Intel Core i7-4600U vs AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U vs Intel Core i7-4940MX

Intel Core i7-4600U

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U

The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Renoir architecture. The 4650U integrates six cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. They are clocked at 2.1 (guaranteed base clock) to 4 GHz (Turbo) with SMT for a total of 12 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process and partly thanks to it AMD advertises a 2x improved performance per Watt for the Renoir chips.

The PRO processors offer a range of business features like hardware security (e.g., AMD Memory Guard), manageability (e.g., support for Microsoft Endpoint Manager), and longer availability and software stability.

In addition to the six CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated graphics adapter with 6 CUs at up to 1500 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 8 MB level 3 cache can be found on the chip. See our hub page on the Renoir Processors for more information.

Performance

The average 4650U in our database is just as fast as the Intel Core i7-11375H and the AMD Ryzen 5 4600U are in multi-thread workloads. This is a fairly decent mid-range CPU, as of late 2021.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 15 W. Which is a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs, besides, laptop makers aren't really obliged to stick to it.

The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U is manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process, leading to average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-4940MX

The Intel Core i7-4940MX is a high-end quad-core processor for laptops and successor of the i7-4930MX. It is based on the Haswell architecture and was launched in Q1/2014. Due to Hyperthreading, the four cores can handle up to eight threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 3.1 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.9 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 4.0 GHz (for 1 active core). Furthermore, the Extreme CPUs offer an unlocked multiplicator for easy overclocking.

Architecture

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, increasing the performance per clock by about 5 - 10 percent. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Performance

Compared to the Core i7-4930MX, the 4940MX is clocked just 100 MHz higher and therefore only slightly faster. Overall, the performance is similar to the Desktop Core i7-4770K. Even extremly demanding software or multitasking will be handled easily.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 400 MHz up to 1350 MHz with Turbo Boost, making it about 30 % faster than the HD 4000. This is slightly slower than the AMD Radeon HD 8650G, but similar to a dedicated GeForce GT 720M.

Power Consumption

The i7-4940MX is rated at a TDP of 57 W including graphics card, memory controller and VRMs.  Therefore, the CPU is only suited for laptops 17-inches or greater.