AMD Ryzen 5 3580U disappoints in early benchmark results; averages 13% less than the Intel Core i5-1035G7 in multi-core workloads

Microsoft will release the Surface Laptop 3 on October 22, the 15-inch version of which comes with processors that Microsoft initially called the AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Editions. AMD and the Redmond-based company have since confirmed that these are called the Ryzen 5 3580U and Ryzen 7 3780U, about which we reported last week.

Numerous Ryzen 5 3580U listings have since appeared on UserBenchmark, demonstrating the capabilities of the 15 W chip. While AMD APUs are famed for their comparatively good multi-core capabilities, the early signs are not great for the Ryzen 5 3580U.

According to data from 33 UserBenchmark results, the Ryzen 5 3580U averages around 13% worse multicore scores than the Core i5-1035G7, the equivalent Intel processor that Microsoft offers for the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3. We have extrapolated this from the average User Bench scores rather than the websites weighting formula, as this has recently come under scrutiny for favouring single core over multi-core performance.

The website also reports that the Ryzen 5 3580U averages 3.3 GHz in multicore tasks, 400 MHz short of AMD's claims that the APU can reach up to 3.7 GHz. We always expected that claim to only apply to single-core clock speeds, though.

We shall reserve judgment on the Ryzen 5 3580U and Ryzen 7 3780U until we get our hands on a Surface Laptop 3 though, as we would not recommend drawing conclusions from one benchmark. It will be interesting to see how the two APUs compare with the Intel Ice Lake equivalents in the 13-inch SKUs though, along with what performance benefits they offer over the regular Ryzen 5 3500U and Ryzen 7 3700U. Be sure to watch out for when we publish our Surface Laptop 3 review or reviews, depending on which versions we get the chance to test.