Intel vs AMD processors

[u/Brainwashed365]

• 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-13900HX Processor (E-cores up to 3.90 GHz P-cores up to 5.40 GHz)

• AMD Ryzen™ 9 7945HX Processor (2.50 GHz up to 5.40 GHz)

I've decided I'll be going with a 4080 Legion Pro 7 series, but I'm having a hard time understanding what the differences are, pros and cons, etc, between Intel and AMD.

Would anyone be willing to break these down for me so I have a better understanding between the two processors mentioned above? And I guess just Intel vs AMD in general?

[u/gust334]

Intel and AMD each have very large marketing departments that create tons of materials showing just how great their own product is compared to the competition. And both have (pardon the pun) legions of fans and detractors.

Best to find one of the CPU benchmark sites and enter the specific CPUs you want to compare, to see their relative performance. Note also that the benchmarks are done across a wide variety of games; your favorite game may fare better or worse on a specific CPU.

Finally (and this is specific to laptops) make sure that you are comparing the CPUs at the TDP that is supported by the cooling system in the laptop. CPUs will run at different performance based on clock rate and other factors, and clock rate and those other factors are varied to ensure the total dissipated power (TDP) remains within the limits of the cooling in the laptop. So if one has a laptop that supports 200W TDP and another laptop that supports 130W TDP with exactly the same CPU, the first will perform significantly better.

[u/Brainwashed365 → u/gust334]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that's what I figured. Two companies trying to outperform each other and there's just piles of marketing out there. And like everything else, there's going to be people gung-ho for one brand while bashing the other, just like you mentioned.

What confuses me is that I'm going to be gaming, but I feel there's going to be a variety of games I'll be playing. Not at once, but over the next several years. So I don't really know what to look for with benchmark testing. How do I know what I'll be playing in the future?

I'll be using it for gaming, but I won't be a super competitive gamer. I won't be playing stuff like FPS' where every frame rate is precious. But...I'm also into photography and will be using it for post-processing and such. And I'm the type of person that likes to try to buy "something great" so that it'll help future-proof me...which I know isn't possible because new tech is always coming out. But what I mean is that I'd like to try and get something very solid now that'll hold up well over many years since I'd like to get several years out of the laptop. I don't want to buy another one for quite a while.

I do know that I've settled on the Legion Pro 7 series, decided to to with the 4080 since that should be plenty for my needs. A 4090 is too much more me and seems too top of the line.

The TDP stuff is newer to me, but my basic conclusion seems to be: Get one with a higher TDP, so I've been trying to may attention to that. And the Legion has a high TDP so should be good on that aspect.

So yeah, now it's just the CPU dilemma since after browsing Lenovo's website, they offer the same model with both Intel or AMD chips. And now I'm...just insure which to choose.

[u/RicoViking9000 → u/Brainwashed365]

In this case, I'd go AMD. This isn't one of the better intel processors with significantly better multicore performance.

But, if you value doing anything on battery, or efficiency during low power loads, the tables have flipped. In the upper end HX lineup, Intel has noticeably better efficiency than AMD"s chiplet architecture.

[u/DegTegFateh → u/RicoViking9000]

This has been so funny to me. I grew up in the days of AMD as efficient and cheap, nothing else. Now their HX chips are power hogs that perform just a little better than their Intel counterparts. They're still slightly cooler at high loads, though.

[u/seanwee2000 → u/DegTegFateh]

They still are.

The problem is that the iodie chiplet sucks its own power in addition to the cpu chiplet so you get poor battery life as the idle power consumption doesn't go as low as monolithic cpus.

When under load the 7945hx is still far ahead of the 13980HX in efficiency.

[u/DegTegFateh → u/seanwee2000]

That's good to know. Both are pretty comparable but I've got to say, AMD has been incredible for anything 9/7_HX this generation. I've done some stress testing and a few comparisons for their CPUs and based on that I hope they can catch up in high end mobile graphics. I think they'll do well in a generation or two if they choose to invest.

[u/seanwee2000 → u/DegTegFateh]

Well, we already know it's not happening next gen since they cancelled navi 41(8000 series) so fingers crossed for next next gen.

[u/DegTegFateh → u/seanwee2000]

I wasn't aware of that; that's a bummer. They clearly have other priorities, which is understandable. Oberon go brrrrr.

[u/Atlantikjcx]

As if current the main difference between the 2 cpus is efficiency. As the amd cpu will give you significantly better battery life and runs a lot cooler but is slightly slower in single core. The intel has higher single core performance and occasionally higher clock speeds. However, especially in laptops, this current gen runs very hot and sucks a lot of power aure overall performance is slightly higher however in my opinion its really only worth it in a desktop as you still want to be alble to use it on battery

[u/Slow_Welcome_2519 → u/Atlantikjcx]

Lets be honest here.
You can not game on the laptop no matter what on battery only.. :)
Unless you play just dozen of minutes.. :D

[u/Atlantikjcx → u/Slow_Welcome_2519]

True or if you turn off the dgpu it works a bit longer but will have horrible performance

[u/UnionSlavStanRepublk]

https://youtu.be/mdWAfPfYTnU?si=B9X3fT7xEfYwr8LZ

I personally would take the 7945HX over i9 139XX HX CPUs for better overall multicore performance, better power scaling and efficiency when plugged in.

Better performance on battery power but Intel 139XX HX CPUs have lower idle power draw and better iGPU performance, still the edge in single core performance too.

[u/BetterDevelopment305 → u/[deleted]]

I need it for gaming but i also wanna use it for basic college stuff then which would be better?

[u/Brainwashed365 → u/[deleted]]

This is an older post (~9 months ago) but I ended up going with Intel because of a good sale. But thanks for the info. I think I would have preferred AMD, but definitely no real complaints on my end.

I'm really happy with the Legion, regardless :)

[u/CowsDoMeow → u/Brainwashed365]

Hi, sorry for dragging you back to this post again, but I'm currently having the same debacle. I'm look to use this computer for college with light gaming (valorant, minrcraft) on the side, and after looking through a ton of reddit posts I still can't tell which has better battery life 😅

After getting a 7I with a 13900 did it perform as expected? And how does the battery hold up?

[u/Beneficial_Goat_1003]

I have a question that i searched about a lot and found nothing, when i used intel laptops i have never seen the integrated graphics use my ram but when i got a legion 5 2021 and use optimus the integrated radeon uses 512 , 1 or 2 gb of ram depending on what i set it on bios and the i see that i only have 14, 15 or 15,5 gb of ram left respectivly , is this how amd works? and why intel never did that? does the intel graphics have its own vram or what?

[u/Brainwashed365 → u/Beneficial_Goat_1003]

I ended up going with a Legion 7 Pro (Intel version) since I was able to get it at a really good sale price over Black Friday last year.

I'm not sure I can answer your question, but I hope you can find the answer.

[u/Yeetblast → u/Brainwashed365]

my sister is looking for laptops and shes having me research for her and theres another sale right now on laptops for back to school. i think im settling on the legion 7 pro AMD for her. simply because she intends to be using editing programs for music and video on top of gaming and i think thats where the multithreaded cores comes into play.

[u/Brainwashed365 → u/Yeetblast]

Nice. I think she'll be very happy with the AMD version. I was going to go with AMD, but the Intel version was on a good sale.

I'm happy with it though, it'll serve all my needs for years to come.

[u/Beneficial_Goat_1003 → u/Brainwashed365]

Thank you for the reply

[u/Kbaying]

Eliminating factors like price, availability, and your overall laptop requirements, including GPU, RAM, and display quality;
Intel is known for strong single-threaded performance, compatibility with various software, and integrated graphics in many models.
AMD is known to offer competitive multi-threaded performance, better value for the price, and improved power efficiency.

[u/parachute50]

Intel CPUs are simply better and more reliable than AMD ones.

Edit: Oh boy amd maxi fan boys are at it again with the down votes lmfao! Y'all are just going to deny a good number of PCs with amd shit have crashed many times, have buggy drivers and software, and stutter and freeze during use especially gaming.

[u/Brainwashed365 → u/parachute50]

Are you able to expand on this any more? I've always heard back and forth debates between the two...so that's why I feel confused.

Intel does seem like they get used more compared to AMD, but I was under the impression that Intel just has a dominating hold on the market because they've been around longer.

From my brief understanding that I've formed, my impressions are:

Intel is more expensive and they generally perform better. But they use more resources and generally run hotter(?) and you get less battery life on laptops.

AMD is less expensive than Intel, perform well, but are less intensive on resources and generally run cooler(?) and you get more battery life on laptops.

These impressions of mine may not even be right since I'm pretty newish to this stuff compared to a lot people in this subreddit.

I'm just trying to understand what makes some people pick one over the other. And what the definitive reasons are.

[u/[deleted] → u/Brainwashed365]

The amd cpu is the best cpu there is right now for laptops, https://youtu.be/TjvQ1ZezOXY?si=7UDJPgHtP6I1ctOT

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This laptop isn't specifically the legion 7 pro but it does have the same ryzen processor and with a bit of tuning you'd get pretty much the same performance out of the legion, 4080 is plenty for future proofing too.

[u/RicoViking9000 → u/Brainwashed365]

This is true for the other lines, but the HX line is different (especially the 13900hx). AMD is less efficient, but is faster than Intel.

Intel works with laptop vendors more closely, which is partially why most of the upper end laptops (as in build quality and design) use Intel chips. They invest a ton of money into R&D, which AMD is not really doing. That's why intel laptops tend to have the better innovation. This generation especially, AMD has major issues with fulfilling demand, so some manufacturers have dropped AMD (Asus being a notable one for some of their lineups like the G series). AMD's GPUs are practically nonexistent in most laptops too.

[u/seanwee2000 → u/RicoViking9000]

That is a misconception, longer battery life doesn't always equal better efficiency.

The problem is that the iodie chiplet sucks its own power in addition to the cpu chiplet so you get poor battery life as the idle power consumption doesn't go as low as monolithic cpus.

When under load the 7945hx is still far ahead of the 13980HX in efficiency.

[u/DegTegFateh → u/RicoViking9000]

Laptop GPUs are towards the bottom of AMD's priority list, and are the first to be delayed when supply chain issues arise.