AMD recently released the Ryzen AI HX 370 APU to much fanfare. It is based on the company's latest Zen 5 architecture, which brings 16% IPC improvements on average across a range of tasks. How does it compare to the Intel Core i9-14900HX—Intel's best CPU? Does the new AMD processor have what it takes to beat the Intel counterpart?
This article provides an in-depth comparison to see which is the best laptop CPU.
Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinions.
AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 vs Intel Core i9-14900HX
The Ryzen AI HX 370 brings in a lot of improvements to the CPU and GPU compared to its predecessor. It even has an NPU that can deliver 50 TOPS, so any laptop with the AMD chip will be Copilot+ AI-ready. On the other hand, the Intel Core i9-14900HX is one of the best high-performance laptop processors and is among the best choices for content creators.
Let's start with the specs of the two CPUs to get a basic idea of what these processors are capable of.
Specs comparison
Here are the specs of AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 and Intel Core i9-14900HX:
The Intel Core i9-14900HX has a lot of advantages under its belt, including higher core count, clock speed, and cache memory. The AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 is built on a new architecture, which is its only advantage.
Synthetic performance difference
Here's how AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 and Intel Core i9-14900HX perform on popular benchmarks like Cinebench, Geekbench, and so on:
On average, the Intel Core i9-14900HX scores only 5.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen processor in single-core benchmarks. However, in multi-core benchmarks, the former CPU is a whopping 31.8% faster than the latter. This performance difference will be noticeable in productivity, video editing, and 3D rendering applications. The Intel processor is the clear winner.
Gaming performance benchmarks
Laptops based on the AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 have just been released on the market, so a proper gaming benchmark is not available yet. Therefore, we will rely on the theoretical performances to see which CPU has the most powerful integrated graphics unit.
The AMD Ryzen processor has the Radeon 890M iGPU, while the Intel Core i9-14900HX relies on the UHD Graphics 770. Here's the theoretical performance of the two integrated GPUs:
The AMD Radeon integrated GPU left its Intel counterpart in the dust when it comes to theoretical performance. This is not even a comparison at this point, and the numbers speak for themselves. However, the theoretical performance doesn't always scale linearly in gaming, but the AMD Radeon iGPU should still be a lot faster.
Final verdict of AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 vs Intel Core i9-14900HX
The Intel Core i9-14900HX is the best laptop CPU. It is around 5.7% better in single-core and 31.8% faster in multi-core benchmarks. However, the integrated graphics unit of the AMD processor is considerably better than Intel's.