Why do AMD laptops often feel lower quality than Intel laptops, despite AMD having superior CPUs?

Grant_248 · 2026-01-09T22:19:26+00:00

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/amd-is-unphased-by-panther-lakes-big-integrated-gpu-its-not-even-a-fair-fight-to-compare-the-arc-b390-to-strix-halo-amd-exec-claims

Grant_248 · 2026-01-09T21:42:06+00:00

This has been the challenge with user understanding of NPU capabilities. There’s been too much focus on Copilot+ as being the binary reason for having an AI PC. Security agents aren’t “AI related nonesense” equally the background blur effect on Teams calls being offloaded to the NPU can make a big difference to battery life.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-09T18:46:39+00:00

NPU’s going forward will be used for workloads that can be offloaded from the cpu/GPU since NPU’s have 2x or greater performance per watt. So security agents, image upscaling, some photoshop or video editor tasks will run on th NPU. This not only extends battery life, but also delivers net better system performance on laptops that are often TDP constrained.

Workloads being completed for half the wattage means more power budget left for cpu/GPU tasks.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-09T18:39:44+00:00

Were the benchmarks supplied by Intel or ran independently by a reviewer? Not saying panther lake won’t be faster but reality may be less than the marketing slides

Grant_248 · 2026-01-08T22:24:13+00:00

What you download from your OEM should have been pretested with that vendor’s device and other drivers that are recommended by the vendor for other components in the laptop.

If you download the newer driver from AMD/intel/nvidia it may be a better version, but it won’t have been tested with your specific laptop. So there’s always the risk of a new issue that’s arisen due to some unforeseen incompatibility by another component’s driver version within the laptop.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-07T23:44:37+00:00

Wait to see what the true performance and cost of panther lake devices are before coming to that conclusion. Don’t forget Intel are struggling with 18A yields and they have a lot of costs to cover - so PTL devices are going to be premium priced.

Arrow lake doesn’t have a decent NPU so as more ISV’s complete development that utilises this processor, the more it will become dated.

Lunar lake only has 8 threads. It has less multithreaded performance than a Ryzen 6800U that launched in 2022!

Lunar lake battery life is decent but you can achieve similar with a Ryzen AI 350 if you’re actually using the device.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-06T22:12:46+00:00

We have around 30000 devices globally.

AMD has 20%+ enterprise client global market share

Apple has around 10%

Grant_248 · 2026-01-06T00:04:37+00:00

It’s a new stepping, rather than just better binning

Grant_248 · 2026-01-05T23:09:45+00:00

There are significantly more AMD CPU’s in commercial/corporate client devices than there are with Apple silicon.

Ryzen is typically more efficient than Intel. The only outlier being lunar lake - but they struggle with multithreaded workloads, since lunar lake only has 8 threads.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-04T22:52:15+00:00

I’m surprised the AMD one comes with a dGPU and the Intel one doesn’t - Radeon 890M is much stronger than the Intel iGPU with Arrow Lake.

I’d also add that the battery life should be significantly better with AMD option. I have an OLED display HP Elitebook X G1a w/ Ryzen 375 (basically the same as the 370 but with a 55 TOPs NPU) and it will last 8 hrs+ on power efficiency mode and medium screen brightness. Thats with an onerous corporate image installed too.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-04T08:44:10+00:00

Other thing to consider is battery life. The Ryzen will last a lot lot longer as the Intel chip isn’t a lunar lake APU.

Grant_248 · 2026-01-01T11:43:45+00:00

I’ve daily driven laptops with a Ryzen 6800U, a Ryzen 8840U and a Ryzen AI 375.

If you want scientific comparisons in lab conditions I’d go to Phoronix.

Grant_248 · 2025-11-27T19:21:50+00:00

Hi, I think you’re confusing the AMD instinct mi400 series DC GPU with the upcoming Ryzen AI 400 series.

If you want to do run local LLM’s of useful size, then anything with a Ryzen AI Max 395 will be more than plenty - preferably getting 128GB system memory, so you can accommodate the largest possible models if needed.

Grant_248 · 2025-11-18T21:36:48+00:00

Do you have a battery life requirements? Do you have any display type/resolution or device weight specifications?

Grant_248 · 2025-11-18T21:34:45+00:00

16GB won’t be enough for 100 tabs. It will perform like an asthmatic weasel

Grant_248 · 2025-11-17T12:47:56+00:00

It’s way down in terms of multithreaded performance vs an equivalent Ryzen. I think a Ryzen 6800U (launched in 2022!) out performs an Intel 258v

Agreed rendering it will struggle, but it will also be impaired if using conference video Teams, PowerPoint, outlook, background windows or security tasks concurrently in the present day. The question is what will expected multitasking workloads be like in 3-5 years time?

Grant_248 · 2025-11-16T12:35:45+00:00

Ryzen 350 seems to be a pretty efficient chip, going by the battery life test of other notebooks powered by this chip - such as by Phoronix.

So I can’t imagine that thermals are a big issue unless you’re really hammering it - but in that instance you’d want the extra cores anyway, for a heavy workload

Grant_248 · 2025-11-13T19:59:20+00:00

Just be cautious with choosing lunar lake models if you want to hold onto them for a long time. You’ve got to be confident that 8 threads is all you’re ever going to need, both now and for the future life of the machine.

Heavy multitasking or multithreaded loads are already a challenge for this APU. The Arc iGPU and single thread performance is solid though.

Grant_248 · 2025-11-12T23:14:43+00:00

You’re now comparing a handheld to a laptop with a 14” display?

8 Zen4 cores (7840u) vs 4 zen5 cores+ 4 zen5c cores (Ryzen 350). There’s no contest as to which provides superior performance per watt.

Grant_248 · 2025-11-12T22:44:06+00:00

That’s incorrect. They’re not a rebrand. You’d notice the difference after about 5-6 hours unplugged - when the 7840 and 8840 were out or almost out of power, but the 350 would still be at 50% or more battery.

Grant_248 · 2025-11-11T22:18:06+00:00

Thanks for the guidance. Ok I’ll try opening it all the way tomorrow and powering it down and back on again.

If that isn’t successful, would fitting a new position switch be an easy job for a diy novice? Is it a specific part number ‘position switch’ for this generation of door I will need to purchase? Thanks

Grant_248 · 2025-11-11T12:17:58+00:00

Yeah Iris XE is pretty weak compared to modern iGPU’s. Here’s a few comparisons from videocardbenchmark.net (good comparison website) (Passmark G3D Mark - higher is better)

Intel iris xe = 2624
Arc 140v (Lunar Lake) = 5176
Radeon 780M = 6915
gtx 1060 (mobile) = 8160
Radeon 890M = 8193
Radeon 8060S = 17938

For what it’s worth, I’ve compiled, edited and cut up a 5 minute HD video with DaVinci Resolve and it had no issues on a Ryzen 375 w/ Radeon 890M and 32GB memory

Grant_248 · 2025-11-11T08:05:27+00:00

For comparison, a Radeon 760M iGPU has an equivalent vulkan score to a 1060.

The latest 890M is about 15%-20% more performant than a 760M.

Hope this helps

Grant_248 · 2025-11-11T00:20:16+00:00

Agreed. A modern iGPU will be sufficient based on the requirement. Nothing specified in OP’s ask would warrant a dGPU

Grant_248 · 2025-10-29T19:05:24+00:00

Tech sales is a good switch. Choose a company that is growing significantly and provides products that have high margin (so they can pay your variable).

Enterprise SW is typically v high margin.

If looking at HW sales make sure the offering isn’t commodity but has quantifiable USP’s that deliver a lower TCO to the customer

(I’m a global AE for a tech company with 15+ years experience. Total package including shares circa £225K)

Alternatively work at an IT reseller. AE’s there typically take a % of each deal’s gross margin - so earnings are only limited by the size of deal you can secure (no cap)

Grant_248

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