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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Deicidium369 - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
"Revenues do not lie. " of course they dont, specially when you overcharge for your products"The market says otherwise, they think the products are well priced, and Intel sells all they can make - so just because YOU can't afford them doesn't mean they are over priced - and if they were sooo overpriced, seems like AMD would be in MUCH better financial situation than they are.
Qasar - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
again prove it, look at the 3 links i posted farther up. yea..right well priced, over priced is more like it, Epyc Rome, more cores, it some cases HALF the price, and better performance.schujj07 - Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - link
Revenue actually does lie. Look at the mid 2000s when the Athlon 64 was king. Intel was still making money hand over fist because of shady business practices. When you are the 800lbs gorilla, you can throw your weight around and make sure that people only buy your product even if it is inferior.alufan - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
lets revisit this comment in 12 months shall we as an example my company has a worldwide base of 60k plus they just moved all future buys to AMD the tide is turning and frankly its about time, intel will return and frankly i hope they do because competition is good for us the consumer but right now face it AMD simply has the better product in all ways maybe apart from one or two specilist benchs or workloads where intel has funded the software development and provided a chip to do the workNamisecond - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
AMD probably does have the "better" product in just about all the fields. But can they step in and significantly eat into Intel's market share? I don't think so. AMD's production capability is currently limited and not in their control.Qasar - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
" But can they step in and significantly eat into Intel's market share? " i think that is slowly starting to happenDeicidium369 - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
Yup been happening for like 40 years - so far upto mid single digits.. AMD is a 2 trick pony and you almost can't build an AMD laptop/desktop without sending Intel some $$$Qasar - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
ahh Gondalf, trying anything and everything to try to make your god of cpus look better, huh ? i find it crazy that you just cant except amd has the better product. give it up already, pathetic intel fanboyDeicidium369 - Sunday, April 12, 2020 - link
ahh Qasar, trying anything and everything to try to make your god of cpus look better, huh ? i find it crazy that you just cant except* Intel has the better product. give it up already, pathetic AMD fanboy*accept.
Qasar - Sunday, April 12, 2020 - link
ahh Deicidium369 i find it crazy you are the one that cant except it. amd has the better product now, most reviews have shown that. give it up already, pathetic Intel fanboy