Intel Core Ultra 7 165H faster for PC gaming and up to 50% more efficient than Ryzen 7 7840U

Meteor Lake is finally here, bringing Intel's groundbreaking architectural overhaul to the mobile space - ultrathin laptops. As highlighted in our breakdown of the Core Ultra hardware, the new design features a dedicated CPU, GPU, and NPU with multiple optimized and customizable tiles tailor-made to take advantage of AI computing. Intel calls the latest range of over 200 Intel Core Ultra products the first AI PC wave.

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But what about PC gaming? Intel's mobile chips have featured integrated graphics for a while, but AMD's Ryzen line-up and the new "Phoenix" processors have taken mobile gaming to a new level. Look at devices like the Phoenix-powered ROG Ally from ASUS and the Legion GO from Lenovo, or even the older Steam Deck; mobile gaming is big business right now.

Well, the good news is that the Intel Core Ultra line-up (but only the models with 'H' on the end) features integrated Intel Arc graphics - with hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, AI-powered upscaling via Intel's DLSS-like XeSS Super Sampling, AV1 encoding, and support for up to DisplayPort 2.1 output. How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H compare against AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U? Extremely well!

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It is up to 11% faster for 1080p gaming, with performance captured across 18 games, including Apex Legends, Baldur's Gate 3, Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch 2, and Resident Evil Village.

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The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is more power efficient, which is excellent news for mobile gaming. Compared to the 13th Gen Intel Core i7 Processor at 28W, the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H is up to 2X faster.

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With the new Core Ultra range and its use of Intel Arc GPU technology, Intel is also touting its AI-based XeSS upscaling as not only a performance enhancer (with an average of a 39% performance uplift across titles that include XeSS support) but something that improves efficiency because GPU render times are decreased, and there's less overall usage. Very cool.

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Of course, these are benchmarks and results selected by Intel, and we'll be following this up with out-in-the-field reviews and game performance in the coming days. Also, AMD has launched its AMD Ryzen 8040 Series of processors, including dedicated AI hardware and up to Radeon 780M graphics. Either way, it's great to see Intel competing with AMD in the mobile gaming space again with the new Core Ultra range.