Intel Celeron 3867U vs Intel Core i7-1280P vs Intel Core i5-7260U

Intel Celeron 3867U

The Intel Celeron 3865U is an ULV (ultra low voltage) dual-core SoC based on the Kaby-Lake architecture and has been launched in the first quarter of 2017. The CPU can be found in ultrabooks as well as normal notebooks. In addition to two CPU cores clocked at 1.8 GHz (no Turbo Boost, no HyperThreading), the chip also integrates an HD Graphics 610 GPU and a dual-channel DDR4-2133/DDR3L-1600 memory controller. The SoC is manufactured using a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to the similar Celeron 3865, the 3867 offers a different cTDP-down option (12.5 versus 10 Watt).

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

Due to the missing Turbo Boost and the low clock speeds, especially the single thread performance is very limited which results in a lower performance even for lower demanding tasks. The performance should be noticeably slower than the Celeron 3965 which offers 400 MHz higher clocked CPU cores. Therefore, the CPU is only suited for entry level tasks like office, web surfing and multimedia.

Graphics

The integrated graphics unit called HD Graphics 610 (similar to the HD Graphics 510) represents the "GT1" version of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9). Its 12 Execution Units, also called EUs, are clocked at 300 - 900 MHz and offer a performance somewhat below the older HD Graphics 4400. Only a few games of 2015 can be played smoothly in lowest settings.

Power Consumption

Specified at a TDP of 15 W (including CPU, GPU and memory controller), the CPU is best suited for small notebooks and ultrabooks (11-inches and above). Optionally, the TDP can be lowered to 10 watts (cTDP down), reducing both heat dissipation and performance and allowing even more compact designs.

Intel Core i7-1280P

The Intel Core i7-1280P is the flagship Alder Lake-P CPU, which is to say, an expensive 28 W part meant for use in ultra-light (yet actively cooled) laptops. This CPU was announced in early 2022 and it has 6 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) mated to 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores are Hyper-Threading-enabled for whopping 20 threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock speeds range from 1.8 GHz to 4.8 GHz for the performance cluster and 1.3 GHz to 3.6 GHz for the efficiency cluster. This is the only hexa-core 28 W Alder Lake CPU as of February 2022, trumping what the more affordable i7-1270P and i7-1260P have in store. Full vPro feature set is supported by this Core i7 ("Enterprise" tier, allowing for remote device management).

Architecture

The i7 is a continuation of Intel's efforts to use the ARM-developed big.LITTLE technology for its own benefit. A single "little" Alder Lake core is supposed to be just as fast as a Skylake core (as found in the venerable Core i7-6700HQ among other options) which is six years old at this point. All of a Core i7-1280P's CPU cores enjoy access to 24 MB of L3 cache. The integrated memory controller supports up to 64 GB of LPDDR5-5200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4x-4267 or DDR4-3200 RAM. Just like the other 12th Gen Intel Core processors, Core i7-1280P comes with Thread Director which is a new functionality designed to help Windows 11 decide which cores to use for what workload for best performance and efficiency possible. Hardware acceleration of AI algorithms is supported via GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). PCI-Express 5.0 support has not found its way into Alder Lake P processors, so users will have to be content with PCI-Express 4.0 for the time being. Four PCI-Express 4 lanes allow for a read/write rate of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Please note this is not a user-replaceable CPU. It gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (BGA1744 socket interface).

Performance

The average 1280P in our database delivers multi-thread benchmarks scores that are most similar to those of the Ryzen 9 5900HS, Ryzen 9 PRO 6950HS and also the Core i9-11980HK.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 80 W, the MSI Summit E16 Flip A12UDT-031 is among the fastest laptops built around the 1280P that we know of. It can be roughly 60% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Graphics

The built-in graphics adapter in the form of the 96 EU Iris Xe running at up to 1.45 GHz has seen no change from what was built into the 11th Gen Tiger Lake-UP3 processors, like a i7-1165G7, which is hardly a downside as this iGPU is loaded with modern features such as AV1 video decoding capability and SUHD 4320p monitor support. An Iris Xe Graphics G7 will let you use up to 4 monitors simultaneously, provided the laptop has the ports required.

The graphics adapter will let you play most games at 1080p / Medium settings to be very close to NVIDIA's MX350.

That being said, the Xe's gaming performance is bound to be tied to how high the Power Limits and how competent the cooling solution of a laptop are. Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent performance as well (the Iris Xe has to make do with no dedicated video memory).

Last but not the least, we discovered that the GPU utilization when playing YouTube UHD 2160p60 videos is higher than it was with Tiger Lake chips.

Power consumption

The i7's base power consumption (also known as the default TDP value or the PL1) is 28 W, with 64 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption (also known as the PL2). The "Minimum Assured" power consumption is fairly high at 20 watts. All in all, an active cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this.

The i7-1280P is built with Intel's fourth-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency. This is still a rather power-hungry CPU; a single P-core will happily eat more than 20 W and even ask for more when under heavy load. A couple of higher-end 7 nm U-class AMD Ryzen 5000 chips are noticeably more modest than the i7 while delivering the same or higher performance levels.

Intel Core i5-7260U

The Intel Core i5-7260U is a fast dual-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. The CPU has two processor cores clocked at 2.2-3.4 GHz (two cores also up to 3.4 GHz). The processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper Threading. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU with 64 MB eDRAM, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to the Core i7-7360U, the i5-7260 does have lower CPU (-200 MHz Turbo, -100 MHz Base) and GPU (-50 MHz) clocks.

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

At 2.2-3.4 GHz, the Core i5-7260U has much lower clocks compared to the old Core i5-6267U (2.9-3.3 GHz), but has slightly higher Turbo clocks. Similar to the 6267U, the i6-7260U can also use the 64 MB eDRAM, which should increase the performance in some scenarios.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 640 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-950 MHz (i7 models up to 1050 MHz) and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 920MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Pro 540, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors 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 15 Watts, which is typical for ULV chips. Depending on the usage scenario, the TDP can vary between 7.5 (cTDP Down) and 25 Watts.