AMD Athlon Silver 3050U vs AMD Athlon Silver 7120U vs AMD Ryzen 5 7520U

AMD Athlon Silver 3050U

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050U is a mobile processor for thin and light entry level laptops. It is based on the Picasso series (e.g. Ryzen 3000U APUs) and offers two Zen cores clocked at 2.3 to 3.2 GHz without SMT (two threads at once) and 4 MB of L3 Cache. The integrated graphics card is called Radeon RX Vega 2 and offers only 2 CUs (128 shaders) clocked at up to 1,100 MHz.

In Chromebooks, AMD calles the APU AMD Athlon Silver 3050C, but with the exact same specifications (and performance).

Performance

We have not tested a single system built around the 3050U, as of August 2023. Expect the chip to be just a few percentage points slower than the Athlon 3150U (two Zen cores, 4 threads, up to 3.3 GHz). This kind of performance should suffice for most day-to-day tasks but not much more than that.

Power consumption

This Athlon series chip has a default TDP of 15 W (also known as the long-term power limit). Laptop makers are free to change that to anything between 12 W and 25 W with clock speeds and peformance changing accordingly as a result. Either way, that's a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

Last but not the least, the APU is built with a 14 nm process leading to poor, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

AMD Athlon Silver 7120U

The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U is a mobile processor for cheap laptops of the Mendocino series. It integrates two older Zen 2 cores (similar to the Ryzen 4000 series). The CPU cores clock from 2.4 GHz (base) to 3.5 GHz (single core Turbo) and can use 2 MB L3 cache. The Athlon Silver does not support SMT/Hyperthreading and therefore can only work on 2 threads simultaneously. The integrated memory controller only supports fast LPDDR5 memory (5500 MHz max.). Compared to the faster Mendocino models like the Ryzen 5 7520U, the 7120U offers only two cores, no SMT, less L3 cache and reduced clock speeds, leading to a clearly lower CPU performance.

The integrated graphics card (Radeon 610M iGPU) uses the modern RDNA 2 architecture, but only 2 CUs (128 shaders) and clocks with up to 1.9 GHz.

The CPU performance should be to the fastest Ryzen dual-core (Ryzen 3 3250U, 2.6 - 3.5 GHz, Zen 1) but clearly stay behind modern quad-core CPUs (in multi threaded tests).

The Mendocino series are produced in a relatively modern 6nm FinFET process at TSMC and should offer a good power efficiency. The Athlon Silver 7120U is rated at 8-15 W TDP and therefore well suited for thin and light laptops.

AMD Ryzen 5 7520U

The AMD Ryzen 5 7520U is a mobile processor for cheap laptops of the Mendocino series. It integrates four older Zen 2 cores (similar to the Ryzen 4000 series like the Ryzen 3 4300U). The CPU cores clock from 2.8 GHz (base) to 4.3 GHz (single core Turbo) and can use 4 MB L3 cache. Thanks to SMT/Hyperthreading, the CPU can work on 8 threads simultaneously. The integrated memory controller only supports fast LPDDR5 memory (5500 MHz max.).

The integrated graphics adapter (Radeon 610M iGPU) uses the modern RDNA 2 architecture, but only 2 CUs (128 shaders) and clocks with up to 1.9 GHz.

Performance

The average 7520U in our extensive database is in the same league as the Core i7-1185G7, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a so-so result and indicative of a lower mid-range chip, as of Q3 2023.

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

Mendocino series chips are produced on a relatively modern 6nm FinFET process at TSMC and should offer a good power efficiency. The R5 7520U is rated at 8-15 W TDP and therefore well suited for thin and light laptops.