Gaming Performance of AMD Ryzen 6000 vs 5000 Mobile Processors
AMD Ryzen 6000 series laptops are slowing appearing on the shelves and online. Manufacturers like Dell, ASUS and LENOVO are first to launch their gaming laptops powered by the new generation Rembrandt H CPUs. These early adopters hand-picked powerful CPUs from the series for their laptops. We compare the manufacturers; gaming favourites, the AMD Ryzen 6000 vs 5000.
AMD Ryzen 6000 processors H and HX models
The three processors we have seen powering gaming laptops out there so far are as listed below:
- AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX
- AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
- AMD Ryzen 5 6600H
The first two of the processors are power hungry octa-core / 16 thread parts, running hot at 45W TDP. The third processor, the Ryzen 5 6600H is a six-core / 12 thread part also running at 45W default TDP. While we would like to see the chart topping AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX in a gaming laptop, gamer are just going to have to wait or make do with AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX if you had to buy one.
AMD Ryzen 6000 processores HS and U models
Laptops with the more power efficient HS parts (TDP 35W) or the U parts (TDP 15-28W) are also on the rise. We found a benchmark for AMD Ryzen 9 6980HS on CPU Monkey , a benchmark for AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS on NotebookCheck and a benchmark for AMD Ryzen 7 6800U on NotebookCheck. However, these are you typical thin and light productivity machines unless they are mated with a discrete graphics. Some of these are listed below:
- Asus ZenBook 13 OLED with AMD Ryzen 7 6800U with Radeon 680M
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 with AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS with Radeon RX 6800S
See table below for all the Rembrandt generation processors based on the Zen 3+ microarchitecture.
| MODEL | GRAPHICS MODEL | # OF CPU CORES | # OF THREADS | MAX. BOOST CLOCK | BASE CLOCK | GRAPHICS CORE COUNT | DEFAULT TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen™ 9 6980HX | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 5.0GHz | 3.3GHz | 12 | 45W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 9 6980HS | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 5.0GHz | 3.3GHz | 12 | 35W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 9 6900HX | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 4.9GHz | 3.3GHz | 12 | 45W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 9 6900HS | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 4.9GHz | 3.3GHz | 12 | 35W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800H | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 4.7GHz | 3.2GHz | 12 | 45W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800HS | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 4.7GHz | 3.2GHz | 12 | 35W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800U | AMD Radeon™ 680M | 8 | 16 | Up to 4.7GHz | 2.7GHz | 12 | 15-28W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 5 6600H | AMD Radeon™ 660M | 6 | 12 | Up to 4.5GHz | 3.3GHz | 6 | 45W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 5 6600HS | AMD Radeon™ 660M | 6 | 12 | Up to 4.5GHz | 3.3GHz | 6 | 35W |
| AMD Ryzen™ 5 6600U | AMD Radeon™ 660M | 6 | 12 | Up to 4.5GHz | 2.9GHz | 6 | 15-28W |
AMD Ryzen 6000 vs 5000 Performance Comparison
Most gamers would be interested to know if the Ryzen 6000 thus far are any good especially from the H and HX model. Will it be worth the upgrade coming from Ryzen 5000 or should you wait for Ryzen 7000. We make a quick comparison picking five of the processors currently powering high-end gaming laptops out there. These are as follow:
From Ryzen 6000
- AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX
- AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
From Ryzen 5000
- AMD Ryzen 9 5980HK
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS
Based on average CPU mark submitted by real world users at user benchmark.com he have arrived at the following benchmark results, see table below (correct at the time of writing):
| Ave CPU Mark | Single Thread | |
| AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | 24585 | 3392 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 6800H | 23482 | 3308 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX | 23604 | 3337 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | 23127 | 3229 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS | 22203 | 3200 |
Performance Across Two Generations
There is no surprise here, the previous generation AMD Ryzen 9 5980HK is faster than the new generation AMD Ryzen 7 6800H. The former is still a Ryzen 9, while the latter is a Ryzen 7. But that is only half the story as the Ryzen 7 6800H is faster than the other two Ryzen 9 5000 processors on the list, more on this later.
The clear winner here is the new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, leading all the processors in our list. It is the fastest, faster than the 5980HK by as much as 5.2% in the average CPU mark. It would be interesting to see how the new generation’s flagship, the AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX performs.
Taking the slowest processor in our list, the Ryzen 9 5900HS as baseline, the new generation Ryzen 7 6800H is 3.4% faster while the Ryzen 9 6900HX, the chart topper is nearly 11% (double digit) faster. These are significant gains especially for the Ryzen 9 6900HX.
Is the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H any good
The cheaper of the two 6000 series, the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H leaps over the Ryzen 9 5900HX and Ryzen 9 5900HS by 1.5% and 5.8% respectively. Either of these 6000 processors are worthy upgrades if you are coming from 4000 or 3000 series powered laptop. However, if you are going to upgrade from a 5000 series laptop, be sure to pick a 6000 series processor that offers significant leap to make it worthwhile.
Take a look at the graph below that better illustrates the performance comparison.
What about Single Thread Rating
The single thread scores do not have the same gains when compared to Average CPU Mark, which includes multi-core and multi-thread benchmarks. Again, taking Ryzen 9 5900HS as baseline, the fastest Ryzen 9 6900HX is only 6% faster while the Ryzen 7 6800H is 3.4% faster. The Ryzen 9 5980HX is still strong with a 4.3% gain while there is negligible difference between Ryzen 9 5900HX and HS in the single thread rating.
Wait there is more… AMD Ryzen 6000 series with PRO technologies
The Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 and HP EliteBook 845 are two such laptops with the AMD Ryzen PRO 6000 series processor. These are business class laptops based on the processors that are designed with enterprise-grade security features. These processors are not considered in our benchmark comparison above.
The AMD PRO technologies are a set of security features that include MS Pluton Security, Windows 11 secured core security, AMD Shadow Stack hardware enabled protection, AMD Secure Processor and AMD Memory Guard. These form a multi-layered security solution for the silicon, OS and platform levels. The idea is to deliver enterprise grade laptops with security, stability and reliability in mind. AMD has even offered business ready promises like 18 months software stability, 24 months availability, quality assurance and continuous platform validation.
What is it good for
For the end user, in particular business users, all they would be interested are productivity performance, battery life, connectivity and better collaboration. And, here is where the PRO excels with faster productivity and video conferencing support, long battery life up to 26 hours and WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 and USB4 connectivity.
LENOVO ThinkPad Z16 on LENOVO’s website
Specifications at a glance
- AMD Ryzen 9 6950H processor with PRO technologies
- 16.0-inch 16:10 WQUXGA OLED 400nits 100% CG Touch
- Up to 32GB RAM / Up to 2TB PCIe Gen4 Performance SSD
- Integrated AMD Radeon 600M or Discrete AMD Radeon RX6500M graphics
- Up to 12 hours battery life, Rapid Charge 80% in 60 mins
- 355 x 238 x 15.8 mm, 1.97kg
HP Elitebook 845 G9 on HP’s Website
Specifications at a glance
- AMD Ryzen 7 5850U processor with PRO technologies
- 14-inch 16:10 Full HD 1920 x 1200 Anti-glare, Low power, 400 nits with HP Eye Ease
- Up to 64GB / Up to 3TB PCIe Gen4 Performance SSD
- Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics
- HP Long Life 3-cell 53Wh, Fast Charge, 65W USB-C® Only
