AMD’s new Ryzen 7 5800H processor is finally here for laptops, but how does
it compare against the 4800H from last year? I’ve compared both to show you the differences.
These are the differences in specs between these two processors.
Both are 8 core 16 thread chips with the same TDP. The newer 5800H came out a year after the 4800H,
and is based on AMD’s newer Zen 3, has double the amount of L3 cache, and has a 300MHz
higher base clock and 200MHz higher boost clock. Both otherwise use DDR4-3200 memory,
and the Vega graphics also receives an upgrade, I’ll test that out too.
Zen 3 also moves from 2 CCXs with 4 cores each to 1 CCX,
and all L3 cache is equally accessible to all cores.
For this testing I’m using the popular Lenovo Legion 5 for the 4800H machine,
and the XMG Neo 15 for the 5800H. Despite not being the same chassis,
both laptops seem to get pretty much full performance out of these processors by
offering high power limits, so we should be in for a comparison with best case results.
Both of these laptops unfortunately have different discrete Nvidia graphics, so proper gaming
benchmarks will need to come in a future video, so we’re just looking at processor performance here,
but I will also compare the integrated graphics, so let’s get into the results!
Starting off with Cinebench R23, we can quickly get a rough idea of both single
and multicore performance differences. I’ve got the older 4800H down the bottom
and newer 5800H up the top. In this test the 5800H was reaching a 14%
higher single core score, and a 12% higher multicore score,
so a much bigger single generation leap compared to what Intel has provided prior to tiger lake.
I’ve also tested the older Cinebench R20 as a lot of people still use it,
so you can use these numbers for comparing my results with. The
5800H was 13% faster in single core here, and 7% faster in multicore.
The Geekbench test also covers both single and multicore,
though this time the 5800H was scoring 22% higher than the 4800H in single core,
while the multicore score was 12% higher, similar to what we saw in Cinebench.
V-Ray uses the processor to render out a scene. This is a multicore test, so I wasn’t too
surprised to once more see the 5800H scoring around 13% higher than the older 4800H here.
The Corona benchmark also uses the processor to render a scene, and although this is also a
multi threaded test, the 5800H was 20% faster in this one, completing in about 17% less time.
Blender was tested with the Open Data benchmark using both the BMW and Classroom tests.
Interestingly my 4800H was consistently 4 seconds faster than the 5800H in the
shorter BMW test, I’ll cover why this may be later, though the 5800H was around 2%
faster in the longer classroom test. Just for context, AMD provided some of their own
blender numbers and they only had the 5800H 2 seconds faster than the 4800H in the BMW test,
so it just appears that blender is not a workload that sees much benefit from the newer processor.
Handbrake was used to convert a 4K h.264 video file that I shot to 1080p h.265.
There was almost no difference here, the 5800H was completing the task just 4 seconds faster,
basically margin of error stuff and about half a percent faster. Handbrake
was another test that AMD provided some data around their own testing,
and again this was another test where they didn’t see that big of an improvement either.
7-Zip was used to test compression and decompression speeds. The newer
Zen 3 processor was 9% faster for decompression, however compression had a much larger 42% boost.
This was already a workload where AMD typically dominates Intel, so it’s going to be interesting
when I compare the 5800H with Intel next week, make sure you’re subscribed for that comparison.
I’ve measured AES encryption and decryption and only saw minor improvements form the 5800H,
so like Handbrake basically no noteworthy improvements for these sorts of workloads.
Adobe Photoshop was tested with the puget systems benchmark. This is a test that I’ve seen
to benefit very well from improved single core performance, however I wasn’t expecting to see the
5800H scoring 41% higher in this test, though some of this could also be down to cache improvements.
Speaking of cache improvements, I’m expecting this to be the reason why we’re seeing the 5800H
complete the Hardware Unboxed Microsoft Excel test 46% faster than the 4800H.
These are the differences when looking at all of the applications just tested.
Only that one blender test was 4 seconds faster on the 4800H, so margin of error
stuff realistically. Handbrake and the encryption tasks also saw similar insignificant differences.
Tasks that benefit from the improved cache of Zen 3 like Microsoft Excel were right up the top,
otherwise the single core tests were also seeing nice gains with the 5800H too.
This is the power draw that was measured during the blender benchmark, so the 5800H was drawing
more power while only completing the task around 2% faster. Now this isn’t perfectly comparable,
as this is total system power and the laptops are different,
so things like screen difference will come into play.
I saw a similar difference in power draw in Cinebench R23, though at least the
5800H was 12% faster in that test, but for 21% more power? That doesn’t sound great.
My 4800H is actually reaching higher clock speeds during these tests, while my 5800H
is clocking lower but using more power to do this, while also running a little hotter. Now
the temperatures can’t be fairly compared due to differences in laptop cooling solution, but
this could be a contributing factor. Perhaps my 5800H system is getting too hot in certain tests.
For the purposes of trying to do a fairer comparison,
I’ve limited both processors to a 45W TDP for the next set of testing.
These are the Cinebench R23 scores from both laptops with the same power limit, so the 5800H
is now just 4% higher in multiscore score. The 5800H is also drawing 4 watts more from the wall,
but again this could be down to other differences between the laptops such as the screen.
What I found interesting was that my 4800H was able to reach higher clock speeds at
the same 45 watt TDP. I’m guessing this sort of thing could come down to silicon lottery,
of course assuming the way hardware info reads the sensor is measured the same between Zen 2 and 3.
Now let’s take a look at the differences between the integrated graphics. Zen 3 mobile is still
using 7nm Vega, however the 5800H now has an extra graphics core and higher frequency.
I’ve tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 720p with the highest setting preset using the games
built in benchmark, as this test reported that both laptops were 100% GPU bound.
The Nvidia graphics were disabled during this test. The newer 5800H was reaching 26%
higher frame rates, so a decent boost in graphics performance if you’ll actually be using the iGPU.
The difference was even larger in blender, which was tested using OpenCL. The 5800H
was able to complete the Blender opendata BMW benchmark around 40% faster, or in 28% less time.
Now again unfortunately it wasn’t possible to properly test games as both laptops have different
discrete graphics, but I will do this in a future video once I have the appropriate machines here.
Again due to those differences, it’s also not easy for me to tell you the price difference.
I’m making this video before Zen 3 laptops are officially sold, so I just don’t currently know
how much they’re going to be sold for, but I will leave some links in the description
for you to check out. So all things considered, I think the 5800H is offering some nice performance
improvements over the older 4800H. The 4800H was already considered a good laptop processor last
year, and now things are just better with the 5800H. It does of course depend on the specific
workload though. Some tasks like blender or handbrake had basically no difference,
while others like photoshop or vray had some nice improvements. Especially when we consider
that the 4800H only launched a year ago. Unless you’re explicitly running workloads that do see
a benefit with Zen 3, I wouldn’t say it’s worth upgrading from a 4800H if you already have one.
It’s still very capable, and I almost never suggest upgrading a laptop just one generation
later. These are much larger gains that what Intel has offered in the laptop space for years,
though that may change with the 11th gen H series coming in the next few months.
You’re definitely going to want to make sure you’re subscribed for all my future comparisons,
as there are just so many new laptops on the way.