Intel finally announced the 10th Generation Comet Lake-H (opens in new tab) processors for mobile devices today. Notebookcheck (opens in new tab) 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 (opens in new tab) (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 (opens in new tab) that's optimized for 35W. Both chipmakers have processors that max out at eight cores (opens in new tab)and 16 threads (opens in new tab). However, the Comet Lake-H portfolio starts at four cores, while the Ryzen 4000 lineup starts at six cores.
| Processor | Cores / Threads | Base Clock (GHz) | Boost Clock (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | Memory Support | TDP (W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-10980HK | 8 / 16 | 2.4 | 5.3 | 16 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 4900H | 8 / 16 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 8 | Dual DDR4-3200 | 45 |
| Intel Core i7-10875H | 8 / 16 | 2.3 | 5.1 | 16 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 4800H | 8 / 16 | 2.9 | 4.2 | 8 | Dual DDR4-3200 | 45 |
| Intel Core i7-10850H | 6 / 12 | 2.7 | 5.1 | 12 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 6 / 12 | 2.6 | 5.0 | 12 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 4600H | 6 / 12 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 8 | Dual DDR4-3200 | 45 |
| Intel Core i5-10400H | 4 / 8 | 2.6 | 4.6 | 8 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
| Intel Core i5-10300H | 4 / 8 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 8 | Dual DDR4-2933 | 45 |
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 (opens in new tab)) 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 (opens in new tab) 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.
| Processor | Cinebench R20 (Single Core) | Cinebench R15 (Single Core) |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-10880H | 508 | 214 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 504 | 213 |
| Intel Core i9-10880H | 500 | 212 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 500 | 210 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS | 495 | 193 |
| Intel Core i9-9980HK | 472 | 198 |
| Intel Core i5-10300H | 470 | 194 |
| Intel Core i9-9880H | 457 | 190 |
| Intel Core i7-9750H | 440 | 183 |
| Intel Core i5-9300H | 415 | 173 |
Based on Notebookcheck's results (opens in new tab), 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.
| Processor | Cinebench R20 (Multi Core) | Cinebench R15 (Multi Core) | 3DMark Time Spy (CPU Score) | 3DMark Fire Strike (Physics) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS | 4,288 | 1,863 | 8,966 | 21,873 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 4800H | 4,192 | 1,837 | 8,360 | 21,660 |
| Intel Core i9-9980HK | 3,544 | 1,637 | 8,519 | 19,640 |
| Intel Core i9-10880H | 3,380 | 1,797 | 9,015 | 21,658 |
| Intel Core i9-10880H | 3,366 | 1,785 | 8,680 | 21,113 |
| Intel Core i9-9880H | 3,277 | 1,503 | 7,206 | 17,743 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 2,968 | 1,418 | 7,419 | 18,769 |
| Intel Core i7-10750H | 2,943 | 1,404 | 5,474 | 17,703 |
| Intel Core i7-9750H | 2,556 | 1,178 | 6,366 | 16,305 |
| Intel Core i5-10300H | 2,154 | 921 | 5,043 | 12,998 |
| Intel Core i5-9300H | 1,727 | 784 | 4,074 | 11,376 |
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 (opens in new tab). 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.
