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 ESTLow Power Performance
Truth be told, I didn’t go into this review with low power testing in mind. These sorts of laptops, while capable of driving high performance on the go, are essentially expected to be connected to the power socket when performance is needed. Even the best ultraportables struggle for battery life when everything is whirring at full tilt. Nonetheless, after my own experiences of 3 hours of gaming on power with a Matebook X Pro and a high screen brightness, it is a genuine use case.
For these tests, the settings and software are the same as normal, but the only change is that the power cable has been removed and the power setting in Windows has been moved to ‘Best Battery Life’. We’re still in the Recommended Power Plan and not the Battery Saver Plan. What this does is force the OS and system to manage its power appropriately between CPU and GPU. In these circumstances being able to distribute the power where it is needed most can be a very critical factor in getting a project finished, or having a game that is playable.
Our tests here, due to time, are the following:
- Civilization 6, 1080p MSAA 8x, AI Test (On Battery, Battery Saver)
- Borderlands 3, 1080p Medium (On Battery, Battery Saver)
- Counter Strike Source, 1080p Max (On Battery, Battery Saver)
So previously Intel had a very slight advantage in AI turn time here, but as we move to a power limited scenario, AMD takes a more substantial lead – over 10%.
Where we had a small 5% win for AMD in the full power scenario, the gap is a bit bigger percentage wise for AMD in the low power scenario. It is still under 30 FPS, which is probably unplayable for BL3.
Now CSS is a little odd. When I’m in Battery Saver mode but plugged in, I get the full power FPS value. But the minute I take it out, on the Razer Blade, something goes a bit mental and we end up being limited to 60 FPS. V-Sync is disabled in every setting I think of, and yet there doesn’t seem to be a way of getting off of 60 FPS.
Ultimately in every scenario, in a few small tests, where Intel might have been ahead on wall power, AMD pulls ahead on limited power.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
267 Comments
View All Comments
Gondalf - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
I find crazy to compare an 8 core Laptop to a 6 core one.Intel is plenty of 45W 8 cores SKUs for laptops with turbos at over 5Ghz, and we are here to show nothing.
So basically AMD can only compete with a 6 core Coffee lake???
Irata - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
There are reviews that show the eight core can‘t keep up either or just barely and that is in a huge and heavy chassis (i.e. the portable desktop type). And their battery life is even worse, as is their power consumption.Oh, and looking at this review, the six core is coupled with a faster RTX 2060 GPU...
Idontknowhatosay - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
Der8auer did a comparison against the 9980HK and the 4900HS still came on top in performance. It even manages to keep up with the 5 GHz, 90 watt core i9 inside the Helios 700, which is a beast of a laptop in terms of size and weight.Omega215D - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
goddamn intel fanboys truly want to distort shit so there is no real competition left in this space.Namisecond - Monday, April 13, 2020 - link
There is no real consumer "competition" in this space. Intel's 10nm production is fubar'd for the time being, To the point where expected products are just now trickling into the market place. AMD could capitalize on this, but their production is constrained because they don't have full control of their own production. This is the mobile market, not the desktop CPU market where you can have retail sales. OEMs are key here.2020 will be a bad year for laptop options.
vozmem - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
Yes, you are right.It is crazy because the 6-core Razer laptop is also slightly more expensive than 8-core Asus laptop.
s.yu - Saturday, April 11, 2020 - link
In all fairness, Razer is usually more expensive than Asus.alufan - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
hmm ok so the Intel CPU was supposed to be at 45w but could not maintain that probably du e to thermals, its supposed to clock higher but ditto and the 2060 is a higher performance version, however other tests still show the Ryzen ahead on 8 core Intels as well, it also seems to be a common result that the AMD is a long long way ahead on its battery life, not sure about other countries but this week in the UK we have had every online seller doing ads on TV pushing Intel laptops to the max, no doubt paid for by Intels rebate scheme dirty tricks me thinks but the truth will out gen 10 indeed lolDeicidium369 - Sunday, April 12, 2020 - link
95% of the market vs 5% of the market - that's called playing to the largest potential audience. Sorry but Intel outsells AMD at every single price point - regardless of what the AMD fanboys say - Revenues do not lie.Qasar - Sunday, April 12, 2020 - link
well other sites say different about who out sells who, others here have even posted links that show this."Revenues do not lie. " of course they dont, specially when you overcharge for your products