The 5 Coolest AMD And Intel Laptop Processors From CES 2021

The dueling chipmakers revealed new high-end processors for consumer, business and education laptops at CES 2021, pushing the envelope on performance and battery life.

New CPUs For Consumers, Gamers and Business Users

While Intel may have stolen the show this week by naming a new CEO, both Intel and AMD had major showings at CES 2021 that foreshadow a very competitive year for laptop processors.

This comes after the laptop processor wars between the two chipmakers reached a new level of intensity last year with AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile processors and Intel’s Tiger Lake mobile processors. And there are no signs of things calming down, which for channel partners means much more choice for laptops across multiple segments than even a few years ago.

The new CPUs from Intel and AMD push the envelope on clock speeds and battery life while also introducing new security features for consumer, commercial and education segments.

What follows are the five coolest AMD and Intel laptop processors that were revealed at CES 2021.

AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX

The AMD Ryzen 9 5980HX is the new flagship processor for the chipmaker’s new line of processors for gaming laptops. The CPU consists of eight cores, 16 threads, a 3.3GHz base frequency, a 4.8GHz boost frequency, a 20-MB cache and a 45-watt TDP. Compared with Intel’s Core i9-10980HK, AMD said the processor is 14 percent faster for single-threaded performance, 37 percent faster for overall CPU performance and 21 percent faster for game physics performance.

The 45-watt processor, which is based on AMD’s new 7-nanometer Zen 3 architecture, supports simultaneous multithreading and, for the first time in a laptop CPU, collaborative performance control technology, which enables the processor to optimize frequency to elongate battery life. For select OEM systems, the HX processor will be unlocked for overclocking.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800U

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800U is the new flagship processor for the chipmaker’s new line of processors for ultrathin laptops. The CPU consists of eight cores, 16 threads, a 1.9GHz base frequency, a 4.4 turbo frequency and a 20 MB cache. Compared with Intel’s Core i7-1185G7, AMD said the CPU provides 18 percent better content creation performance, 44 percent better video encoding performance, 7 percent better office application performance and 39 percent better design and visualization performance.

The 15-watt processor, which is based AMD’s new 7-nanometer Zen 3 architecture, supports simultaneous multithreading and, for the first time in a laptop CPU, collaborative performance control technology, which enables the processor to optimize frequency to elongate battery life.

Intel Core i7-11375H Special Edition

The Intel Core i7-11375H Special Edition is the new flagship processor for a new segment of laptops from Intel—ultraportable gaming. The CPU consists of four cores, eight threads, a base frequency ranging from 3GHz to 3.3GHz depending on the thermal design power, a single-core turbo frequency of 5GHz, a two-core turbo frequency of 4.8GHz, a four-core turbo frequency of 4.3GHz, a 12-MB cache and support for DDR4-3200 and LPDDR4x-4266 memory. Compared with AMD’s highest-end Ryzen 4000 processors, Intel said the processor is around 30 percent faster in single-threaded performance.

The processor, which ranges in thermal design power from 28 to 35 watts, is based on the same 10-nanometer SuperFin Willow Cove architecture that powers Intel’s Tiger Lake processors and comes with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. The processor comes with Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6/6E, integrated Thunderbolt 4 support and PCIe 4.0 support.

Intel Core vPro i7-1185G7

The Intel Core vPro i7-1185G7 is the new flagship processor for the chipmaker’s new line of vPro processors for business laptops. The CPU consists of four cores, eight threads, a 3GHz base frequency, a 4.8GHz single-core turbo frequency, a 4.3GHz all-core turbo frequency, a 1.35GHz graphics frequency, 96 graphics execution units, a 12-MB cache as well as memory support for DDR4-3200 and LPDDR4x-4266. Compared with AMD’s Ryzen 7 Pro 4750U, the CPU is up to 23 percent faster for Microsoft Office 365 applications, up to 52 percent faster for Office applications while videoconferencing, 24 percent faster for web browsing and 82 percent faster for video editing.

The processor is based on Intel’s 10-nanometer SuperFin Willow Cove architecture and has an operating thermal range of 12 to 28 watts. The chip comes with silicon-level features for remote management and security, the latter of which is called Intel Hardware Shield and consists of capabilities that protect the system underneath and above the BIOS level and uses GPU resources to perform advanced threat detection workloads, lowering the strain on the CPU. It also includes Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology, a silicon-level security feature introduced in the consumer Tiger Lake processors that protects against common malware attacks.

Intel Pentium Silver N6000

The Intel Pentium Silver N6005 is a new processor from the chipmaker that is built for laptops in the education segment. The CPU comes with Intel UHD integrated graphics and consists of four cores, four threads, a max frequency of 3.3GHz, a total cache of 6.5 MB, a graphics frequency of up to 900MHz and support for DDR4-2933 and LPDDR4x-2933. Intel said the chip is up to 144 percent faster than competing processors, 178 percent faster than AMD’s A6-9220C for collaboration applications and 162 percent faster than MediaTek’s Helios P60T for web applications.

The 6-watt processor is based on Intel’s 10-nanometer Tremont architecture. The processor comes with an image processing unit, Intel Wi-Fi 6, MIPI-CSI cameras and 4K media support.