Does AMD actually beat Intel in gaming? I’ve compared two gaming laptops in 10
games at 1440p and 1080p resolutions to show you what the differences really are.
It’s no secret that AMD processors beat Intel when it comes to productivity workloads.
I’ve shown this in a number of videos on the channel, however gaming is different.
A lot of other channels seem to be blindly assuming that due to Ryzen’s superior performance
in CPU heavy workloads that it must do better in gaming too, however that is not the case.
These are the differences in specs between the two processors we’re looking at here.
Both have 8 cores 16 threads, same amount of cache, but the Intel chip can boost higher.
The Ryzen CPU is almost a year newer, but Intel will be launching 11th gen soon.
The two laptops that I’m testing with are the XMG Neo 15, the same Tongfang chassis
as the Eluktronics Mech-15 G3. Both laptops have 32 gigs of memory in dual channel with
the same speed and timings, both have RTX 3070 graphics with the same power limits,
and they both even have the same 1440p screen and battery.
The important differences are that one has an 8 core Intel processor,
while the other has an 8 core Ryzen processor. Despite them both being
the same model, there are also some differences in heat pipe design,
as one has the CPU on the left while the other is on the right, but all things considered I
think these machines are quite similar and this should offer a pretty fair comparison.
There’s an important difference when it comes to PCIe lanes that we need to discuss.
Intel allows 3 PCIe lanes between the CPU and GPU, while AMD on the other hand has half the
amount at 8, which could be a potential bottleneck depending on the workload.
I’ve run the 3DMark PCIe benchmark to help illustrate the differences. The Intel system
has more bandwidth between the CPU and GPU due to double the PCIe lane count. Both laptops let
you disable optimus, and we can see that with optimus disabled both are able to get a little
extra bandwidth - and that’s how I’ve tested both of these machines, with Optimus disabled.
Despite both laptops having different processors, when under a combined CPU plus GPU stress test I
didn’t find the power limits to differ too much at all. The Nvidia TDPs should
be comparable given both are the same RTX 3070 GPU, but Intel and AMD measure TDP differently.
If we instead look at the total system power draw from the wall during these tests,
we can see that the Intel machine was using around 4% more wattage,
so based on this I’m not expecting power differences to be a major factor in this testing.
Here’s how temperatures differed between the laptops in these same consistent stress tests. The
AMD model seems to have a higher thermal throttle cap compared to the Intel model on the CPU,
as both were hitting thermal throttle limits in this test,
though the GPU on the Intel model was warmer.
The GPU clock speeds weren’t too different. The CPU speeds showed a larger difference,
but I don’t think these are quite as comparable.
Now with that understanding in place, let’s check out the differences in
10 games at all setting levels. I’m expecting the difference between the
two processors to be larger at lower setting levels. Generally there will
be less of a difference at higher setting levels as those tend to be more GPU bound,
so it starts masking the differences that we see between the processors, and this is the
same reason that I’m also expecting 1440p to show less of a difference compared to 1080p,
because 1440p just generally needs more GPU power. Oh and Intel 11th gen is just around the corner,
so make sure you’re subscribed for when I revisit this comparison with the newer hardware.
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Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the games benchmark. I’ve got the Intel results shown by
the blue bars, and the AMD results shown by the red bars. As I’ve tested all setting levels,
I’ve got them on the left with lowest down the bottom and highest up top. At 1080p there was
almost no difference between the two laptops with max settings where we’re most GPU bound,
but at low settings the Intel machine was reaching 15% higher average FPS. At 1440p there’s less
of a difference now, but the Intel system was still ahead regardless of setting level. The
i7 was 7% ahead of the 5800H with the low preset, but then the difference is much smaller maxed out.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in little China with the street kid life path. Again the Intel laptop was
ahead regardless of the resolution in use, and there wasn’t really a notable difference with
the ray tracing presets towards the top. The difference isn’t big though, both at low and
ultra settings the i7 was only reaching 4% higher average FPS. The difference is even smaller at
the higher 1440p resolution, presumably as the GPU matters more and the CPU differences matter less.
At both low and ultra settings the i7 was only around 2% faster, which as we can see is only
1-2 FPS, so at the end of the day probably not something you’ll notice in practice.
Fortnite was tested with the replay feature using the exact same replay file on both laptops.
The Ryzen system gets its first win here, coming out 3% ahead of the i7 in average
FPS with the low setting preset at 1080p. The difference in 1% lows was larger here though,
the 5800H was doing 10% better in this regard, but then at higher setting levels
the difference becomes next to nothing. The differences are even closer together at 1440p,
just one to two FPS apart, so again not something you’re really going to notice in practice.
Control was tested with and without ray tracing, we’ll start with ray tracing off results. The
Intel system was back in front at all setting levels now. At max settings it was only 5%
faster though, and not too much different at low settings. There's a similar difference at 1440p,
at high settings the i7 is reaching 6% higher average FPS, and for context this is the 2nd
largest difference between the Intel and AMD laptops at this resolution, which I think shows
how even one of the bigger gains isn’t anything major with higher settings plus higher resolution.
The i7 was still ahead with ray tracing enabled, but at 1080p this only results
in a few frames difference. Once more the gap narrows at 1440p, granted I wouldn’t
really want to play with these frame rates anyway, so let’s move on to DLSS results.
There’s an average difference with DLSS enabled, at high settings the Intel laptop was reaching
7% higher average FPS, and percentage-wise at 1440p that doesn’t change too much,
though in terms of raw frames per second it’s only around a 4 FPS
change, a difference you’d probably struggle to notice one way or the other.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the game's benchmark. The intel system was ahead in
average FPS at 1080p for all setting levels, however the Ryzen laptop took the lead in 1%
lows at high settings and above, granted the difference once more isn’t that big one way or
the other. What I just said still applies at 1440p too. Now the i7 was almost 7% ahead of
the Ryzen laptop in average FPS at max settings here, which is the biggest difference seen out
of all 10 games tested at this resolution with max settings, but yeah it’s just 4 FPS and the
5800H is only just shy of 60 FPS, and that’s still a great result for this test at this resolution.
Battlefield V was tested in campaign mode. The Intel system was ahead both for 1% lows
and average FPS this time around. There’s a bigger difference with low settings,
where the i7 was reaching 7% higher average FPS compared to Ryzen, but then with the ultra
preset the i7 is only 3% ahead, or exactly 4 FPS. There’s a bigger difference to 1% lows, the Intel
laptop was 12% higher here, which would result in smoother gameplay. There’s still a fair 8%
boost to 1% low at ultra settings with the i7 when we move up to 1440p, however the average FPS is
even closer together now, just a 1% lead for the i7, though like most of the other titles tested,
the gap is bigger at lower settings as these typically depend more processor performance.
CS:GO was extremely close in average FPS, in many cases it’s almost margin of error stuff.
The Ryzen laptop was ahead in average FPS at low, but the Intel laptop had a subtle edge in 1%
lows regardless of setting levels. At 1440p the Intel laptop was ahead in all regards
at all setting levels, but yeah unless you’re a hardcore competitive player,
again I don’t think most people would be able to tell the difference, especially at over 300 FPS.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the games benchmark using Vulkan. Yet again the Intel
laptop was ahead at all setting levels regardless of resolution, though same sort of deal here too,
both can still produce more than 300 FPS at ultra settings so it’s not as if Ryzen is going to hold
you back. The frame rates are still high at 1440p, and the i7 laptop was reaching average
FPS less than 4% higher than the AMD one at max settings, and about the same at minimum too.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the game's benchmark. Intel takes the lead again
here too, coming out 5% ahead at max settings, but 11% higher average FPS at low settings
where the CPU differences matter more. Intel is still ahead at 1440p, though between medium and
highest settings it’s just a 2 FPS difference, again with a bigger gap at lowest settings,
which lets face it, with RTX 3070 graphics you’re probably not going to be using.
Watchdogs Legion was also tested with the games benchmark, and the Intel system saw the biggest
lead over the AMD machine at low settings here, with a massive 28% higher average FPS. I thought
this seemed high so ran the test again days later on both machines and same results. At max
settings the i7 was 7% ahead, the biggest gain out of all 10 titles tested at this resolution
when comparing max settings. At 1440p there was still a far above average improvement with the i7,
which was reaching 14% higher average FPS. By the time we get up to the highest ultra settings
though, it’s just a 2 FPS difference, so the Intel gains are realised more at lower setting levels.
On average over all 10 games tested at 1080p with the highest setting preset, the Intel
i7-10875H laptop was around 3.5% faster when compared to the Ryzen 7 5800H laptop.
It’s probably worth remembering, as shown earlier the Intel system was also drawing 4% more power
from the wall in a CPU plus GPU stress test too. At max settings, only Fortnite was ahead with AMD,
but given the difference is less than a percent, you could argue it’s within margin
of error anyway. Best case we’re looking at a 7% higher average frame rate from Intel here.
Now if we instead consider the lowest setting preset,
well the i7 was almost 8% faster on average. Differences between processors generally matter
more at lower setting levels as there’s less load for the GPU, but like I said earlier,
given both laptops here have RTX 3070 graphics I think it’s less likely that people will be running
with lower settings anyway. For laptops with lower tier GPUs though this could be more important.
Stepping up to 1440p and with the highest setting preset the i7 was now closer to 3% better on
average compared to the 3.5% difference we saw at 1080p. Closer results at higher resolutions
make sense, as most of the load is taken on by the GPU the processor differences kind of get hidden.
Depending on the game we’re looking at a 1 to 7% higher average frame rate with Intel.
With lowest settings though, the i7 system was 5.4% ahead on average, compared to the 7%
we saw at 1080p with minimum settings, so again
lower due to the higher 1440p resolution. Watchdogs seems to be the outlier here,
at either resolutions with minimum settings it saw well above average gains with the i7 laptop.
How much of this difference being due to the processors compared to the PCIe
lane differences is hard to say, because I can’t limited the Intel system to just 8 lanes, but at
the same time it’s kind of irrelevant because this is just an actual platform difference that exists
between the two. I can also fairly compare battery life as both laptops have the same sized battery.
Despite this, I've actually taken things to the next level and done
the testing with the exact same battery by swapping it between the laptops.
Although both do have the same model of battery at the same size,
the amount of use a battery has seen over time will affect how much charge it can hold, so to
try and minimize this as much as possible I've tested both with the exact same physical battery.
In my YouTube playback test with optimus enabled, it wasn't even close. The Ryzen system was lasting
almost 3 hours longer in the same test. Both laptops were tested with the same RAM,
same screen at the same 50% brightness, and same battery - it doesn't get more apples to apples.
Now Intel has been saying a lot lately that their performance on
battery power is a lot better compared to AMD - so let’s put that to the test.
I’ve tested Cinebench while running on wall power, as per the top results, and on battery,
as per the results below. In either scenario the Ryzen laptop was performing better and reaching
higher scores. To be fair, when on battery power the Ryzen system does also drop off
more compared to the Intel one, but regardless it’s still able to score better than Intel.
So what about price differences? Although XMG did provide me with both laptops,
they don’t actually plan on selling this Intel model. They kindly provided
it to me so that I could make this comparison as fair as possible,
as it’s just hard to get two laptops that are basically the same but with different processors.
They told me that if they were selling the Intel model, then it would be around
50 to 60 Euro more expensive compared to the AMD one. Now the 5800H with 3060
model starts at 1669 Euro, but the 3070 that I’ve tested here is higher at 1964.
From a cost per frame perspective, there’s basically no difference. The Ryzen machine
technically offers slightly better value as it’s cheaper but not performing too much worse,
but the difference is so small that whichever way you look at
it there’s not really that much of a difference at either resolution.
All things considered, I’d probably go for the Ryzen model compared to the Intel one despite
the Intel one doing better in games. Honestly, I just don’t think the difference in games was
that large, and given Ryzen has more advantages in non gaming workloads, I think it’s just the
better all rounder, especially once other things like battery life is factored in.
If I was literally just using my laptop for gaming and not doing anything else, and I didn’t mind
paying more, I’d probably go for the Intel model. I think the key takeaway here is that despite all
the hype, the Ryzen model just isn’t perfect in every regard quite yet. For now at least,
it seems that Intel 10th gen does still have an edge in gaming, and don’t forget that Intel 11th
gen shouldn’t be too far away. I’ll definitely revisit this comparison and see how that stacks
up once it’s available, so make sure you’re subscribed for that one. For now, you can check
out how these two laptops compare in CPU focussed workloads over in this video. I’ve tested both in
a number of productivity tasks at different power limits to show you the differences,
so if you’re interested in more than just gaming I’ll see you over in that comparison next.