Intel’s Arrow Lake-H: A Review with AI and Performance Benchmarking
Introduction
Intel’s latest mobile processor, the Core 285H, marks the debut of its Arrow Lake-H family for laptops. While the chip faced criticism in its desktop iteration, this review explores its performance in the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG) laptop, providing insights into its strengths and weaknesses compared to offerings from AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel’s previous generations.
MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG)
The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo B2HMG serves as a testbed for the Intel Core Ultra 285H chip. Structurally, it features a plasticky, non-descript design with a magnesium-aluminum chassis. Its weight is reasonable at 3.3 pounds, and it includes an Ethernet port.
The 16-inch OLED display offers a 2560 x 1600 resolution that falls short of true 4K but provides vibrant colors. The laptop also supports Wi-Fi 7 and has a webcam with privacy features. Its keyboard and trackpad are comfortable and responsive.
Performance Benchmarking
CPU Performance
In Cinebench R23 and Cinebench 2024, the Core Ultra 9 285H excels, doubling the performance of Intel’s Lunar Lake chips in multicore tests. Single-core performance is close between the chips, with Arrow Lake-H maintaining a slight edge.
Geekbench tests confirm the superiority of Arrow Lake-H in multicore tests, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 370 perform better in single-core tests.
GPU Performance
In 3DMark’s Time Spy and Steel Nomad Light tests, Intel’s Arrow Lake-H trails behind AMD’s Ryzen 980M GPU and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite’s integrated graphics.
In real-world gaming tests for ‘Cyberpunk: 2077’ and ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’, Arrow Lake-H struggles to achieve smooth frame rates, indicating limited gaming capabilities.
AI Performance
AI benchmarking remains nascent, with varying support for different chip architectures. Intel’s Arrow Lake-H benefits from its XeSS 2.0 support, but its lack of a powerful NPU limits its performance in AI tasks.
Procyon Vision and Procyon Image Generation tests demonstrate the superiority of Intel’s Lunar Lake chips in AI inference. AMD and Qualcomm chips struggle to match Intel’s performance in these tests.
In UL’s Procyon Language model test, Arrow Lake-H fares poorly compared to Lunar Lake chips, highlighting its weakness in language processing tasks.
Battery Life
Battery life is excellent for the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo (B2HMG), with the Arrow Lake-H chip providing between 15 hours, 10 minutes and 16 hours, 33 minutes of battery life under simulated office usage. However, intensive tasks on battery can significantly reduce the runtime.
Conclusion
Intel’s Arrow Lake-H chip emerges as a strong performer in general productivity, surpassing its Lunar Lake predecessors. Its battery life is also impressive. While it lacks a dedicated NPU and sufficient gaming capabilities, Arrow Lake-H represents a solid choice for mainstream laptop users.
AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 processor remains a formidable competitor, offering a balanced performance across tasks and excelling in gaming and AI. The ubiquity of Intel’s software ecosystem and its strong battery life give Intel an edge in the laptop market.
However, the dominance of Intel is challenged by the emergence of AMD and Qualcomm, who provide competitive alternatives with specific strengths in gaming and AI, respectively. Consumers can expect greater parity between processor platforms in the future, with the choice of the best laptop depending on their prioritized features.
