The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Review: Meteor Lake Marks A Fresh Start To Mobile CPUs
by Gavin Bonshor on April 11, 2024 8:30 AM ESTASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA: Encoding Performance
Typically, in previous notebook reviews, we lump basic compute and general performance in with our system performance summary. As we advance into 2024 and beyond, we're splitting the sections up with more data points and workload testing. This gives a more holistic view of performance, not just from a usage standpoint, such as storage and battery, but also from memory and other compute-related variables that can substantially affect compute performance.
CPU-Z Screenshot of the Intel Core Ultra 155H processor
For this review, we have included the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, which includes the same Radeon 780M integrated graphics, along with the Ryzen 5 8600G, which uses the AMD Phoenix mobile architecture but is adopted for desktops. This allows us to show more data points for our review of Intel's Meteor Lake-based Core Ultra 7 155H to see where performance lies.
Despite including AMD's Phoenix-based Ryzen 8000G APUs in our results, as we expand our list of notebooks tested, we'll have more effective and comparable data points in the future. To add more reference, all of the chips have been tested with Windows 11 22H2.
Encoding Performance
Looking at how well the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor within the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA performs in encoding tasks, we can see that it's a mixed bag. It shows competitive performance in our WebP2 image Encode test with maximum quality and strong SVT AV1 encoding performance at 1080p on the fastest preset, but things in the other tests aren't as favorable.
Even compared to the MSI Prestige 13 Evo A1MG with the same Core Ultra 7 155H processor, the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405MA lags behind in our 7-Zip compression and decompression tests, as well as the Dav1d AV1 benchmark compared to the other chips on test. Even looking at the results of the MSI model, encoding performance with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a little underwhelming compared to the Ryzen 9 7940HS.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
69 Comments
View All Comments
Ryan Smith - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
Hmm, interesting. We're going to have to double-check with Intel on that.Ark has it down as 8 GPU cores. However the official presentation from the December "launch" had it down as 7: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/9400/Intel%...
It's not uncommon for Intel presentations to have errors. But they also crop up in Ark from time to time as well. So 8 is probably correct, but we should get confirmation just in case. Reply
meacupla - Friday, April 12, 2024 - link
Yeah, I only noticed the difference when I had to look up why MSI claw was using a 135H. ReplyRyan Smith - Friday, April 12, 2024 - link
And Intel has since confirmed it to be 8. The article (and past articles with the bad info) have been updated. Thanks for pointing that out, meacupla! ReplyThe_Assimilator - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
An entire page, and an entire paragraph in the conclusion, wasted on pointless AI nonsense. Nobody reading this site cares about that rubbish, stop wasting our time. ReplyThe_Assimilator - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
Also good to see Intel's "revolutionary" new chip pulling the exact same BS as their past chips have regarding power. "28W" that actually uses 65W, incredible. Replymode_13h - Monday, April 15, 2024 - link
The only thing your comment tells me is that the AI benchmarks should be updated to include more typical real-world AI usage examples. Aside from things like Stable Diffusion, where most readers are likely to encounter AI in their everyday computing is in apps like video conferencing (background replacement, noise suppression) and photo editing. ReplyNextGen_Gamer - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
Those iGPU numbers are way off - the Socket AM5 8700G is obviously going to outperform the mobile variant across the board, based on TDP alone. Even if the mobile version was using LPDDR5X memory (which in this case it wasn't), it wouldn't be enough to close the gap.AnandTech: ever given any though to getting all these chips in mini PC form? Most of those allow much more control over the TDP, along with memory/SSD being your own picks. And then that all but eliminates the cooling issues of a laptop. Reply
meacupla - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
While you can get a 7940HS miniPC now, Core Ultra miniPCs aren't out yet.Core Ultra laptops are showing up at reviewers just now, but they've barely left the gate in terms of availability to regular consumers.
Asus announced NUC 14 two weeks ago, on Mar 27. They are just now being listed at various retailers, so I would expect them to show up in stock a month or two from now. Reply
ricebunny - Friday, April 12, 2024 - link
My retailer indicates that the Asus Nuc 14Pro+ is available. I would be curious to see how the 155H performs in that chassis with a lot more thermal headroom. Replyhaplo602 - Thursday, April 11, 2024 - link
"On the flip side, as we established with our look at power consumption, the Ryzen 9 7940HS laptop is able to sustain a much higher TDP overall – so that memory bandwidth deficit is counterbalanced by a sizable TDP advantage."Are you really a tech review site ? In this case memory bandwidth is king with TDP a distant second (given comparable compute power). And Intel has a huge advantage with LPDDR5X here that it manages to waste somehow.
Also the official title is CPU review and there are graphs for BATTERY CHARGE TIME ??? Really ? What does that have to do with the CPU at all ? Reply