AMD says its new octa-core Ryzen 7 4800U will make no compromises in regards to processor and graphics performance whereas Intel users will have to choose between faster graphics performance (Ice Lake) or faster processor performance (Comet Lake-U).

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When Intel launched their mobile 10th gen Core U series, they threw a lot of followers off guard as it would consist of two discrete families: the 10 nm Ice Lake family and the 14 nm Comet Lake-U family. Ice Lake would offer superior graphics performance over the older UHD Graphics 620 via its new integrated Iris Plus GPU, but CPU performance would be similar to the last generation Whiskey Lake-U. Meanwhile, Comet Lake-U would offer superior CPU performance over Whiskey Lake-U via its new hexa-core option, but it would inherit the exact same integrated UHD Graphics 620 GPU for almost no gen-to-gen graphical improvements. Opting for Ice Lake would therefore sacrifice CPU performance in the name of GPU performance and vice versa for Comet Lake-U.

The upcoming mobile Renoir U chips from AMD will address the above compromises directly. As shown by the slides below, the flagship octa-core Ryzen 7 4800U will compete directly with the Ice Lake Core i7-1065G7 and Comet Lake-U Core i7-10710U while outperforming both at their respective strengths. In other words, the AMD chip will be even faster than both Ice Lake and Comet Lake-U in every aspect due largely to its smaller and more efficient 7 nm fabrication process. In fact, AMD is promising nearly 40 percent faster multi-threaded CPU performance over the hexa-core Core i7-10710U and almost 30 percent faster graphics performance than the Core i7-1065G7. If these claims hold true, then there would be little reason to buy any Ice Lake or Comet Lake-U laptop if you can find a Ryzen 7 4800U laptop for around the same price.

Keep in mind that we should always take any manufacturer-provided numbers and charts with a grain of salt. Consumer-ready laptops with 3rd gen mobile Ryzen parts are not expected to ship until April which is when we'll be able to run the full suite of benchmarks ourselves. Ice Lake laptops will likely continue to drop in price over the next few weeks to steal some thunder away from the anticipated AMD Renoir series.