AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS review: does AI hardware make a difference?

The benchmarking results below are presented using the same system we use for our CPU and GPU testing, where on desktop browsers an embedded video embed shows you exactly the scene we used for testing. Start the video, and you'll see the frame-rate and frame-time play out in real time. Below these stats, we have a bar chart that you can hover over to show more stats and click to switch between absolute and relative performance. Mobile users get a more basic view, with a table of results.

First up: Cyberpunk 2077. This streaming test used during production remains accessible in the game and offers a good test of both CPU and GPU at its 'Ultra' preset. We've benchmarked at 1440p, as this is closest to the Blade 14's native resolution of 2560x1600, but note that we're using the pre-2.0, pre-Phantom Liberty version of the game as this wasn't available during our testing phase.

Note that our only other recent gaming laptop benchmark results are also included for context; these are two 15-inch, 2022-era RTX 3060 laptops that retailed for around £1600; by contrast the 2023-era Blade 14 starts at £2500 so it's far from a perfect comparison but hopefully worth including for context. We've also got a desktop RTX 4070 result which relies on a Core i9 12900K and DDR5-6000 - representing pretty much the maximum possible performance from a card with the RTX 4070 descriptor.

The RTX 4070 Laptop GPU and Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU proved quite a potent combo in Cyberpunk 2077, despite the contraints of a 14-inch chassis. The Blade 14 turned in a decent 37fps average at 1440p, with neither DLSS 2 nor DLSS 3 frame generation engaged, which represents around two-thirds of the performance of the desktop card.

Add in DLSS 2, and you can reach a comfortable 89fps - this is how I'd recommend playing. There's also the option for Frame Generation, which pushes the frame-rate to around 107fps in this demanding test. That gives you just about enough leeway to engage the psycho RT mode and still make out with a 59fps average, though frame-time health does suffer considerably.

F1 22 is another game that provides a tough GPU challenge even without RT turned on. The Singapore circuit in the rain is the toughest workout we've found so far, but the Blade 14 is able to hit an esports-ready 130fps average - around 30fps clear of the larger RTX 3060 machines we tested last year. Compared to the desktop RTX 4070, we're achieving roughly 75 percent of the performance, which is pretty good - if not as amazing as the faster-than-desktop performance we recorded with our Chillblast RTX 3060 laptop.

Note that the laptop does suffer from a more dynamic frame-rate, with larger dips including some below 60fps, while the desktop card doesn't dip as low as 100fps. That contributes to a much smoother feeling on the desktop card, though the average frame-rates are reasonably similar.

Finally, we do have enough headroom here to engage RT and DLSS 3 frame generation, ending up with a 104fps average and slightly better minimum frame-rates - with slightly worse input lag as you'd expect from frame-gen tech.

We tend to think of Far Cry 6 as being a game that is heavy on both CPU and GPU, and upgrading both of course leads to better performance from our Razer Blade 14 than the other, older laptops we have data for. The 87fps average here is a nice 20 percent boost over the faster of the two RTX 3060 laptops, and again gives us the headroom to engage RT without losing our in-excess-of-60fps average. Frame-time health does suffer as a result, so playing without RT may be preferable even on a £2500 laptop.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, tested here in its DX9 iteration rather than the Vulkan-based Counter-Strike 2 follow-up, is of course much more CPU-limited. Here we see our first win for the Intel-powered Chillblast machine, which is able to achieve a higher frame-rate - although it does show more frame-time variance than the newer Ryzen 9 7940HS contender. Still, with CS:GO now shelved in favour of Counter-Strike 2, this comparison is largely academic - and we'll have to come with a new benchmark for future testing!

Modern Warfare 2's built-in benchmark is a little harder to find these days, with the whole app having been renamed 'Call of Duty' on Steam and the benchmark itself having been relocated to the submenu of a submenu, but the results are what matters - and here the RTX 4070 is able to stretch its legs with a comfortable 157fps average result, allowing you to take good advantage of that 1440p screen even on balanced settings. Note that DLSS is engaged here, in its balanced mode, so aiming for 240Hz requires dropping fidelity further.

Our final game of Company of Heroes 3 shows another nice increase in frame-rate in exchange for our newer and higher-tier CPU/GPU combo. A 136fps average is still great for an RTS like CoH, and FSR2 quality mode is available to push this to 152fps if you want a slightly smoother experience in exchange for a slightly fuzzier resolve.

With our performance testing completed, let's move to the third and final page to wrap up and draw some conclusions.

AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS + Razer Blade 14 (2023) performance analysis

• Intro: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and its AI features
• Game benchmarks: Razer Blade 14 w/ RTX 4070 (2023) [this page]
• Conclusion: performance analysis and value judgements