Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-H Clashes With AMD Ryzen 4000 in New Benchmarks

Intel 10th Generation Comet Lake-H Processor

Intel 10th Generation Comet Lake-H Processor (Image credit: Intel)

Intel finally announced the 10th Generation Comet Lake-H processors for mobile devices today. Notebookcheck has the scoop on what you can expect from the new 14nm processors in terms of performance.

These new chips rock the Comet Lake-H microarchitecture, which is on Intel's 14nm process node. AMD Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir), on the other hand, is based off AMD's Zen 2 microarchitecture and the 7nm process node from TSMC. From a technological standpoint, AMD's offerings are more modern. 

Being H-series parts, Comet Lake-H and Renoir processors are mobile-friendly with TDP (thermal design power) ratings of 45W. In AMD's case, the chipmaker has a special HS-series branch that's optimized for 35W. Both chipmakers have processors that max out at eight cores and 16 threads. However, the Comet Lake-H portfolio starts at four cores, while the Ryzen 4000 lineup starts at six cores.

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ProcessorCores / ThreadsBase Clock (GHz)Boost Clock (GHz)L3 Cache (MB)Memory SupportTDP (W)
Intel Core i9-10980HK8 / 162.45.316Dual DDR4-293345
AMD Ryzen 7 4900H8 / 163.34.4 8Dual DDR4-320045
Intel Core i7-10875H8 / 162.35.116Dual DDR4-293345
AMD Ryzen 7 4800H8 / 162.94.28Dual DDR4-320045
Intel Core i7-10850H6 / 122.75.112Dual DDR4-293345
Intel Core i7-10750H6 / 122.65.012Dual DDR4-293345
AMD Ryzen 5 4600H6 / 123.04.08Dual DDR4-320045
Intel Core i5-10400H4 / 82.64.68Dual DDR4-293345
Intel Core i5-10300H4 / 82.54.58Dual DDR4-293345

Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-H Benchmarks

Notebookcheck compared the i9-10880H, i7-10750H and i5-10300H SKUs against the Ryzen 9 4900HS, (which we also tested in our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review ) and Ryzen 7 4800H. The site also pulled in the new chips' Coffee Lake-H counterparts, the i9-9880H, i7-9750H and i5-9300H. The Comet Lake-H laptops used for testing used dual-channel DDR4-2666 RAM. 

The publication noted that the i9-10880H and i7-10750H results are from two different laptops. Consequently, the results will vary according to the laptop's design and cooling solution. Notebookcheck averaged the Ryzen 4000-series and Coffee Lake-H results scores across a different number of devices.

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ProcessorCinebench R20 (Single Core)Cinebench R15 (Single Core)
Intel Core i9-10880H508214
Intel Core i7-10750H504213
Intel Core i9-10880H500212
Intel Core i7-10750H500210
AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS495193
Intel Core i9-9980HK472198
Intel Core i5-10300H470194
Intel Core i9-9880H457190
Intel Core i7-9750H440183
Intel Core i5-9300H415173

Based on Notebookcheck's results, Intel is still the king of single-core performance, but AMD isn't too far behind. The Cinebench R15 results show the i9-10880H as being up to 10.9% faster than the Ryzen 9 4900HS. On the more recent Cinebench R20 benchmark, the i9-10880H's lead dropped to just 3%.

Generation-over-generation improvements will depend on which Comet Lake-H and Coffee Lake-H models you compare. For comparison, the i9-10880H delivers up to 7.6% and 11.2% more performance in Cinebench R20 than the Core i9-9980HK and Core i9-9880H, respectively, according to the benchmarks shared today. 

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ProcessorCinebench R20 (Multi Core)Cinebench R15 (Multi Core)3DMark Time Spy (CPU Score)3DMark Fire Strike (Physics)
AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS4,2881,8638,96621,873
AMD Ryzen 7 4800H4,1921,8378,36021,660
Intel Core i9-9980HK3,5441,6378,51919,640
Intel Core i9-10880H3,3801,7979,01521,658
Intel Core i9-10880H3,3661,7858,68021,113
Intel Core i9-9880H3,2771,5037,20617,743
Intel Core i7-10750H2,9681,4187,41918,769
Intel Core i7-10750H2,9431,4045,47417,703
Intel Core i7-9750H2,5561,1786,36616,305
Intel Core i5-10300H2,1549215,04312,998
Intel Core i5-9300H1,7277844,07411,376

The tides turned in AMD's favor when it came multi-core performance. The Ryzen 7 4800H outperformed the i9-10880H by 24% and 2.2% in Cinebench R20 and Cinebench R15, respectively, in Notebookcheck's testing. 

Although the i9-10880H's results look bad compared to the Ryzen 7 4800H, the Comet Lake-H showed improved multi-core performance over the prior i9-9980H. According to Noteboocheck's results, the i9-10880H is up to 3.1% faster than the i9-9980H in Cinebench R20 and up to 19.6% quicker in Cinebench R15. 

With Zen 2, AMD has almost caught up to Intel in regard to single-core performance. If Intel doesn't move to a new microarchitecture and process node soon, we suspect that AMD will pass Intel when it graduates to Zen 3, 7nm+ chips. Notebookcheck's numbers showed Comet Lake-H failing to compete with Renoir in the multi-core performance race and barely clinging to the single-core ribbon.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • watzupken
    It shows the higher clock speed works to help give them a lead in single core but barely now. However they are not able to maintain multi core performance since the chips draw a lot of power and increased heat output. If they do not have the advantage of clock speed, these Intel chips will not be able to beat the Zen 2 chips.
    Reply
  • Sick & Tired
    The Intel Chips will make great hair dryers also!!!!
    Reply