After Intel released the 12th generation Core standard voltage mobile processor at the beginning of the year, its excellent performance has been widely recognized by users. However, it is a little regrettable that because AMD did not release the new Ryzen 6000 series processors in the same time period, users have many questions about whether the 12th generation Core still has performance advantages in the face of the Ryzen™ 6000.
After all, in recent years, AMD has relied on the advantages of Zen architecture and TSMC process technology, although it is still inferior to Core in terms of game experience and single-core performance, but in terms of multi-core performance and multi-threaded task execution ability, it is undeniable that the Ryzen processor is still ahead of the Intel Core platform. Whether the performance improvement brought about by the heterogeneous hybrid architecture of the 12th generation Core processor can continue to be fully trusted is naturally a touchstone of Ryzen 6000 to test.
Not long ago, AMD officially released the Ryzen 6000 series mobile processor, and asus's first release of the Tianxuan 3 series of new products has both the 12th generation Core and Ryzen 6000 models, which is the ASUS Tianxuan 3 Plus we used in today's review, so this also gives us the opportunity to let the 12th generation Core and the Ryzen™ 6000 compete.
01 Introduction to the configuration information of the test model
First, let's take a look at the configuration of the test model, as follows:
In order to ensure fairness, we chose the ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus Core Edition and Ryzen Edition models only have different processor models, respectively, the 12th generation Core i7-12700H and Ryzen™ 7 6800H, graphics card, memory, hard disk, screen, driver version, system version, room temperature during testing is exactly the same, and the BIOS version we have also updated to the latest version.
02 Introduction to the test project
In this comparative test, in addition to using Benchmark to run scores, we also combined with practical application tests, the main test content includes the following four items:
1. CPU-Z, GeekBench 5, V-Ray, X.264 Benchmark, CINEBENCH processor running score test
2. CrossMark productivity comprehensive performance assessment
3. "God of War", "Eldon's Ring of Law" game performance test
4. Adobe Premiere video rendering capability test
03 ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus Design Brief Review
Next, let's first get to know the new Asus Sky Choice 3 Plus. From the overall design point of view, ASUS Tianxuan 3 Plus still maintains the family design language, the A-side four-corner screw decoration, the eclipse gray classic color matching, the trapezoidal cut of the A-side panel near the air outlet, and the circular "TX" logo, the overall recognition is extremely high.
ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus
This time we also found the Tianxuan 3 Plus Core Edition and Ryzen™ Edition models, the design of the two is exactly the same, the only difference is that the processor labeling on the wrist rest is different. The same mold to do the processor performance comparison, this is also the most fair test environment.
Core Edition labeling
Ryzen Edition labeling
Although the ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus adopts a 17.3-inch large-size display, its entire fuselage design attaches great importance to lightweight design, and the whole machine only weighs 2.5kg, which can be said to be very lightweight. However, this also poses a greater challenge to hardware power dissipation and overall heat dissipation, so in this comparative test, we also added hardware power consumption and thermal performance to the evaluation.
As a large-screen gaming laptop, the overall experience of asus Choice 3 Plus is still very good. It is equipped with RGB backlit keyboard, using 1.7mm comfortable key range, the key feel is soft, long-term use will not feel fatigue, in addition, its keyboard also has a separate number key area, bringing convenience to users.
In addition, its trackpad area has increased by 26% compared with the previous generation, the surface touch is delicate and smooth, and the control and positioning are accurate. At the same time, the wide wrist rest brings a good sense of support to the user's wrist and is comfortable to use.
In addition, the interface expansion of this product is also very good, and the right side of the fuselage is equipped with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 TYPE-A.
The left side of the fuselage is equipped with a 3.5mm audio jack, USB 3.2 Gen 1 TYPE-A, 1 x HDMI 2.0b connector, 1 x RJ45 ethernet port and power jack.
In addition, in addition to 1 USB TYPE-C, the Core Edition model also has 1 Thunderbolt 4 interface, while the Ryzen Edition only has 2 TYPE-C ports. Compared with the USB TYPE-C interface, the Thunderbolt 4 interface has faster data transfer speed, richer expansion functions, it is still the most powerful physical interface at present, which is also an exclusive benefit for asus Choice 3 Plus Core Edition users.
04 Summary of various CPU Benchmark software test results
Knowing the "new friend" of ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus, let's pass the comparison test to see who is stronger, Intel 12th generation Core i7-12700H processor and AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800H processor?
First of all, we also made a basic evaluation of the performance of the two new processors through various CPU test software, and the specific results are summarized as follows:
Judging from the test results, in addition to the Intel 12th generation Core i7-12700H processor in the CINEBENCH R15 single-core running score and the Ryzen 7 6800H is almost the same, the other 12 test results, one test performance lead of 49.79%, five test performance lead of more than 20%, five test performance lead of more than 10%.
In a word, the 12th-generation Core i7-12700H has reached the crushing level of the Ryzen™ 7 6800H in terms of single-core, multi-core, video encoding, physical rendering and other performance performance. The power of Intel's heterogeneous hybrid architecture is in full swing.
05 CrossMark Productivity Performance Assessment: 12th Generation Core Efficient Office Tool
For hardware platforms, whether it is a professional game book or not, users often involve more or less productivity applications in daily use, and now many users have chosen to use more powerful games for creative content production, so the hardware performance requirements are higher. After all, the cost of time is often the first place for many fields.
In terms of productivity-related performance evaluation, we chose CrossMark software, which can show the strength of the computer in productivity applications very objectively, and its test items are tested using real software, so it is also in line with the performance of real applications.
Let's take a look at the test results:
In the case of only the processor is different, the final performance of the two Tianxuan 3 Plus naturally depends on the performance of the processor. Tested Choice 3 Plus Core Edition Productivity Score 1729, Creativity Score 1952, Responsiveness Score 1761, overall score 1826, while Chosen 3 Plus Ryzen™ Productivity Score 1554, Creativity Score 1632, Responsiveness Score 1333, overall score 1553.
In terms of individual achievements, the i7-12700H fully crushed the R7 6800H, with a 11.26% lead in productivity performance, a 19.6% lead in creative performance, and a significant lead of 32.11% in responsiveness. At the same time, in terms of comprehensive performance, the 12th generation Core platform leads the Ryzen 6000 platform by 17.58%, which also means that the overall productivity efficiency of the ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus Core Edition is more outstanding.
06 Game Performance Evaluation: 12th Generation Core Frame Count High Temperature Low
Whether it is a Core edition or a Ryzen version, the ASUS Sky Choice 3 Plus is positioned itself or the game book, so let's look at the difference in the performance of the game test.
In this test, we chose the recent hit "Eldon's Law Ring" and the classic masterpiece "God of War" as references. Let's take a look at the test results.
Eldon's Ring of Law
Friends who know it know that this game is an ancestral lock 60 frame setting, but the main reason why this game is used as a test game project is that it is currently very unstable due to optimization problems, and this is the perfect condition for testing the performance of the processor.
The processor is as important to the gaming experience as a graphics card. A processor that is stable enough to provide higher frequencies can make the game frame rate run more stable, and at the same time, the minimum frame rate can be pulled up, and if the frame is suddenly dropped during the game, the game with stronger processor performance is relatively smoother.
During the test, we set the game quality to the highest quality, using the default 1920×1080 resolution of The Choice 3 Plus, and adjusted to full-screen mode. In order to maintain the principle of fairness, we chose the same section of the test: starting from the birth point, running all the way to the gate of Stonewell City to take a horse, then taking the right side of the path to bypass Stonewell City, and finally arriving at the Magic Academy key collection, this journey is about 30 minutes, we will record the average frame rate, frame rate fluctuations, and average processor temperature through third-party software, and finally see how the performance of core edition and Ryzen edition of Sky Choice 3 Plus is different.
Let's look at the test results:
Through the actual test, we can see that the average game frame number of The Choice 3 Plus Core Edition is 60fps, and from the perspective of the lower frame rate fluctuation line, the overall frame number is still relatively stable, but after all, the current optimization problem of "Eldon's Ring of Law" itself has not been solved, so you can see the obvious frame drop.
In addition, during the 28-minute run, the i7-12700H processor temperature averages only 75 °C, with an average occupancy rate of 17%; the average temperature of the graphics card is 74 °C, and the occupancy rate is 48%.
Looking at the performance of the Tianxuan 3 Plus Ryzen Version, the average frame number is 59fps, and the frame fluctuation line oscillation in the whole process is very obvious, and the frame drop will be more obvious and frequent in the actual game process. In addition, from the average temperature point of view, the average temperature of the R7 6800H processor is as high as 85 °C, the occupancy rate is 46%; the average temperature of the graphics card is 80 °C, and the occupancy rate is as high as 72%.
From the test results, it is not difficult to see that the Selective 3 Plus Core Edition supported by Intel's 12th generation Core platform has great advantages in game frame number and thermal performance. Especially in terms of processor and graphics card occupancy, the 12th-generation Core platform is simply "half the effort", and the overall energy efficiency performance is much higher than that of the Ryzen 7 6800H platform.
God of War
The second test game is the PC version of Sony's PS platform classic "God of War", the game as a whole has relatively high hardware performance requirements, although there are also some optimization problems, but overall it has been tuned well enough. When testing, we set the game's picture quality to the highest quality, with a resolution of 1920×1080, let's take a look at the test results of this game on two platforms.
The performance of the 12th generation Core i7-12700H platform is still a familiar feeling, the average frame rate is 77fps, the frame rate fluctuation during the game is very stable, only at the beginning because of the call out of the setting interface and there is a significant frame number fluctuation, other times the frame number fluctuation amplitude is still relatively small.
During the game, the average processor temperature is 72 °C, the occupancy rate is 60%, and the average temperature of the graphics card is 83 °C, and the occupancy rate is 99%.
The average frame count on the R7 6800H platform is only 65fps, which is 12fps lower than the i7-12700H platform. The frame rate fluctuation is slightly higher than that of the 12th generation Core platform, but the actual difference is not too big (Note: during the test of the 12th generation Core platform, due to the call out of the setting screen, one of the frames reached 286fps, which also caused the Ryzen platform fluctuation line to be more visually uneven, in fact, the difference between the two is not too big, because the game "God of War" mainly relies on GPU resources),
In addition, the average processor temperature during the game is 76 °C, the occupancy rate is 55%, and the average temperature of the graphics card is 83 °C, with an occupancy rate of 98%.
From the test results, it can be seen that the consumption of GPU resources in the game "God of War" is more obvious. However, the 12th generation Core platform is still ahead of the Ryzen 7 6800H platform in terms of frame rate performance. In addition, in terms of occupancy, the average occupancy rate of the Ryzen™ 7 6800H is lower than that of i7-12700H, but the temperature is 4 °C higher, and the heat dissipation pressure is relatively larger.
07 Premiere Video Rendering Performance Test: 12th Generation Core efficiency is still outstanding
The third test we're working on is Video Rendering for Adobe Premiere. The main test method is to first turn off the CUDA acceleration option, that is, to use the CPU to complete the rendering acceleration. Secondly, we selected 4 4K videos for stitching, and finally exported a complete H.264 4K video. Finally, our test recording time method is calculated according to the system time, not according to the Premiere estimated time, after all, the difference between the Premiere estimated time and the actual time is still relatively large, not too accurate.
Let's take a look at the test results.
The test of The Choice 3 Plus Core Edition starts at 18:15, when the rendering process is 5%, while the entire rendering process reaches 100%, the time is 18:22, which takes about 7 minutes.
The Sky Choice 3 Plus Ryzen Edition test starts at 18:09, at which point the rendering process also starts timing at 5%. The time to 100% is 18:18, and the overall time is about 9 minutes.
Judging from the test results, without using GPU acceleration, intel's 12th generation Core i7-12700H platform completes the same video rendering task, which is about 2 minutes faster than the AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800H platform. Just think, for professional video creators or film and television post-editers, when dealing with larger-scale video projects, the 12th generation Core platform will undoubtedly have an advantage in saving time.
In fact, even if the AMD Ryzen™ platform has surpassed the Core platform in some Benchmark software running scores in the past few years, in practical applications, the Core platform relies on high main frequency and high turbo frequency capabilities, or can suppress the Ryzen platform without falling behind. The new 12th-generation Core platform perfectly solves the thread scheduling problem on the basis of heterogeneous hybrid architecture, and still maintains the characteristics of high frequency and high turbo frequency, while also greatly increasing the number of cores, so it still maintains the leading position on the Ryzen platform in terms of video rendering efficiency.
08 Review summary
The reason why Intel's 12th Generation Core can achieve the result of crushing the Ryzen™ 6000 processor in terms of performance is closely related to its heterogeneous hybrid architecture and efficient and perfect thread scheduling ability.
We all know that Intel's 12th generation Core processors have introduced the hybrid architecture design of P-Core + E-Core from i5 to i9. P-Core is the performance core, has a higher frequency, and supports hyper-threading, when the computer is in a high-load task application environment, P-Core will bring users excellent performance support. E-Core is the energy efficiency core, although the frequency is low, and does not support hyper-threading, but compared to the "small core" of the smartphone chip, E-Core itself can also provide very good performance, because it is not simply designed to save power, some lighter load tasks are performed on the E-Core, which can also achieve good efficiency.
From the actual test, it can be seen that thanks to this design, the 12th generation Core is extremely good in the overall energy efficiency performance, and the overall temperature control is more excellent in the case of low processor occupancy; when the processor occupancy rate is higher than other platforms, the temperature can also be controlled to a more ideal state. At the same time, with the high frequency, high turbo frequency features, and rich instruction set, it brings a better performance experience in games, video rendering, physical rendering, etc.
In addition, the advantage of Intel's 12th generation Core platform is not only the performance enhancement of the CPU itself, but also the comprehensive strength improvement of its platform level is more worthy of attention. Taking Sky Choice 3 Plus as an example, the Core Edition model supports Thunderbolt 4 transmission, while the Ryzen Version model only supports ordinary TYPE-C, which lacks an all-round physical interface with a transmission speed of up to 40Gb/s, support for 4K/8K display expansion, and support for PD charging.
In terms of price, under the same configuration, the Core i7-12700H model is priced at 10199 yuan, the R7 6800H model is 9299 yuan, and the difference is only 900 yuan. But this 900 yuan difference can be exchanged for a higher game frame rate, lower temperature, more efficient office productivity, more efficient video rendering capabilities, more all-round physical scalability, the author believes that this difference is still within the acceptable range.
Finally, if I had to give a definite answer to "who to choose", then I would personally choose the 3 Plus Core Edition with a better comprehensive experience.