AMD Ryzen 7000 Mobile, Tested: ‘Dragon Range’ Pushes Intel for CPU Speed Crown

Back at CES 2023 in January, AMD pulled the curtain off its new Ryzen 7000 mobile processors, split into tiers dubbed “Phoenix” and “Dragon Range.” I now have enjoyed PCMag’s first chance to test these laptop CPUs in the form of a top-end Dragon Range chip, the Ryzen 9 7945HX.

In particular, I was sent the new Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 with this chip inside as my test unit. The device itself is a 17-inch gaming laptop with plenty of internal room for thermal hardware that can help push this processor to its full potential. This combination is, no doubt, an example of the high end of what this platform can do. But that’s an ideal use case for this tier of chip, and for judging its potential performance ceiling. You buy a laptop with a high-end chip like this to let it run free.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

We recently ran a similar testing analysis story for the top-end samples of Intel’s rival 13th Generation “Raptor Lake” mobile chips, which represent stiff competition. On mobile processors like these, Intel, generally, has stolen the performance lead back in the last couple of generations, and this represents AMD’s latest attempt to at least keep pace. Even if it has been edged out in some use cases, the Ryzen silicon is still capable of impressive speed, but it hasn’t been able to wholly close the gap. Let’s take a look at what Dragon Range has to offer.

Scaling the ‘Dragon Range’: Welcome to Laptops, Ryzen 7000

You’ll see a lot to unpack regarding AMD’s 2023 slate of mobile processors, but I’ll try to focus on the “Dragon Range” offerings, since that’s what I’ve tested here. The other new line, code-named “Phoenix,” is part of the same 7000 Series generation, yes, but it isn’t used in this type of large, power-monger laptop and has some fundamental differences with Dragon Range—chiefly, the presence of hardware AI processing. If you need to get caught up, for the full background on the latest AMD mobile chip releases, you can read our reporting on the full Phoenix and Dragon Range stacks, and our rundown of AMD’s new CPU-naming conventions. 

The core features of Dragon Range are still worth mentioning here, though. The non-code name for these chips is the “Ryzen 7045 HX Series,” which (per the new naming conventions) denotes the most powerful mobile chips. These are used in top-end flagship creator and gaming laptops like the ROG Scar 17, which are often (but not always) the largest machines in their respective makers’ lines.

This series is built on 5nm manufacturing, and it is also the debut of AMD’s “Zen 4” chiplet architecture—you can read more about these at the link above. These chips range from a six-core Ryzen 5, to the monster we have here, the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 7945HX, as seen in the table above. 

(Credit: Molly Flores)

This is relevant to the performance here: The 7945HX is listed as running at 55W to 75W TDP, which directly correlates to the output. The ROG Scar 17’s implementation is officially listed at 55W TDP. Additionally, though we’ll mostly be running CPU-based tests, the Scar 17 also features an imposing Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. The Dragon Range chips include fairly weak RDNA 2-based integrated graphics solutions, but we suspect most designs will pair these chips with robust discrete GPUs.

With this out of the way, it’s time for the benchmark tests and results.

Testing the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX: Nipping at Intel’s Heels

To fairly judge the Scar 17 and its fresh silicon, we’ve run it through our suite of CPU benchmark tests and will compare it with a range of relevant competition. You can read the names and specs of these laptops in the chart below.

In this group, every relevant faction is represented. The current-generation, chief competitor 13th Gen Core i9 Intel chips are present in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and the MSI Titan GT77, while the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 7 provides a measure of 12th Gen performance. Moving outside of Intel, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 delivers useful context with its previous-generation Ryzen 9 CPU. Finally, Apple’s powerhouse MacBook Pro 16 shows off what its M2 Max chip is capable of, though it will be absent from some Windows-based tests in the results below.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our main benchmark, UL’s PCMark 10, simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing.

Three further benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

On the whole, these numbers are encouraging for AMD. The Scar 17’s least-impressive result was in PCMark 10, but considering that’s the least-demanding test of the bunch, Team Red will probably take that. In the end, all of these systems will soar past the PCMark 10 bar for excellent everyday performance; this test is a more relevant measurement of everyday tasks for much-less-capable laptops.

AMD should be content enough with falling behind slightly on that test because, on the more straining media-creation and -editing stress tests, the new Ryzen 9 chip matched or surpassed its Intel rivals. It posted the highest CineBench R23 score here, and indeed the highest we’ve recorded on a laptop.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

This is the first time in the last couple of generations that AMD has wrested the performance crown back—or can at least claim to be evenly wrestling for it—since Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs took over. This, too, is despite the Scar 18 being slightly larger than the Scar 17. You can also see how much this new chip blew away the Ryzen 6000 laptop, metaphorically lapping its numbers on these tests. Naturally, outside of any head-to-head battle, this means blazing-fast performance for end users on these types of tasks.

Adobe Creative Suite Tests

Next, we’re separating out two benchmark tests based on the popular Adobe Creative Suite environment. This is a different sort of workload than the previous tests, specific to the Adobe environment but one that’s relevant to real-world users of this grade of laptop. 

First, we run PugetBench for Photoshop from workstation maker Puget Systems, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters. We do the same with a PugetBench script for Premiere Pro 15, which like Photoshop draws on the full power of the laptop to manipulate video.

More positive news for AMD here! These two tests demonstrate the same trend as the others, which is to say that the Ryzen 9 7945HX tops the pile. The new chiplet design struts its stuff, though you can see that the gap isn’t large at all. Still, being slightly quicker than the competition who’s been pulling away is certainly a win. 

Designers and editors can look forward to snappy speeds in Photoshop and other Adobe apps. Feel free to pick that Dragon Range system over an Intel alternative if you prefer it, or if you find a deal (though none of these systems will likely ever be all that affordable) on an AMD system.

AMD Is Back in the Game

We can’t speak for the full range of AMD’s new processors, but at the very top end, things are looking rosy for Team Red. In this machine, the Ryzen 9 7945HX, at worst, matches Intel’s previously dominant 13th Gen H-series processors, and in several cases, wins outright. The margin of victory isn’t much, usually, but that alone is a reversal of trends. 

(Credit: Molly Flores)

It’s possible the rest of the 7000 Series stack doesn’t quite stand up to Intel’s Raptor Lake chips at all power, price, and performance tiers. We’ll let you know as we have the chance to test other iterations of Dragon Range chips in the near future. At the top, where performance-focused users are shopping, Dragon Range looks to be a more-than-viable option. Competition is healthy, and AMD absolutely has a speed contender here. Watch out, Intel—the duel of Dragons versus Raptors is on.