Based on testing by AMD as of 12/14/2021. CPU performance evaluated with a geomean of 9 multi-threaded content creation and CPU tests. GPU performance evaluated with 3DMark® Time Spy. System configuration for Ryzen™ 7 5800U CPU/GPU performance: HP ProBook 635 Aero G8 configured with 2x8GB DDR4-3200 (22-22-22), Windows® 11 22000.282, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD, 15W nominal processor TDP, GPU driver 27.20.21026, BIOS T83. System configuration for Ryzen™ 7 6800U CPU/GPU performance: AMD reference motherboard configured with 4x4GB LPDDR5-6400 (19-15-17), Windows® 11 22000.282, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD, 28W nominal processor TDP, GPU driver 30.0, BIOS TRM0081D. - RMB-13 Based on AMD internal analysis as of June 2021, no other PC processor has an audio processor with artificial intelligence/noise cancellation hardware on a PC processor die. RMB-8 You can also see that these two new chips are built on AMD’s Zen 3 Plus architecture as opposed to the Zen 3 architecture of the 5000 series. The differences between Zen 3 and Zen 3 Plus aren't substantial, so we won’t retread them (you can read about the differences in the Ryzen 6000 launch explainer), but they are worth noting. The architecture change also means that the 6000 U series comes with improved RDNA 2 graphics as opposed to the previous Radeon Vega solution. My Tiger Lake NUC with 96EUs and my Ryzen 5800U based notebook both manage to do without EDRAM and only get slightly better RAM bandwidth but evidently manage to get a lot more GPU power out of the extra SMs. ASUS Antibacterial Guard is applied on the laptop areas that users touch most frequently, including the palm rest area, keyboard, and touchpad (or ASUS NumberPad).

The new Zen 3+ is a refresh of the Zen 3 architecture and should not offer a lot of changes. The chip itself however, offers a lot of new features, like support for USB 4 (40 Gbps), PCI-E Gen 4, DDR5-4800MT/s or LPDDR5-6400MT/s, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth LE 5.2, DisplayPort 2, and AV1 decode.It was pretty awsome to see how that at 90 Watts almost exactly matched the performance of my Iris Plus equipped Skylake i5-6267U dual-core with HT 48EUs, 64MB EDRAM and DDR3-1333 RAM at 28 Watts both in CPU and GPU workloads. Based on testing by AMD as of 12/14/2021. Performance evaluated with DOOM Eternal (low image quality), CS:GO (ultra image quality), Fortnite (medium image quality + DX11), Watch Dogs: Legion (low image quality), The Witcher 3 (low image quality), and DOTA 2 (ultra image quality + Vulkan). All games test at 1920x1080 resolution. System configuration for Ryzen™ 7 6800U: AMD reference motherboard configured with 4x4GB LPDDR5-6400 (19-15-17), Windows® 11 22000.282, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD, 28W nominal processor TDP, GPU driver 30.0, BIOS TRM0081D. System configuration for Core i7-1165G7: Dell XPS 13 9310 configured with 2x8GB LPDDR4x-4667, Intel graphics driver 30.0.100, Windows 11 22000.282. – RMB-18 Based on testing by AMD as of 12/14/2021. Performance evaluated with Watch Dogs Legion, Far Cry 6, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and CS:GO. All games test at 1920x1080p resolution with the HIGH in-game quality preset (or equivalent). System configuration: Ryzen 7 5800X3D and AMD Reference Motherboard with 2x8GB DDR4-3600. Core i9-12900K and ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard with BIOS 0702 and 2x16GB DDR5-5200. Both systems configured with GeForce RTX 3080 on driver 472.12, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, NZXT Kraken X62, Windows 11 28000.282. - R5K-107 On a similar point, AMD’s advantage over Intel’s 11th Generation chips remains. The Core i7-1195G7 is not a 1:1 comparison, but it’s similar, and its G family is found in many laptops like the ZenBook S 13 that have launched over the last year.

The 6800U has integrated graphics support, with the CPU and GPU on a single chip die, known as an APU. However, this performance assessment assumes you will use an internal or external graphics card. Integrated graphics support is mediocre or worse with the latest graphics-intense games. Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of more than 20 W, the Mercury EM680 is among the fastest systems built around the 6800U that we know of. It can be at least 20% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023. The end result is that the Core i7-12700H beats the Ryzen 7 6800H in most workloads. The margin can be narrow in some multi-threaded benchmarks, but on the whole the 12700H is on average 15 to 20 percent faster. And that's just at 45W. AMD Renoir launched in 2020 and included Ryzen Mobile 4000 APUs with Zen 2 processors with up to 8Cores/16Threads and a Radeon Vega integrated GPU with up to 8 Compute Units.

The Rivals - Apple M1 Pro, AMD Zen3, and Intel Alder Lake

The R7 6800U is manufactured on the 6 nm TSMC process for higher-than-average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency. Asus makes use of magnesium-aluminum alloy for the case and the Zenbook comes across as very high-quality. It is also extremely compact and mobile with a weight of just over one kilogram. Our review unit comes in the Ponder Blue color variant and looks very elegant, and the slightly roughened surfaces also feel good. However, the surfaces are also quite fingerprint sensitive. Asus offers other optional color variants, the keyboards of which also change color. In addition to white, the Zenbook S13 is also available in light green and beige. A full review should be available in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll update here once that’s published.

Unless otherwise stated, all performance claims are based on theoretical performance. Actual figures may vary in real-world situations. The Acasis “USB4” enclosure works in Thunderbolt 3 mode using an older Intel controller. It also has a USB 3.2 10Gbps controller when you don’t have Thunderbolt 3, but according to USB law, it’s not legit USB4 without native USB4 support. Asus has gone with a 16:10 aspect ratio here, which is nice because it provides more vertical real estate than a standard 16:9 screen. I think Asus could do one better and go 3:2 for even more vertical space here, like Microsoft's Surface lineup, though that's a personal preference of mine. Battery Life on the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLEDKeep in mind that the availability of the top-specced Ryzen 7 7840U configurations is still limited in most regions, but mid-tier Ryzen 5 7640U and 7535U configurations might be more widely available. Model For Acrobat PDF exporting to PNG images, the 6800H doesn't gain very much performance compared to the 5800H, and ends up quite behind the 12700H with its faster single-core speeds. The Core i7 model finished this test 9 seconds faster, which is a margin of 15 percent.