Intel, move over. AMD came to laptops. Ryzen 9 4900HS test in ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

When AMD released the first Ryzen, I doubted that they would gobble up the competitors’ processors and win a huge market share. But Intel, either because of great self-confidence, or because of the slowness of the bureaucratic machine, or perhaps due to the lack of real development, lost ground in three years. Moreover, if it still withstood the first and second blow from AMD and for the most part lost in the price war, it did not react to the third, in the form of Zen 2. And, apparently, even the new tenth-generation Core will not compete on equal terms with the top-end Ryzen with 16 cores. Of course, it’s too early to talk about a complete failure, in absolute numbers Intel lost only 15% of the market and occupies 65%, but the PR victory is definitely for AMD.

Above is Intel’s share of the processor market, and below is AMD.

Unfortunately, Intel did not take advantage of this situation. Over the past three years, the only thing she did was increase the cores on the existing architecture and that year updated the mobile processors from the eighth to ninth series, increasing the maximum frequency by a hundred or two megahertz. AMD responded with a series of Ryzen 4000. And, looking ahead, they are cool.

Ryzen 4000

For starters, do not pay attention to the name 4000. This is not a new generation of Ryzen – just AMD, according to its well-known logic, adds an extra thousand to current mobile processors. In fact, we have before us a desktop tracing of Ryzen 3000 desktops based on Zen 2 architecture, but they are assembled differently.

In the home segment, Ryzen resembles a designer. They take two blocks of four cores on the 7 nm manufacturing process and a 12 nm memory controller, connect all this with the Infinity Fabric bus and get the finished stone. In the mobile world, Ryzen is made entirely, immediately at 7 nm, and a graphics chip is added to it. True, they did not get rid of Infinity Fabric, which led to some features, and in the future, we are sure that it will affect the price of the final configurations.

Recall, the bus in AMD depends on the frequency of RAM and affects the communication speed of the cores. Already now this has resulted in the AMD memory controller operating at a frequency of 3200 MHz in the case of DDR4 and at 4266 MHz with LPDDR4X. And in the test ASUS G14, the lanes are located precisely at 3200 MHz – at lower frequencies the performance will fail.

As for the video core, we are talking about the old Vega architecture from the Radeon RX series. As they say in AMD, it’s still not possible to remake the modern Navi for the mobile version.

Options

In total, AMD announced three lines. Workbooks and ultra-thin models will be sent crystals with the letter U at the end. In gaming machines – variations with the designation H. Well, in purely workstations – Pro versions.

The first, U-category, received five gems from Ryzen 3 4300U to Ryzen 7 4800U. All of them fit into a modest TDP of 15 watts and carry from four to eight cores. The gaming, H-line, received six processors. And it will start with six cores. The heat packet is higher – up to 45 watts. But there will also be clipped versions of HS, developed in conjunction with ASUS. They are stacked at 35 watts and are going to be put, apparently, into compact laptops about two centimeters thick.

Naturally, the difference is not only in the number of cores, but also in frequencies. The limitations, of course, are completely artificial, but the maximum for the younger R5 4600HS is 4 GHz, while for the older R9 4900H it is 4.4 GHz. True, looking ahead, the real frequency of the top models hangs in the region of 3.9-4 GHz.

Another difference between processors is the power of the integrated core. In my opinion, the restrictions are artificial, but Ryzen 5 will get graphics with six CU sets, Ryzen 7 with seven and Ryzen 9 with eight. Let me remind you that in Vega logic, one CU-set implies 64 stream cores. And if we draw analogies with home graphics cards, then even in the most powerful version on Ryzen 9 the graphics core can be compared with the younger RX 540 or 550.

Performance

Now let’s talk about our processor. We visited Ryzen 9 4900HS. These are eight cores, sixteen threads and a frequency of up to 4.3 GHz at 35 W TDP. The integrated graphics has eight CU or 576 stream processors. Frequency – up to 1750 MHz.

Let’s go immediately for the tests. First, AMD’s processor is surprisingly cold. Perhaps this is a merit of ASUS, perhaps 7 nm process technology, but even under Prime 95 it turned out 76-77 ° C at a frequency of 2.8 GHz. For comparison, the eight-core i9-9980HK in thicker laptops holds a frequency of 3.5 GHz.

However, this almost did not affect the results. According to processor tests, the Ryzen 9 4900HS is a miracle. Although it’s not customary to do it, but if you compare it head on, the stone is one step ahead in performance with the home Ryzen 5 3600X on a memory of 2667 MHz. Yes, someone will say so-so the result, but in our experience, for a laptop it’s cool. As for the comparison with a direct competitor from Intel, I’ll make a reservation here.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, it was not possible to get a laptop on Intel and drive away all the relying tests. But it turned out to find the owner of such a laptop and ask to drive away several benchmarks, the results of which do not depend on the settings. Total – Intel Core i9-9880HK was not sweet.

He won in just two of the six tests. In traditionally supportive of Intel Adobe Photoshop and loving high frequency WinRar. In the first, the increase is almost double, in the second – 22%. But in Cinebench R15 Intel lost 31% for all cores, in 7-Zip – 10%, in Corona 1.3 – 22%, in V-Ray Benchmark – 34%.

Till we didn’t do all the editorial tests, we didn’t check the rendering in 3dsmax, calculations in MatLab and video encoding with Premiere, we can’t make final conclusions, but the current results are an alarm bell for Intel. Especially against the background of the fact that Intel acted as a full-fledged processor in the top gaming laptop. And on the AMD side, a TDP-trimmed version in a thin 14-inch.

Games

As for purely gaming tests, here, unfortunately, there is nothing to compare again with. G14 came in an unpopular version – with the RTX 2060 Max-Q. But this card is trimmed according to its capabilities relative to the usual 2060 and we have never met in tests.

However, we still raised the results of three laptops on the i7 and the usual RTX 2060 and compared what is called “by eye”. And in a first approximation, Ryzen is not much inferior in gaming performance. Considering that his video card is obviously weaker, he loses only 5-10%. Of course, this does not mean that it is worse or better than Intel, but it directly indicates that the new stone also drags in games. Direct figures confirm this. At 0.1%, the laptop never fell into friezes.

As for the graphics integrated into the processor, then in combination with the installed RTX 2060 there is no sense in it. The maximum will be used when running on battery power, and this must be configured forcibly. However, I’ll say a few words.

If all of a sudden such processors are put into semi-office or purely working machines, then they will be enough to “play”. But, as it usually happens, we are talking about weak in terms of graphics games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends or Kerbal Space Program. For serious projects, graphics are also periodically enough. But these are the minimum settings and at best about 30 frames per second with small downloads.

I note that when working with the integrated graphics, the fans are more stressed and the processor speed drops, which is logical, since TDP and cooling power are shared with the video core. There are also some compatibility issues so far. For example, World of Tanks and Shadow of the Tomb Raider did not start on the build.

I’ll finish this with the technical part and make a preliminary conclusion on the processor. The new Ryzen made a strong impression on me. Of course, I suspected that AMD would still crush Intel in this segment, but after the frankly failed 3000 series on Zen +, there were still doubts. Now I see that AMD has succeeded.

And although without full direct comparisons it’s too early to talk about the final victory, at least laptops based on the second Zen are no worse than Intel. Separately, I note that for the new items the system worked surprisingly stably. Except for problems with the built-in kernel, not a single hang or driver failure. The only thing is that AMD Ryzen Master does not work with the new processors, but this is a matter of time.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

Now let’s talk about the culprit of this text – Asus Rog Zephyrus G14. I admit, initially I thought to give him a minimum of attention and focus on the platform, but in a number of parameters the machine turned out to be too interesting.

The platform, apparently, was created, under the new Ryzen. And when closed, this is one of the nicest laptops I’ve seen in the past year. First, ASUS chose an unusual 14-inch format. It’s hard to say what drove her – the laptop didn’t outperform the size of 15-shekels, but it looks interesting anyway. Secondly, despite the top stone, the laptop is thin and light. Only 1.8 cm in thickness with a weight of 1.6 kg and 2.1 kg with a power supply. Thirdly, ASUS made an incredibly beautiful cover.

This is white metal with a small ROG mirrored nameplate at the base and an integrated AniMe Matrix dot display, which displays anything from temperature and date to its stylized logo. True, we got a version without a screen.

Inside

When open, the G14 doesn’t look so juicy. The magnesium alloy base is painted in standard silver color. Keycaps are also painted in tone. Of course, this is a matter of taste, but we would design the inside in the same white color as the lid, and put the caps dark. Although for those like us, ASUS will have black G14.

However, neither the assembly nor the snap can be found fault. As with all the top-end ROGs, the parts fit perfectly. The screen frame is thin, there is a thick “chin” below, which lifts the display so that it does not have to bend down. Well, on top of the keyboard is a series of function buttons. These are the volume keys, mute the microphone and the proprietary ROG, which launches the system management utility.

There are no special claims to the keyboard and touchpad. The touchpad is one-button, well inscribed in the case and slightly recessed so that the borders can be felt with a finger. The keyboard is purely gaming, with a strong backing and support for any combination. The only note to it is that the white backlight of the keys merges with the light caps and is practically invisible at the angle of the designation.

There is such a situation on the screen. G14 can be delivered with different matrices. With working IPS with QHD and a frequency of 60 Hz, or, as we had, gaming IPS on Full HD and 120 Hz. The matrix itself is bright – a little more than 350 cd / m2but out of the box, the delta leaves for two units with a coverage of 90% sRGB. After calibration, the colors fit in 0.21, which is enough for any graphic work.

Next is the sound. Here ASUS surprised and delivered four speakers. Two look down and act out the middle frequencies. Two – up and cover the upper range. Sound quality – like any decent laptop, but the volume and clarity are abundant. And shutting down such a system is much more difficult than with a conventional configuration.

Another unusual thing is the power button with a fingerprint sensor. She remembers the fingerprint at system startup and gives it to Windows after boot. In other words, the laptop is unlocked with one click, and not as it usually happens: turned on, waited, ran through the sensor.

With the camera, ASUS also did the original. As in many other ROG models, the webcam is not built into the case, but lies in a box. The decision is controversial, but personally we like it. It takes off much better than the built-in models, and completely covers the requests of the same Twitch. Plus, the camera can be used with an ordinary computer, as well as put it on a tripod, which, again, is convenient during broadcasts. However, the cons are clear. Firstly, there’s a great chance to forget this camera at home or just not find it in a hurry. Secondly, it takes up one USB port. And there are so few of them – four.

There are only two standard (Type-A), and both are on the left side. Another couple is USB Type-C. One on the port side and the other on the starboard side. It’s nice that one of them supports charging and simultaneous image transmission. That is, you cling to the monitor via Type-C, and the laptop not only gives a picture to it, but also charges. Similarly, it works with any phone charging and, which is especially valuable, with any Power Bank. We only note that this is true only for the office mode, in the game you still need to use the complete 180 W power supply.

Another tribute to fashion – on the laptop there is no LAN. The loss is small, to be honest, I can’t even remember the last time I connected the laptop with a wire, but this should be borne in mind. On wireless networks, everything is in order. There is both Bluetooth and the new Wi-Fi 6.

Technical Reference

I’ll end the description with technical points. Total configurations in the lineup are eight pieces. Ours, based on 4900HS and 2060 Max-Q, is the eldest. The younger ones can get the R7 4800HS and R5 4600H processors, as well as the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q, 1650 Ti and 1650 graphics cards.

As for the other characteristics, in our case the memory was 16 GB DDR4-3200 MHz, and for the data was a terabyte drive on M.2 with a read speed of 1.7 GB / s. ASUS supplied two turbines and six heat pipes for cooling. Moreover, the latter has been divorced in such a way as to distribute the heat from the processor and the video card to the maximum on the radiators. It works, as I said, perfectly. The video card does not rise above 80 degrees, and the processor holds 76-77 °. At the same time, the system itself is quiet. Yes, from time to time the fans accelerate and can be heard, but the noise is not annoying.

In the end, let’s do this. Technically, we have a breakthrough today. Although the competitors’ tests are still incomplete, the first results suggest that AMD has made a strong backlog for the future, and if Intel does not bother with a decent answer in the near future, then the notebook market will also begin to lose.

As for the Zephyrus G14, then basically we only have complaints about the number of USB ports and the strange choice of color for the keyboard keys in the white version. The rest is a decent gaming and working machine. Moreover, in a compact and lightweight form factor.