AMD A9-9420 vs Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6

AMD A9-9420

The AMD A9-9420 is an entry-level chip from the Stoney-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2016. At its launch, the A9-9420 is the fastest Stoney Ridge processor (dual-core version of Bristol Ridge) and takes over that place from the A9-9410 (-100 MHz CPU clock). It integrates two CPU cores (one Excavator module with 2 integer and on FP unit) clocked between 3 - 3.6 GHz. It also includes a Radeon R5 GPU with 192 shaders at 800 MHz as well as a single-channel DDR4-2133 memory controller, H.265 video engine and chipset with all I/O ports.

Architecture

Stoney Ridge is the successor of the Carrizo architecture and the design is almost identical. Thanks to optimized manufacturing processes and more aggressive Boost behavior, however, the clocks are a bit higher at the same power consumption. The memory controller now also supports DDR4-RAM, in this case up to 2133 MHz. Stoney Ridge is the designation for the smaller dual-core and single-core chip, while Bristol Ridge is the bigger quad-core chip with dual-channel memory controller. More technical details are available in the following articles:

• AMD's Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge Architecture
• AMD: Bristol Ridge APUs announced

Performance

Thanks to the high maximum clock of up to 3.6 GHz, the single-core performance should be pretty good. The multi-core performance on the other hand is much lower compared to the Bristol Ridge models. Compared to older Carrizo-L/Beema quad-cores, the APU should still perform pretty well. The level of performance should be similar to a Core-m3 and therefore also be sufficient for more demanding applications.

The TDP can be configured between 10-25 Watts, so there can be big performance differences under sustained workloads.

Graphics Card

The integrated Radeon R5 (Stoney Ridge) GPU has 192 active shader units (3 compute cores) clocked at up to 800 MHz. More details about the GPU are available in the linked articles above. 

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the A9-9420 with 15 Watts, but it can be configured between 10-25 Watts. This means the CPU is a good choice for thin and light notebooks, but also 15-inch devices with better cooling capabilities.

Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6

The Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6 is a fast quad-core processor notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the second fastest mobile Xeon model and the performance is slightly better tha the 100 MHz slower clocked consumer Core i7-7820HQ. Compared to the Core processors, the chip also supports ECC-RAM (error correction). Besides four cores including Hyper-Threading support running at 3 - 4 GHz (4 cores up to 3.6 GHz, 2 cores up to 3.8 GHz), the processor is also equipped with the professional HD Graphics P630 GPU as well as a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L-1600/DDR4-2400). It is manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

Thanks to the higher clocks, even the smaller model of the mobile Xeons is ahead of the fastest Skylake models (Xeon E3-1575M v6) and is therefore als powerful enough for very demanding applications.

Graphics

The integrated professional Intel HD Graphics P630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 1100 MHz. The performance depends a lot on the memory configuration; it should be comparable to a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M in combination with fast DDR4-2133 dual-channel memory. It offers certified drivers for 15 professional and CAD applications.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors, which were announced in January, should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel still specifies the TDP with 45 Watts, but it can also be reduced to 35 Watts by the notebook manufacturers (cTDP down). This will obviously affect the performance, because the Turbo Boost cannot be maintained for longer periods.