Intel's Arrow Lake HX gaming CPU is putting the MacBook Pro M4 Pro through its paces
Intel's most powerful mobile CPU has arrived: the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX. Powering the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 gaming laptop, does it live up to the hype?
As with any new silicon, we compared Intel's Arrow Lake HX processor against its predecessor and current competition, especially AMD's latest chips.
While Arrow Lake HX will mostly be used in gaming laptops, a few workstation models may opt for the HX variant instead of Arrow Lake H, so we decided to throw Apple M4 into the mix.
So how does Intel's Core Ultra 200HX series stack up? Let's break it down.
Intel's initial claims about the Arrow Lake HX indicated more than 5% single-thread uplift and 20% multithread performance gains over the 14th-generation Raptor Lake Refresh HX chipsets.
We've seen only one iteration of Intel's Arrow Lake HX so far, and it isn't even the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor. However, these numbers do indicate a solid leap in performance over the 14th generation and improvement over the Arrow Lake H model, which is designed for high-performance thin and light laptops.
The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16's Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX had a 5.7% increase in single-core performance on Geekbench 6 compared to the Intel Core i9-14900HX in the Razer Blade 16 (2024). It also outperformed the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H (MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Razer Blade 16 2025), and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Asus ROG Flow Z13 2025) in single-core performance by 4-5%. The MacBook Pro 16's M4 Pro still holds the single-core performance record, but Arrow Lake HX is helping close the gap.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX also had a 9.8% increase over the i9-14900HX in multicore performance on Geekbench 6, and Arrow Lake outperformed the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 by 19.6%. The Ultra 9 275HX was just shy of the multicore performance of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and almost gave Apple's M4 Pro a run for its money.
Granted, the Flow Z 13 does cap AMD's big Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max APU to just 70W of power, while the Gigabyte Aorus is a 230W laptop. At full power, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 could offer higher performance, but we've seen that chip in only one device so far.
Click to view chart data in table format.
You'll notice that our Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor doesn't quite meet that 20% gen-to-gen uplift Intel promised.
Typically, Intel is pretty on the mark with performance expectations. And that 20% could well be true of the Intel Core Ultra 7 or Core Ultra 5 variations of the Arrow Lake HX platform.
We've also compared the most powerful Intel Core i9 CPU against the lower-tier Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset, so it's not a complete 1:1 comparison. Both are 24-core CPUs, but the 275HX has 24 threads in total, while the i9-14900HX has 32. Additionally, the 275HX features a lower max turbo frequency of 5.4GHz, while the i9-14900HX offers a 5.8GHz turbo speed.
The Ultra 9 285HX still has fewer threads, as Intel ditched hyperthreading for the Arrow Lake generation, but it's got a slight boost clock improvement at 5.5GHz, which may help close the gap.
Unfortunately, we don't have a great Raptor Lake Refresh comparison CPU for the Ultra 9 275HX. And we haven't received any 285HX laptops for testing just yet. We'll take another look at these gen-over-gen comparisons once we've got more testing data.
While it isn't a 20% uplift, 10% is some solid gen-to-gen performance, and we saw healthy improvement in Geekbench, Handbrake video encoding, and CrossMark scores.
Battery life is not the priority for an Intel HX processor. That's just a fact.
The HX suffix chipsets are high-performance silicon designed for gaming or workstation laptops. They're almost always paired with high-end discrete GPUs, which cause battery life to suffer compared to the H suffix laptops, often shipped with just the integrated GPU.
However, things may get better in this generation.
Our Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 was paired with the Nvidia RTX 5080, which comes with Nvidia's revamped Battery Boost technology for up to 40% better battery life when gaming.
While the web surfing battery life on the 275HX/5080 Gigabyte Aorus wasn't groundbreaking at 5 hours and 31 minutes, the gaming battery life hit an astounding 2 hours and 54 minutes based on the PCMark 10 Gaming Battery life benchmark. This is about 50 extra minutes of web surfing and nearly an 1 hour and 30 minutes more gaming time than the i9-14900HX/4090 Razer Blade 16.
AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (7:22) is more efficient while surfing the web than the Arrow Lake HX CPU (5:31), but that's to be expected considering the Ryzen AI 9 processor is a 25W ultra-portable laptop chip compared to the 55W Arrow Lake HX.
As for AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, while the Flow Z 13 did offer longer web surfing battery life (10:14), the Arrow Lake Gigabyte Aorus outlasted AMD's big APU in gaming battery life (1:34).
Click to view chart data in table format.
Naturally, the Arrow Lake H chipset outlasted the Arrow Lake HX, since our MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is using the integrated Intel Arc 140T graphics chip compared to a discrete Nvidia RTX 50-series GPU.
The Core Ultra 275HX doesn't even come close to challenging the Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro's incredible battery life, nor would we expect it to. Arm-based computers like the MacBook Pro and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s are in a class of their own, and Intel's Lunar Lake is the chip built to challenge that.
Intel's Arrow Lake HX is built to offer competition against Apple Silcon's CPU power.
Unfortunately, Apple remains unchallenged for another generation when it comes to offering benchmark-breaking CPU performance and outstanding battery life.
Perhaps this Fall, we'll get that big blockbuster x86 CPU. Intel's Panther Lake is expected later this year, after all.
It's still very early in the Intel Arrow Lake HX reviews cycle, so we don't have complete data on the new silicon yet. But based on this early look, Intel's managed to eke out a solid boost to performance and battery life with this new generation.
Of course, results will vary depending on each laptop build, as multiple factors like GPU, battery size, and TDP can heavily impact performance and battery life on these machines. That's true of all laptops, but when you get to the high-performance machines, each different implementation of a CPU or GPU can have a great impact.
Plus, few people will be upgrading their 14th-gen, RTX 40-series gaming laptops for the new generation. For those with an 11th-gen/30-series laptop or older, these new chips are a huge improvement across the board.
After all, the base Geekbench 6 multicore score of 11,000 was set based on the desktop i7-12700K. And in 2025, those are rookie numbers even for thin and light laptops.
"Arrow (Lake) is a wonderful, wonderful notebook product,' Intel VP shares what to expect from Intel's new processors in 2025
The RTX 5090 was supposed to be the chosen one, but does the RTX 4090 have the high ground?
Handheld gaming PCs have a Windows problem — but maybe not for long
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tom's Guide Awards 2025: Our favorite AI tools and gadgets
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Turning your ideas into reality used to take a significant amount of time and effort, but thanks to AI, that's rapidly changing. While other technologies iterate, AI tools seem to reinvent themselves at an extraordinary pace, and we've put them all to the test. From chatbots on standby to answer every query to image and video generators that can bring your ideas to life and even AI features that unlock brand new capabilities for your existing devices, AI is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Our team of experts has tested and reviewed all of the latest AI tools and AI services for the Tom's Guide Awards 2025. Below, we highlight our favorite ones from the last 12 months that have completely transformed the way we live and work. Best AI chatbot Claude The market for AI chatbots has changed a lot in recent years. Where ChatGPT once ruled supreme, miles ahead of its competitors, the gap has quickly closed. GPT-5 is just around the corner, Gemini 2.5 Pro saw huge improvements to Google's model and Grok 4 is promising to change the world. But, right now Claude is Tom's Guide's pick for the best AI is fast, highly conversational and has a good understanding of context. It has also made major improvements to its coding abilities and is one of the more user-friendly AI chatbots out there. It lacks in some areas, like having no memory functions and the missing AI image and video generators its competitors are using, but it makes up for that with a strong view on privacy, research and accountability — a welcome change in a market heading in a different direction. Best AI image generator ChatGPT Competitors have come and go, new names have entered the market and big upgrades have been seen. And yet, ChatGPT remains one of the best AI image generators on the market. This mostly comes down to its pure consistency. Sure, it's not as exciting or creative as Midjourney, or as detailed as some of the more niche competitors out there. But ChatGPT works with simple prompts and delivers every time. In other words, ChatGPT is the best AI image generator for the most number of people. It's the jack of all trades. Hopefully, it will only get better when GPT-5 rolls around in the coming months. Best AI video generator Veo 3 Veo 3 delivers stunning, cinematic-quality footage with smooth motion, realistic lighting, dynamic camera work and sound including background noise and dialogue, all from a simple text prompt. As part of Google's new Flow suite, Veo 3 integrates seamlessly with Gemini and other creative tools, making it easy to script, generate, and edit videos in one cohesive workflow. As a solo creator or production team, Veo 3 gives users the opportunity to turn their ideas into professional-grade videos in minutes. Best AI music generator Riffusion Riffusion creates original tracks by visualizing sound as spectrograms and generating audio through diffusion models. Unlike traditional AI music generators, this app lets users experiment with genre, instruments and style in real time to produce music that's surprisingly coherent and creative. It's a powerful tool for musicians, content creators or anyone looking to explore sound with the help of cutting-edge AI. Best AI device Plaud NotePin The Plaud NotePin is one of the most capable AI wearables available today. It's majorly inconspicuous and can be worn as a watch, a necklace, a pin, or a collar clip, making it ideal for professionals, students, journalists, and anyone in between. The NotePin is effectively an AI-powered dictaphone that not only transcribes spoken words, but also categorizes and formats the content in an infinite variety of ways. It can transcribe alphabetically, in complete sentences, in notes, and countless other options. With the premium Plaud subscription, industry specialists can create a personalized dictionary of complex jargon that the NotePin will learn and transcribe accurately. The NotePin is one of the most versatile and unique AI wearables around. Best AI phone feature Gemini Live Gemini Live is available on just about every phone and it's also free, making it the best AI phone feature around. It's the new way of interacting with the AI bot on your phone, seeing that you can have natural conversation with Gemini Live — even if you happen to mess up what you're saying. Another layer that adds to the experience is going multimodal by giving Gemini Live access to your phone's camera, enabling the AI to see what you see. From translating a sign, to more complex tasks like guiding you how to reset a tripped breaker on your circuit box, Gemini Live is a transformative experience that will make you understand the true power of AI on your phone. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Morgan Stanley Raises PT on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD); Maintains ‘Equal Weight' Rating
With impressive year-to-date performance and significant hedge fund interest, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) secures a spot on our list of the . On July 30, 2025, Morgan Stanley increased its price target on Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) from $121 to $185, maintaining an 'Equal Weight' rating. Due to the reinstatement of its MI308 AI accelerator for the Chinese Market and positive momentum in its PC segment following Intel's strong results, analysts have renewed optimism around the company's growth potential. The investment firm also increased the company's 2026 P/E multiple from 22x to 33x, bringing it in line with other large-cap AI semiconductor companies. Looking ahead, the analyst expects Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) to hit the $6 billion mark in its AI segment. Thus, AMD remains positioned to capitalize on the growing AI market. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD), headquartered in Santa Clara, makes processors, graphics cards, and AI computing technologies. It is included in our list of the unstoppable stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of AMD as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 12 Cheap Value Stocks to Buy Now According to Warren Buffett and 7 Best Potash Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
Microsoft Needs to Make Affordable 5G Surface Laptops a Reality
Microsoft didn't launch its 2025 lineup of Surface devices with a 5G option. Instead, it waited a few months for interest to die down enough to release its business-end version with a starting price nearly twice that of the one built for the average joe. It shows that if users want a laptop that can connect to the internet without relying on spotty public or Starbucks Wi-Fi, they need to pay through the nose. Hopefully Microsoft's new tech will get cheaper later, though only if laptop makers recognize users want a mobile PC to actually be usable while on the move. As revealed last week, the 14-inch Surface Laptop for Business with a mere 512GB storage goes for $1,600. If you want the version with 5G, those start at $1,800. But that's if you go for the version with the least viable specs. All the Surface Laptops are using Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips, but a version with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD will cost $2,700 before tax. That's before add-ons like a Microsoft 365 subscription or a protection plan. Any 5G laptop will also require you to pay for a wireless internet plan, which only puts the cost of the Surface Laptop for Business beyond prohibitive and into the stratosphere, where only silly business execs would ever consider it. Microsoft explained in its blog post that 5G was 'one of the most requested features from our business customers.' I'm certainly not a business customer, but I would be first to raise my hand and squeak out a 'please, sir, may I also have 5G?' There have been innumerable situations where I would like to sit out in a park and work and not have to rely on a spotty phone hotspot. Mac users have been begging Apple for a 5G option for years to no avail. Last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claimed that Apple was testing the waters of 5G on its laptops, but if it happens at all, it wouldn't come until 2026 at the earliest. The reason for the cost is probably down to the extra parts needed to add this cellular connectivity. The 5G Surface Laptop for Business includes a nano SIM slot for hooking up your data plan. Otherwise, Microsoft said it completely reengineered the device with all-new material to allow radio signals through. The inside of the device sports six different antennas that will automatically adjust the signal depending on how users hold it. Remember the reception controversy with the iPhone 4, where users eventually forced Apple to admit it put the wireless antenna where people held onto the phone, resulting in poor connectivity? The new Surface Laptop for Business supposedly fixes that issue and, at the same time, makes the computer way more expensive. The extra cost is a far cry from the $150 you need to spend to give an iPad Air with 5G. New technology will always come at a premium, but maybe there's hope for the rest of us. Microsoft coming over to the land of LTE laptops could mark a turning point for how we see portable computers. Past 5G laptops were often few and far between, such as the 2022 ThinkPad X13s sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip or an HP EliteBook like the 1040 G11. The 2024 Microsoft Surface Pro first retailed with a 5G model as well. Microsoft relying exclusively on Intel chips for its 5G Surface Laptops is interesting, considering that the ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip sports wireless 5G or 4G LTE internet connectivity by default, though so few laptops make use of it. The new Surface Laptop for Business price shows that we're only getting started. What if the next era of devices with 5G sports a unique look to prove they're different than your traditional gray slates? There's a lot of promise here if the Surface maker or other laptop makers can copy, shrink, and cheapen Microsoft's design. Or else, this kind of feature will remain exclusive to laptops made for execs with bottomless pockets.