MediaTek Dimensity 820 vs Intel Core i3-1210U vs Intel Core i7-1250U

MediaTek Dimensity 820

The Mediatek Dimensity 820 is a fast mid-range SoC with an integrated 5G modem. It includes four fast ARM Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.6 GHz and four power efficient Cortex-A55 cores at up to 2 GHz (Octa-Core with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing). Furthermore, the chip integrates a 5 core ARM Mali-G57 MC5 GPU, a Wi-fi 5 modem, a LPDDR4x memory controller, a AI processing unit (APU 3.0) and video de- and encoding. The Dimensity 820 is manufactured in the modern 7nm process and should be very power efficient.

Intel Core i3-1210U

The Intel Core i3-1210U is a low power mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 2 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 4 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 8 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1 to 4.4 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.7 to 3.3 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 10 MB L3 cache. 

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 1210U as of August 2023, we fully expect its multi-thread performance to be pretty much identical to that of the i3-1215U. Which is pretty fast for an entry-level chip, as of mid 2023.

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

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 64 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 0.9 GHz.

Power consumption

This Core i3 has a Base power consumption of 9 W, with 29 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption. TDP values that low allow for passively designs as long as performance is not a priority.

The CPU is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-1250U

The Intel Core i7-1250U is a mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 2  performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 12 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.1 to 4.7 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.8 to 3.5 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 12 MB L3 cache. Compared to the similar Core i7-1260U, the 1250U only offers "Essentials" vPro management features.

Performance

The average 1250U in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 5 5500U; the i5-1240U, the i7-1260U and the i7-1265U are found close nearby as well.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 23 W, the Envy x360 13-bf0013dx is among the fastest laptops built around the 1250U that we know of. It can be at least 30% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe architecture and offers all 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 0.95 GHz.

The CPU is rated at 9 W base power (TDP, PL1) and 29 W max. Turbo power (PL2) and the whole SoC is manufactured on a 10nm process at Intel, which is known as Intel 7.