Lab – We previewed the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor for laptops

During CES 2024, we were invited by Intel to preview the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 165H processor. It is mainly the latter that we subjected to our test protocol to obtain our famous performance index.

The Intel Core Ultra 165H processor is equipped with the new Meteor Lake architecture that we discussed extensively during the test of the ZenBook 14 Oled and its Core Ultra 7 155H. The Core Ultra 7 165H differs little from the 155H, the number of cores being identical: six hyperthreaded P-Cores, eight E-Cores and two low-energy Cores. The Core Ultra 7 165H, however, sees the frequency of its cores boosted by 200 MHz, thus being able to reach a maximum of 5 GHz.

MSI, however, made a modification that makes all the difference with the Asus ZenBook 14 Oled: the Core Ultra 7 165H has a power envelope of 55 watts compared to only 28 watts for the Core Ultra 7 155H of the ZenBook. Thus, the Core Ultra 7 165H can maintain its operating frequencies as close as possible to the announced 5 GHz as long as it does not exceed a consumption of 55 watts.

At 55 watts, a much more dynamic Core Ultra 7

Within the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio, which is equipped with a 16-inch panel and therefore a more imposing chassis than the ZenBook 14 Oled, MSI is better able to cool the Core Ultra 7 165H and therefore increase its envelope. power at 55 watts.

The performance index of the Core Ultra 7 165H installed in the Prestige 16 AI Studio reaches 166 points. It is thus placed between the M2 Pro of the MacBook Pro 16, which obtains a score of 168, and the Ryzen 7 7840 of the Acer Swift Core Ultra 7 155H of the ZenBook 14 Oled with its index of 132, obtaining a performance increase of 25%.

In Cinebench R23, the Core Ultra 7 165H is convincing with a score of 1807 on a single core, just behind Apple’s M3 at 1897. However, it outperforms the M3 in multi-core, which only has 8 cores. , and the M2 Pro with its 12 cores. However, it fares less well in GeekBench 5.4, where it loses to Apple’s M2 Pro.

In our tests in various content creation applications, the Core Ultra 165H struggles to gain the upper hand over Apple’s M2 Pro. It thus shows itself in its best light during our encoding under Première and during a relatively short encoding under Handbrake. Rendering under Blender (GPU/Metal disabled) takes longer with the Core Ultra 7 than with the M2 Pro, even though it has many more cores, 16 compared to 12 for Apple’s processor.

Not enough to outrun the competition

There remains one point that we have not been able to verify: autonomy. As the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio only remained at our disposal for one morning, it was difficult to launch our tests and a video playback cycle to measure its autonomy with a processor whose envelope is pushed to 55 watts. However, this should have a relatively limited impact since in video playback, the Core Ultra 7 does not need to push its frequencies to decode and display a video stream.

With an envelope of 55 watts, the Core Ultra 7 logically displays better performance than with an envelope limited to 28 watts. However, it does not manage to outrun Apple’s M2 Pro, which has four fewer CPU cores, and is barely more efficient than the Ryzen 7 7840HS of the Swift X 16, which nevertheless has half as many physical cores. Intel still has work to do to make its processors more efficient; salvation will probably come with Lunar Lake, the next mobile processor architecture expected at the end of the year.

We should be able to offer you a complete test of the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio in the coming weeks in order to take stock of its autonomy, as well as the cooling system which should accompany a Core Ultra 7 set at 55 watts.