AMD has announced the availability of the company's latest Ryzen 7045 HX-series (Dragon Range) processors for performance gaming laptops. Holding nothing back, the chipmaker claims that the Ryzen 9 7945HX provides, on average, 10% higher gaming performance over Intel's Core i9-13950HX (Raptor Lake).
It's not the first time AMD has compared its 5nm Dragon Range chiplet processors to its Intel rivals. However, the previous comparison was questionable since the chipmaker used Intel's former 12th Generation Alder Lake chips as comparison points instead of the latest 13th Generation Raptor Lake parts. On this occasion, AMD pitches the Ryzen 9 7945HX against the Core i9-13950HX, so it's a fair fight.
However, remember that the Core i9-13980HX is the flagship SKU for Intel's mobile Raptor Lake lineup. There's a 100 MHz max turbo frequency difference between the Core i9-13980HX and the Core i9-13950HX, placing the latter in second place on the Raptor Lake HX-series product stack. Nonetheless, the Core i9-13950HX is still a better comparison for the Ryzen 9 7945HX, much better than the prior comparison where AMD tossed it in the ring with the Core i9-12900HX (Alder Lake).
The Ryzen 9 7945HX powered the Asus Strix Scar G17 gaming laptop with 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 memory and a GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. On the other side, the Core i9-13950HX was inside the Gigabyte Aorus 17X with similar specifications. In addition, AMD performed the gaming tests on Windows 11 at a 1080p (1920x1080) resolution across 31 games at high settings. We recommend the usual level of caution when looking at vendor-provided benchmarks.
Collectively, the Ryzen 9 7945HX delivered 10% higher gaming performance than the Core i9-13950HX. When we break down the results, it's clear that the Zen 4 chip didn't dominate in every title, and sometimes the performance deltas were minimal. The Ryzen 9 7945HX's best performance was in Rainbow Six Siege, outpacing the Core i9-13950HX by a 45% margin. The Zen 4 chip also showed its supremacy in Dirt 5, Civilization VI, Cyberpunk 2077, and Warhammer: DOW III, with 30% and higher performance margins.
In four titles, the Ryzen 9 7945HX's gaming performance was within 1% of the Core i9-13950HX. Meanwhile, the Raptor Lake chip was faster in Far Cry 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2, but the performance difference was between 2% and 4%.
Specifications can be misleading if consumers look solely at the core count and clock speeds. For example, the Ryzen 9 7945HX has Zen 4 cores distributed across a 16-core, 32-thread configuration. Meanwhile, the Core i9-13950HX seems impressive on paper because of its 24 cores. However, it's a hybrid chip; therefore, only eight of those cores are P-cores, and the remainder are just E-cores. The Core i9-13950HX also flaunts higher clock speeds. The Core i9-13950HX's P-cores have a 5.5 GHz boost clock, whereas the Ryzen 9 7945HX 's boost clock is at 5.4 GHz.
Power metrics are essential for context too. The Ryzen 9 7945HX has a configurable TDP (cTDP) spanning between 55W to 75W. On the other hand, the Core i9-13950HX features a 55W PBP (Processor Base Power), but the MTP (Max Turbo Power) is set for a whopping 157W. According to AMD's benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 7945HX may offer 10% faster performance over the Core i9-13950HX but delivers it with less power, making the Ryzen 9 7945HX an exceedingly power-efficient performance chip that'll delight laptop manufacturers.
Reviews of laptops with AMD's Dragon Range processors will surface this month, as the chipmaker has already sent samples to reviewers. So it won't be long before we can validate AMD's gaming claims and see if systems powered by them are among the best gaming laptops.
