AMD vs Intel Surface 3 Laptop Reviewed by AnandTech

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image: Microsoft

In October Microsoft released its latest iteration of their Surface product line. This time around they offered options to include the latest 2019 CPU’s from both AMD and Intel. AnandTech was able to get a hold of both versions and do in an in depth review. The results can help discriminating buyers choose which one best suit their needs as the data took some interesting turns.

AMD Model:

• 15″ Model 2496×1664 Touch Display
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 12nm 3780U 4C/8T 2.3-4 GHz
• 16GB DDR4-2400MHz
• GPU: Vega 11 w/ 11 compute units
• Networking: 802.11ac w/ MIMO & BT 5.0
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe
• Price as tested $2099

Intel Model:

• 15″ Model 2496×1664 Touch Display
• CPU: Intel Core 10nm i7-1065G7 4C/8T 1.3-3.9GHz
• 16GB LPDDR4X-3733Mhz
• GPU: Iris Plus G7 w/ 64 execution units
• Networking: 802.11ax & BT 5.0
• Storage: 256GB & 512GB* PCIe NVMe-*512GB model used
• Price as tested $2199

The most notable differences are the CPU’s, GPU’s, Ram, and networking. AnandTech’s testing revealed some expected results but a few surprises as well. Click here to see their charts for the GPU testing. Overall the Vega 11 pulled significantly ahead of the Iris Plus but some were so close as to be within margin of error. Using PCMark 10 and Cinebench R20 they saw the CPU’s trade blows. The Ice Lake CPU generally pulled ahead again but occasionally they did see the Ryzen 7 processor reach some higher clocks. Both models held relatively similar temperatures.

Intel’s latest Ice Lake CPU could outperform the Ryzen 7 offering in CPU tasks. However, when it came to graphics intensive projects the Ryzen 7 took it back. One might also take note that the AMD model is using a 802.11ac solution while Intel has incorporated the newest 802.11ax standard.