AMD Ryzen 3 5300U benchmarked: Intel Core i3 has every reason to worry

We recently had the chance to check out the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 retailing for just around $500 USD. Unlike most other laptops in its price range powered by Intel Core i3 CPUs, this particular system is powered by the competing AMD Ryzen 3 5300U Zen 2 CPU. This also happens to be the first laptop to appear in our database with such a processor and so we were particularly interested in how it compares to the Core i3 series. The short answer is that the AMD CPU completely obliterates the Intel CPU at best while being just slightly behind at worst.

Raw multi-threaded performance favors the Ryzen 3 5300U by 70 to 90 percent when compared to the Tiger Lake-U Core i3-1115G4 which gives the AMD CPU a significant advantage in many multi-threaded heavy applications like Blender, 7-Zip, and x265 encoding. Core i3 CPUs continue to be limited to two cores and four threads whereas the Ryzen 3 5300U has double the cores and threads.

Single-thread performance favors the Core i3-1115G4 by 10 to 15 percent over the Ryzen 3 5300U. An Intel advantage is to be expected since the Core i3-1115G4 has both a higher upper TDP limit than the AMD part (28 W vs. 15 W) and fewer physical cores. Nonetheless, said advantage is relatively minor.

Integrated graphics performance is where things get a bit interesting. Whereas the Ryzen 7 would typically fall behind the Core i7 Iris Xe 96 EUs by roughly 30 percent, the Ryzen 3 would actually outperform the Core i3 Iris Xe 48 EUs in many real-world titles. GTA V, DOTA 2 Reborn, and Witcher 3 would consistently favor the AMD chip in all tested settings.

All these AMD advantages would mean little if such AMD-powered laptops are pricier and more power hungry than a Core i3 alternative. However, this is not the case as laptops running on either processor are under similar power envelopes and with similar price targets. If you're in the market for a budget laptop, then there's little reason to choose a Core i3 model over a Ryzen 3 one at least when other attributes are held equal.