The new 15-inch version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 turned heads when it went on sale this fall as the first Microsoft device to use AMD's Ryzen mobile processors. Microsoft and AMD say they've spent years fine-tuning the Ryzen CPU in an attempt to eke out an optimal blend of power efficiency and performance, and Microsoft is confident enough in the AMD silicon that Ryzen CPUs are the forward-facing options for powering the 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop 3 in versions available to everyday consumers.

That said, the Ryzen mobile chips aren't actually the only option. If you head over to Microsoft's business store, you can, in fact, configure a 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 with a 10th Generation Intel CPU instead: an "Ice Lake" Core i5 or Core i7 processor, backed by Intel's robust, integrated Iris Plus Graphics. This business-versus-consumer, Intel-versus-AMD split, seemingly puzzling at first glance, is really just a way for Microsoft to segment the market—the company notes that the Intel-powered Surface for Business devices offer "streamlined deployment, modern device management, and enhanced security."

You don't need a special business relationship with Microsoft to buy an Intel-based Surface Laptop 3 15-incher, however. So the situation presents us with a rare opportunity to test out the differences between AMD and Intel chips in the same laptop, to see which one performs better. Our performance results below come from a Ryzen 5 model, a Ryzen 7 model, and a Core i7 model, all of which we tested in late 2019. 

First, a Bit of Chip Backgrounder

Part of the reason this is an unusual situation lies with the fact that Ryzen-powered laptops, in general, are thin on the ground. But it is also thanks to Microsoft's use of custom versions of its Ryzen mobile CPUs, and their companion Radeon Vega integrated graphics processors, in the 15-inch Surface laptop. A few optimizations in these custom versions (dubbed "Microsoft Surface Editions") include the ability for the Ryzen CPU to directly negotiate power consumption with the Windows 10 operating system, and a new on-die controller for the touch-screen interface that takes up to 200 measurements per second.

Also, the custom Radeon graphics processors in the Surface Laptop 3 have extra compute units compared with the stock models on which they're based. Microsoft offers both Ryzen 7- and Ryzen 5-based models of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3. In the custom chip used in the Ryzen 7 version of the laptop, the GPU has 11 Radeon Vega compute units. There are nine units in the chip in the Ryzen 5 laptop, up from eight in stock versions of the chip available to other laptop manufacturers.

Both Ryzen chips use a 12-nanometer (nm) production process that is a generation behind AMD's latest 7nm "Zen 2" process used in its desktop-class CPUs. Mobile Ryzen 4000-series chips based on the new process will likely be available later this year, some offering as much as 90 percent better multithreaded performance than their closest Intel competitors, at least according to AMD. (See an analysis of the state of play in mobile CPUs here in early 2020.) The company also plans to offer a higher-powered 45-watt version of its Ryzen 4000 series mobile chips to PC OEMs. Intended to compete with Intel's H-series Core CPUs, these 45-watt Ryzens will mostly show up in larger gaming laptops that have additional room for more robust CPU-cooling hardware. But there's no guarantee that any of the Ryzen 4000 series chips will show up in Surface devices anytime soon. 

Meanwhile, the Intel-powered Surface Laptop 3 uses the Ice Lake CPU generation, whose main innovation is dramatically improved graphics performance, thanks in part to support for higher memory speeds. In short, the various versions of the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 look to have Intel's and AMD's best CPUs suited for ultraportable laptops. It's as fair a fight as we've seen.

The Winner Is...?

Spoiler: As it turns out, there's no one best choice of CPU to power the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. Our benchmark tests below show that the Intel-powered CPU is better in some scenarios, especially performance on basic tasks like web browsing. The Ryzen excels on other tasks, especially video encoding. The most surprising result we found? There's not much difference between the performance that the Ryzen 5 version of the Surface Laptop 3 offers and what you can expect from the more expensive Ryzen 7 version.

The chart below breaks down the specs of the two AMD configurations we tested, as well as the Intel one. All have four processor cores and support multithreading, which means they can handle up to eight simultaneous processing threads. The Intel model has twice the cache (8MB) that the Ryzen versions do, though it has a much lower base clock speed. The theoretical graphics performance is roughly equal—Iris Plus is much more capable than Intel's HD and UHD integrated graphics, but so are the Radeon RX Vega 9 and RX Vega 11 GPUs in the AMD-powered laptops.

We're not including the 13-inch version of the Surface Laptop 3 in this Intel-versus AMD-comparison. Not only is that smaller model is available only with Intel processors, but its performance would likely be different even if it used the same components, since the smaller chassis means less room to dissipate heat.

Productivity and Storage Speed

Since the Surface Laptop 3 is first and foremost a mainstream laptop, both the Intel and AMD versions need to be able to perform basic tasks like browsing the web and editing documents with alacrity. It's impossible to sum this up adequately in a single number, but our PCMark tests come close.

The PCMark 10 test we run simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We consider any score above 4,000 on this test to represent excellent performance. Both Ryzen versions come in slightly below this mark, while the Intel model comes in slightly above it.

The small but significant difference suggests that if you're a power user—you tend to open dozens of browser tabs at once, perhaps—you might be better off choosing the Intel version. Most users won't be able to tell the difference, however.

Multimedia Editing

The Surface Laptop 3 in either AMD or Intel trim is not a mobile multimedia-editing powerhouse. Laptops with Core i9 or Intel Xeon CPUs and pro-level GPUs exist, but this is not one of them. Still, the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 is expensive enough that it should be able to handle some less-demanding creative workflows with reasonable speed.

We tested three such scenarios: encoding a video using the open-source Handbrake app, applying a series of filters to an image in Adobe Photoshop, and rendering a single 3D image in the Maxon 4D-based Cinebench benchmark tool.

The Photoshop test hands the Intel-powered machine a decisive victory...

This workload is very "bursty," since it involves periods of CPU- and GPU-intensive activity (applying filters), usually for a minute or less, followed by short idle periods where we queue up the next filter to be applied. Many factors could be responsible for Intel's victory here: the company works closely with Adobe and other pro-level software makers to fine-tune performance, though AMD does too.  Some Photoshop workflows also make use of graphics-accelerated processing, so the differing GPU capabilities may also come into play. 

The Handbrake test is very different. It requires sustained CPU power over several minutes, with no breaks, and all else being equal, the number of cores and threads available to the program scales up performance... 

Both AMD machines finished before their Intel competitors, and the Ryzen 5 even managed to eke out a win over its Ryzen 7 cousin. This is not entirely unexpected, since both systems share the same number of CPU cores and threads.

With Cinebench, Intel recorded a small but decisive victory... 

Unlike Photoshop and Handbrake, the Cinebench test is designed to exclusively measure CPU power without taking into account contributions from other components. The biggest determining factors in Cinebench are core/thread count and clock speed. With identical core counts and nearly identical boost clock speeds, all of the laptops should theoretically perform within a few points on this test. Clearly, there's something holding the Ryzens back a smidge here.

Gaming Performance

We performed extensive game testing on Intel's Ice Lake CPUs last summer, finding that the performance from the Iris Plus graphics processors is far superior to that of previous-generation chips that use Intel's HD or UHD Graphics. But as our 3DMark test results show, the Iris Plus graphics is essentially playing catch-up to the Radeon RX Vega graphics that are part of the Surface Laptop 3's Ryzen CPUs. The Intel unit's 3DMark results are comparable to those of both AMD versions, and roughly twice as good as those of the Intel UHD Graphics 620 in the previous-generation 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 2, which recorded 4,575 on the Sky Diver test and just 1,164 on the much more demanding Fire Strike test.

Both of these 3DMark tests are gaming simulations that result in proprietary scores. Our Unigine Superposition test offers an estimate of the actual frame rates you can expect when you're playing graphics-intensive games...

The results show that either a Core i7- or a Ryzen-powered Surface Laptop 3 should get you frame rates above the 30 frames per second (fps) we consider to be the minimum for playing some titles, as long as you're willing to dial back the screen resolution to 720p instead of full HD (1080p). Our previous game testing suggests that laptops with Iris Plus graphics should perform similarly to these Superposition results on a host of other less-demanding titles, like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and World of Tanks. 

Still, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is no hardcore gaming laptop. It performs poorly on graphics-intensive games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry 5. We use both of these demanding titles to test gaming laptops, and although 30fps is acceptable, 60fps or greater represents a more enjoyable experience.

Similar to the Superposition 1080p results, it's clear that neither the Intel- or AMD-powered versions of the Surface Laptop 3 are up to running demanding games at a 1080p resolution. The Superposition 720p Low test requires pushing a little less than half of the pixels that running it at 1080p does, and the increase is too much for any of the Surface Laptop 3 models to handle.  Moreover, even getting the games to run at all on the Surface Laptop 3 was a challenge. The Intel-powered laptop could not even complete the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark at the Very High graphics quality settings and 1080p, and it took multiple tries to get Far Cry 5 to run on the Ryzen 5-powered laptop.

Battery Life

The battery-life situation is potentially a win for Intel, depending on how you use your laptop. Our battery life test involves playing a locally stored video file at 50 percent screen brightness with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off. The Intel-powered Surface Laptop 3 lasted far longer than either of the AMD laptops, with the Ryzen 7 version dying before the Ryzen 5 version.

Not everyone exclusively watches videos all day long, of course, so our results won't necessarily reflect exactly what you'll experience if you're using your Surface Laptop 3 for work tasks a few hours at a time. Still, it's meant as a relative comparison, since the laptops' other specs are otherwise the same, and it's pretty clear that the Intel CPU is less of a battery hog than its AMD alternatives under these usage circumstances.

What Does It All Cost?

For many years before the introduction of Ryzen, AMD mobile chips, largely centered on the long-enduring A-Series, were often less powerful than their Intel competitors, but they partially made up for the deficiency with lower prices. In the Surface Laptop 3's case, performance appears to be close to parity, but the costs are reversed, in many cases. The Core i7 laptop we tested costs $1,600, while the Ryzen 5 laptop, with the same memory and storage configuration, costs $1,700. The Ryzen 7 system costs $2,100.

Based on performance alone, it's clear that the Intel Core i7-powered 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 is a better choice for everyday productivity and minimizing visits to a power outlet. But both the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 laptops are fine choices for light multimedia creation. The same is true if you need graphics pep for light gaming. Intel's Iris Plus is an impressive integrated GPU, but so is the custom Radeon GPU with its increased number of graphics compute units.

Performance is only one of many factors to consider, of course, and it's also important to remember that the tests above pertain only to the Surface Laptop 3. You can't find a laptop with this custom AMD silicon anywhere else, even though the performance of the stock chips may be similar.

For more on the rest of the Surface Laptop 3's features, check out our full review of the 15-inch version. While we like Microsoft's big new ultraportable, there are many equally good or better options, so also be sure to check out our roundup of the best ultraportable laptops overall.

Further Reading

• Surface Book 3, Surface Go 2: Spring 2020 Release Date Rumored
• Business Choice Awards 2020: Laptops and Tablets
• Readers' Choice Awards 2020: Laptops and Tablets
• After Winning an Oscar, Taika Waititi Sounds Off About...Apple Keyboards?
• More in Laptops

More Laptop Reviews

• Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (13.5-Inch)
• Acer Swift 5 (14-Inch)
• Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro 17
• Dell Latitude 7220 Rugged Extreme Tablet
• Dell Inspiron 14 7000 (7490)

More Laptop Best Picks

• The Best Laptops for 2020
• The Best Laptops for College Students in 2020
• The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops for 2020
• The Fastest Laptops for 2020
• The Best Ultraportable Laptops for 2020