by AMD has been on the move with their computing parts, having released highly power-efficient mobile CPUs in the form of the Ryzen 6000 processors, and more recently with the introduction of the mobile versions of their Radeon 6000 series GPUs.
Despite the recent conversion to Intel on my personal build, there’s no denying the fact that AMD makes great computer parts. And they are now good enough to compete in the laptop space
But how does it fair for everyday use?
TL: DR
To sum up, it’s definitely a viable choice in 2022, especially if you’re a gamer.
Where it falls short is the ability to do GPU-based work, like using video editing software DaVinci Resolve, for example.
Test specifications
Still with us?
For our testing, we have the Asus Zephyrus G14, equipped with a Ryzen 6900HS and a Radeon 6700S. Other specs include 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB Gen4 PCIe SSD.
There are a couple of tiers for AMD’s mobile GPUs that you need to keep in mind.
There are M-tiers and S-tiers. The S-tier has its frequency and power limit reduced from the M-tier version, but with all the other goodies intact. So the 6700S in our test unit is simply a power-restricted version of the 6700M.
The G14 has the odd FHD+ (1920 x 1200) resolution, which is a slightly expanded FHD (1920 x 1080). In general, there shouldn’t be much of a difference in performance between FHD+ and FHD, but all of these tests were run at FHD anyway to make it a comparable experience in other forms of laptops.
Also keep in mind for these tests that the G14 is comparable to a thin and light laptop, with many of its features geared towards form rather than cooling.
processor
The Ryzen 6900HS, which is an 8-core, 16-thread CPU that can sometimes boost to a whopping 4.9GHz on a single core, is very comparable to a Ryzen desktop processor.
But just like the desktop Ryzens, the 6900HS boosted to those frequencies will generate just as much heat, and while the desktop variants will have a CPU cooler in place, the 6900HS will not. It will generally depend on the design of the laptop to dissipate this heat.
These are exactly the limitations we encountered with the G14.
We first tried to push the laptop to its maximum performance, with the laptop’s fans at full tilt at 100 percent in a 23 degree C environment.
The 6900HS reaches 100 degrees C when it tries to boost to its highest single-core frequency while playing games, and throttles to approx. 80 degrees C after, usually around 4.5 GHz.
A test on Cinebench R23 sees it hitting around 75 degrees C, with a score of 14525. On a side note, if you know your numbers, this is an insane feat considering it’s very close to all the core numbers of AMD’s own 5800X3D and Intel’s i7-11700K, while it only draws less than 100w.
For “normal” use, with the fans not spinning like the laptop is turning into a flying drone, expect these numbers to drop a bit, but not to the point where the laptop is unusable.
GPU
The Radeon 6700S is a decent gaming GPU on a laptop, but struggles to process GPU-based work from programs like DaVinci Resolve.
By comparison, a laptop with a 3060 and an older Ryzen 5900HS was able to render a 5-minute 1080p video on DaVinci Resolve in 7 minutes, while the 6700S took 11 minutes.
For programs like Adobe Premier Pro, it is very comparable to the RTX 3060, simply because Premier Pro uses more of the CPU than the GPU to render its videos.
But at maximum performance, the 6700S only draws a good 95 watts even in games.
Temperatures are a bit on the high side at 90 degrees C in our tests, but a laptop with a more powerful cooler can remedy this.
Game
Here are just some average gaming numbers you can expect from the combination of the 6900HS and 6700S at 1080p.
All games were played at the highest settings, with adjustable-BAR, or what AMD likes to call Smart Access Memory, turned on.
You get a fairly decent gaming experience with the combination of 6900HS and 6700S. Long gone are the days where you would avoid an AMD GPU in a laptop if you were looking for a gaming device.
The G14 lasted just over four hours playing games at full battery before reaching five percent, where it went into power saving mode.
I would assume that laptops with larger batteries would have longer playtime.
Four hours is nothing to sneeze at, as many older gaming laptops with large batteries can only muster two hours of playtime at most.
Conclusion
Is getting an all-AMD laptop viable in 2022? Absolutely.
AMD has tried to re-enter the gaming laptop space with the release of the Mobile Radeon 6000 series, and unlike its predecessors, it actually provides a decent gaming experience for the latest games.
Not to mention that the parts are quite power efficient, with both the CPU and GPU drawing nothing close to 100w individually.
This is something that will affect battery life the most, and AMD has done well in this regard.
But is it worth it? That is something only you as a consumer can answer.
If it’s only for gaming and non-GPU related work, just go for the cheapest if you have a choice between an AMD laptop or a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 3000 series GPU.
If it’s for GPU-related work and editing, much like its desktop brethren, AMD still isn’t there yet.
However, they are getting pretty close and I hope we will see more improvements and changes in the upcoming next-gen mobile releases.
Dominic loves technology and games. When he’s not busy getting fit or water-cooling something he’s watching, he does some pro wrestling.
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