Ryzen 7 8845HS vs. Core i7-13650HX: Nearly Identical on the Benchmark Charts, but These Are Processors for Different Machines

Two chips from the same season: Intel launched the 13650HX in January 2023, AMD announced the 8845HS that December. Two generations of mobile platforms have come and gone since, and both are still shipping in new devices - at prices that have nothing to do with their age.

On raw CPU performance there is almost nothing between them. Geekbench 6 single-core: 2574 for Intel, 2580 for AMD. Multi-core: 13327 against 13018. A gap only opens up in long rendering runs, where Intel's extra cores are worth another 10 to 20 percent.

The real difference lies elsewhere. The 13650HX is a mounting point for a discrete GPU. Its integrated graphics are a formality, its base power is 55 W with a 157 W peak, and without a GeForce next to it the chip is pointless. The 8845HS stands on its own: the Radeon 780M handles real games at 1080p, and the whole processor fits inside 54 W and into enclosures smaller than a liter. Choosing between them is not choosing a processor. It is choosing a class of machine.

Where Each Chip Sits

AMD's naming here is a story of its own. The 8845HS is a Ryzen 7 7840HS with a faster NPU: the previous generation's 10 TOPS became 16, while clocks and graphics stayed put. In 2025 AMD renamed the die once more. The Ryzen 7 260 is identical to the Ryzen 7 8845HS and therefore to the Ryzen 7 7840HS. Three names, one piece of silicon. There is also the 8745HS, which is the same chip minus the NPU.

On Intel's side, the 13650HX is the entry-level Core i7 in the HX family, meaning a desktop Raptor Lake die transplanted into a BGA package. Below it sit the i5-13450HX and i5-13600HX; above it, the 13700HX and the i9 parts. That desktop lineage explains the 24 MB of L3, the unlocked multiplier, and the 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes reserved for the graphics card. Its successor, the 14650HX, is not a simple rebadge: with 16 cores and 24 threads it is closer to a follow-up to the 13700HX.

Architecturally the two solve different problems. AMD built a monolithic 4 nm SoC with full RDNA 3 graphics and a neural block. Intel took desktop cores, left a stub of an iGPU with 16 execution units, and pushed all graphics duty onto a discrete card.

CPU Performance

Averaged database results look like this:

Single-threaded is a draw, within the spread you see between individual units. Multi-threaded goes to Intel: 11 percent in Cinebench 2024 and 19 percent in Blender. Those eight extra E-cores do their work exactly where a workload splits into many small pieces.

Intel pays for it in watts and degrees. The 13650HX numbers come from systems running a 55 to 60 W sustained limit with short bursts to 157 W. The 8845HS posts its results between 35 and 54 W. Zen 4 on 4 nm is markedly more efficient per clock, and you can see it in the chassis each chip ends up in.

Results from Specific Machines

The spread within a single processor is wider than the gap between the two processors. Intel ranges from 903 to 1172 points in Cinebench 2024, a 30 percent difference. The thick ROG Strix G16 holds its power limits in full; the slim Legion 5i cuts them to stay inside its cooling budget. AMD's spread is narrower, 855 to 1010, because the ceiling is lower to begin with: the difference between 35 and 54 W is visible but not dramatic.

The practical takeaway: the chip name in a laptop's spec sheet tells you less than the thickness of the case and the wattage of the power brick.

Integrated Graphics

The Radeon 780M delivers 4.1 TFLOPS against 0.4 TFLOPS for UHD Graphics with 16 EUs. A tenfold gap is not a debate about nuances.

In 3DMark Time Spy the 780M lands around 2700 to 2900 graphics points at a typical 45 to 55 W. With fast dual-channel memory and raised limits, results above 3400 show up. That puts it roughly at the level of an old GTX 1650. In games at 1080p it plays out like this: Cyberpunk 2077 around 42 fps on low, The Witcher 3 around 53 on low and 40 on medium, F1 24 around 78 on low. Esports titles like CS2, Dota 2, and League of Legends run at a steady triple-digit framerate.

One thing matters above all: the 780M feeds off system memory, and bandwidth directly determines the result. A single-channel configuration guts integrated graphics performance, and cheap laptops with one stick installed are common. Dual-channel DDR5-5600 or LPDDR5X is a hard requirement. Without it, buying this chip for its graphics makes no sense.

The 13650HX effectively has no video built in. Sixteen execution units exist to drive a display and decode video in hardware; you cannot game on them. Laptops with this processor and no discrete card do not appear at retail, so comparing the two iGPUs only matters in one scenario: when you are weighing a gaming laptop against a compact machine with no dedicated GPU.

Power and Battery Life

The class difference shows up in the hardware built around each chip. A typical 13650HX host is something like the LOQ 15 or Dell G16: a 24 mm thick case, 2.4 kg, a 60 Wh battery, and a 170 to 230 W power adapter. That machine lives plugged in, and on battery it lasts just long enough to walk to the next classroom.

The 8845HS turns up in gaming laptops, in ordinary thin 16-inch models like the IdeaPad Slim 5, and in 0.8-liter mini PCs. For the same CPU performance you get a machine half a kilogram lighter with a full workday of battery life. If you want a laptop that behaves like a laptop rather than a portable desktop, the question is settled right here.

Prices and Availability

September 2026 is a bad moment to buy anything with memory inside it. DRAM contract prices rose 90 to 95 percent quarter over quarter in Q1 and kept climbing through Q2 and Q3. That hits final price tags harder than any difference between these processors.

Intel. The 13650HX is still in production: Lenovo puts it in the 2025-2026 LOQ 15IRX10, paired with the RTX 5050, RTX 5060, and even the RTX 5070. The official price for the i7-13650HX, 16 GB, 512 GB configuration on Lenovo's US site is $1,299.99, listed as temporarily unavailable as of September 2026. For comparison, in August 2025 the same pairing with an RTX 5060 was going for roughly $925 to $1,000. The processor did not change; everything around it got more expensive.

AMD. Gaming laptops with the 8845HS are leaving retail. The LOQ 15 with an 8845HS and RTX 4060 shows a $1,719 tag at Best Buy along with a note that it is no longer available new. Ordinary models with the 780M are alive and well: the IdeaPad Slim 5 16 and IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 16 sit around $755 to $820 with 16 GB and 512 GB to 1 TB.

Mini PCs. The Beelink SER8 with 24 GB and a 1 TB SSD sells for $799 against a $959 list price; the 32 GB version reaches $949 at retail against a stated comparable value of $1,099. The processor inside is nearly three years old.

The used market currently looks more sensible than the new one for both chips, particularly for 8845HS gaming laptops with an RTX 4060. Those are exactly the machines now leaving their first owners in volume.

Alternatives

Core Ultra 7 255HX. If you are shopping for a new gaming laptop, this is the direct answer to why you would buy a 13650HX at all. Twenty cores, Geekbench 6 scores of 2888 and 18042, Cinebench 2024 scores of 131 and 1759. That is 35 percent more multi-threaded performance by Geekbench and 70 percent more by Cinebench, plus 12 to 21 percent in single-thread, on a 3 nm process with DDR5-6400 support. The 13650HX is only worth taking when the complete machine costs substantially less.

Ryzen AI 7 350. Zen 5, Geekbench 6 single-core of 2824 against 2580, multi-core about level. Graphics are weaker: the Radeon 860M manages 3.1 TFLOPS against 4.1 for the 780M. The platform is newer, memory goes up to LPDDR5X-8000, and responsiveness is better. For a work laptop that is a step forward; for a gaming mini PC it is a step back.

Ryzen 7 260. The same 8845HS under a different name. If a device with a 260 costs less, take it. If it costs more because it is "newer," you are paying for a number.

Ryzen 7 7745HX and Core i5-13450HX. Budget carriers for a discrete GPU. In 1080p gaming with an RTX 4060 or 5060, the CPU rarely becomes the bottleneck, so the cheaper option wins.

What to Buy

By current standards both chips are fast. Thirteen thousand points in Geekbench 6 and 16,000 to 18,000 in Cinebench R23 cover office work, browsing, code, 1080p editing, photo work, and most applied tasks without strain. You will hit the wall in heavy rendering, long compiles, and 4K timelines, and that is where Arrow Lake-HX and Zen 5 parts are about 50 percent faster.

The 13650HX is justified in one scenario: as the cheap component of a gaming laptop where the money went into the graphics card. Its price looks acceptable as long as the machine costs noticeably less than the same one with the same GPU and an Ultra 7 255HX. At price parity the newer platform is the obvious call. Paying $1,300 for a 13650HX with 16 GB in 2026 means paying 2026 memory prices for 2023 silicon.

The 8845HS still makes sense where it always did: in a mini PC or a thin laptop without discrete graphics, where the 780M is the whole point. The problem is that at today's memory prices a 32 GB box creeps toward a thousand dollars, and at that money it competes with machines built on Ryzen AI 300, which are a generation newer and will stay supported longer. The deal only works when the 8845HS is meaningfully cheaper than that alternative at the same memory capacity.

The processors themselves are not the problem. The problem is that both now command new-generation money, and most of that money goes not into the processor but into the overpriced memory sitting next to it.