AMD Ryzen 5 6600H vs Intel Core i7-8850H vs AMD Ryzen 7 6800H

AMD Ryzen 5 6600H

The AMD Ryzen 5 6600H is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based of the Rembrandt generation. The R5 6600H integrates six of the eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.3 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.5 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (12 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 6 nm TSMC process. 

The new Zen 3+ is a refresh of the Zen 3 architecture and should not offer a lot of changes. The chip itself however, offers a lot of new features, like support for USB 4 (40 Gbps), PCI-E Gen 4, DDR5-4800MT/s or LPDDR5-6400MT/s, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth LE 5.2, DisplayPort 2, and AV1 decode.

In the 6000 series, AMD finally switched to the current RDNA 2 graphics architecture for the iGPU. The 6600H only offers the slower Radeon 660M with 6 of the 12 CUs enabled and 1.9 GHz max. clock speed.

Performance

The average 6600H in our database is in the same league as the R7 5825U, the R7 6800U and also the Core i5-1340P, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a very decent result, as of late 2022.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are, and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 series APU has a default TDP, also known as the long-term power limit, of 45 W. A high-performance cooling solution is a must for a system built around such a chip.

The R5 6600H is built with TSMC's 6 nm process for great, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-8850H

The Intel Core i7-8850H is a high-end processor for laptops with six cores based on the Coffee Lake architecture and will be announced early 2018. The processor clocks at between 2.6 and 4.3 GHz (4.1 with 4 cores, 4 GHz with 6 cores) and can execute up to twelve threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in an improved 14nm (14nm++) process.

The Coffee Lake architecture is similar to Kaby Lake and differs only in the amount of cores (now six cores for the high end versions) and the improved 14nm process (14nm++ according to Intel).

Performance

Due to the two additional cores, performance has increased by almost 50% compared to a similar clocked Kaby Lake processor like the Core i7-7920HQ (3.1 - 4.1 GHz). Single-core performance has not improved since its Kaby Lake predecessor. As a high-end model, the i7-8850H is suitable for the most demanding applications and games.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a slightly higher performance as its clock rate has been increased by 50 MHz (rumored). The architecture is identical to that of the Intel HD Graphics 630. We do expect a performance improvement, but as a low-end solution it will probably only display current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i7 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.

AMD Ryzen 7 6800H

The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H is a processor for big (gaming) laptops based on the Rembrandt generation. The R7 6800H integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture. They are clocked at 3.2 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.7 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (16 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 6 nm TSMC process.

The new Zen 3+ is a refresh of the Zen 3 architecture and should not offer a lot of changes. The chip itself however, offers a lot of new features, like support for USB 4 (40 Gbps), PCI-E Gen 4, DDR5-4800MT/s or LPDDR5-6400MT/s, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth LE 5.2, DisplayPort 2, and AV1 decode.

A big novelty is the integrated GPU Radeon 680M that is now based on the RDNA2 architecture and offers 12 CUs at up to 2.2 GHz. It should be the fastest iGPU of all at the time of announcement.

Performance

The average 6800H in our database is in the same league as the Core i5-12500H and the Core i7-12650H, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. The Ryzen 9 5900HX is found close nearby as well.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 90 W, the Legion 5 Pro 16ARH7H is among the fastest systems built around the 6800H that we know of. It can be about 60% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 7 series chip has a default TDP, also known as the long-term power limit, of 45 W. An active cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this.

The R7 6800H is built with TSMC's 6 nm manufacturing process for above average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency.