. But, I understand, it is in the upper price range, so I'll wait to see the overclocking results of ~200g lighter and ~€200 cheaper Swift 3, which might fit my needs better.twotwotwo - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
Similar--I would also love 13-14" + all the CPU + enough battery. Minimal graphics is fine and I can't use a high refresh rate. Wouldn't mind a better-than-1080p screen, but that's icing. And I like the matte screen, user-upgradeability, and good keyboard here. (So, like, move a little towards the MacBook Pro kind of market but not too far.)Think I read they didn't expect anyone to build with a 4900H(S) and no dGPU. If that's how it is, it'd still be cool to see a small laptop that cheaps out on the dGPU/refresh rate but not on everything else, for those of us that aren't hardcore gamers. Maybe an AMD dGPU? Their stuff to shift power budget between CPU and GPU seems neat.
lightningz71 - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
I like what you're putting down, but, I want the following:No dGPU
R9-4900H with generous cooling
two SODImm sockets
1 X 2.5 inch SATA bay
1 X NVME M.2 slot
15inch form factor
1440p screen with freesync (High res for productivity, 720p RIS upscaling from the iGPU for gaming)
95watt battery
That would be everything that I need in a laptop. I'm not looking for bleeding edge gaming, but, I do like having a lot of screen pixel area when I need to do something useful.
eva02langley - Sunday, April 12, 2020 - link
Waiting for something similar, however in an slim ultrabook factor.Zingam - Saturday, April 11, 2020 - link
USB4, HDMI 2.1, more PCI lanes, PCI 4.0, AV1 4K encoding, decoding, etc. insignificant stuff...Zingam - Saturday, April 11, 2020 - link
RJ45u600213 - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
I almost ordered an ASUS Zephyrus G14 but no webcam so no go.quantumshadow44 - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
lack of RJ45 is also no goDahak - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
Yep same, I could go without a webcam. But lack of RJ45 is a big no no for me. For home users or mobile pros, its probably fine but as an IT pro, I need ethernet.philehidiot - Thursday, April 9, 2020 - link
I'm no IT pro, I'm a garden variety nerd and I have to say I need at least one laptop in the house with an RJ45. I have two laptops in the house, one being a Macbook Air (2011, now obsolete) which has no RJ45 and it means I have to use the Missus's laptop for any network diagnostics where I need to connect directly to the router. I see RJ45s as kind of like an optical drive for most people. You can get away without one, but they're damned useful to have around. My Macbook will be moving to Linux shortly for the rest of its life and I recently popped an SSD into the Wife's ageing laptop which turned it from unusable to awesome. I expect they'll both need replacing at a similar time and when that time comes, part of the buying decision will be ensuring one of the machines has an RJ45 on it or we buy an adaptor for when it's required.