Intel’s latest laptop CPUs beat AMD, but you might want to hold off for gaming

A new video coming from BiliBili, a Chinese social network, shows off the performance of Intel and AMD’s current generation of mobile chips. The user pitted AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 365 against Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H and the result is that the new Intel laptop CPU impresses in some areas, but not so much in gaming.

Intel sweeps the performance metrics when it comes to productivity, but AMD still keeps its competition at bay in gaming. This isn’t too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the best gaming handhelds. One of the only handhelds using Intel’s chips, the MSI Claw, is already rumored to be considering ditching them for AMD’s gaming prowess.

It’s not all bad news for Intel, however. Laptops housing the Ultra 9 285H are likely to be popular in the productivity space, so it’s good to know that it’s more than capable in this field. However, as low-end PC gaming takes over with mini PCs and handhelds, they just can’t outpace the work done on AMD’s integrated GPUs (iGPU).

The Radeon 880M inside the Ryzen AI 9 365 is a step up over the ROG Ally’s Z1 Extreme and many of the 8840U and 7840U handhelds you’ve seen so far. These all sport the 780M, has 25% fewer compute units and uses an older architecture.

Oddly, the video doesn’t actually cover the gaming performance of the Ultra 9 285H. It does show the lower-end Ultra 5 225H, but it’s difficult to gauge true performance as both chips house two different Arc iGPUs: the 140T (285H) and 130T (225H).

These GPUs bring the same tech to the table, with improvements to the Xe2 architecture included in both chips. This has improved its benchmark performance, with Cinebench and 3D Mark showing vast improvements over the last generation and in tests against AMD.

The synthetic benchmarks are a definitive improvement, but this isn’t enough to judge real-world performance. It’s also especially unhelpful for gaming performance. What we do know is that the Radeon 880M inside beats the U5 225H in titles like Elden Ring (53fps vs 37fps) and League of Legends (348fps vs 267fps).

We’d expect a boost in performance for the 285H, but this isn’t where Intel wants to fight this battle. Coming down the line in the first quarter of the year, Intel is preparing its HX line of chips. These are aimed at gaming and high-end applications. While the 200H lineup sounds like a bit of a dud for major titles, the HX variation should bring some thunder.

While we wait for the next best gaming laptops to hit shelves, Intel and AMD are in fighting spirits on desktops as well. The battle for the best desktop gaming CPU is rapidly hitting a critical mass, as the AMD 9800X3D has taken everyone by storm.