AMD FX-9800P vs Intel Core i5-7500 vs Intel Core m3-7Y32

AMD FX-9800P

The AMD FX-9800P is a mobile mainstream SoC from the Bristol-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2016. The FX-9800P is the fastest Bristol Ridge APU with a 15-Watt TDP and the successor to the 15-Watt FX-8800P from the Carrizo generation. The ULV chip has four CPU cores (two Excavator modules = 4 integer and 2 FP units), a Radeon R7 GPU as well as a dual-channel DDR4-1866 memory controller. Carrizo is a full-fledged SoC and is also equipped with an integrated chipset, which provides all I/0 ports.

Architecture

Bristol Ridge is the successor of the Carrizo architecture and the design is almost identical. Thanks to optimized manufacturing processes and more aggressive Boost behavior, however, the clocks are a bit higher at the same power consumption. The memory controller now also supports DDR4-RAM, in this case up to 1866 MHz. More technical details are available in the following articles:

• AMD's Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge Architecture
• AMD: Bristol Ridge APUs announced

Performance

Thanks to higher clocks, the FX9800P is slightly ahead of the old 15-Watt top model FX-8800P and competes with a Intel Core i3-6100U (Skylake, 15 Watts). Compared to the Intel model, the AMD chip has a small advantage in multi-thread scenarios, but is beaten when you only stress one or two cores.

This means there is sufficient performance for typical office and web applications as well as light multitasking.

Graphics Card

The integrated Radeon R7 (Bristol Ridge) GPU has 512 active shader units (8 compute cores) clocked at up to 758 MHz. Thanks to the better utilization of the clock range as well as faster DDR4-RAm, the GPU can slightly beat its predecessors Radeon R7 (Carrizo) and competes with a dedicated GeForce 920MX in the best-case scenario (dual-channel memory, low CPU requirements). Many games from 2015/2016 can be played smoothly at low settings. 

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the FX-9800P with 12-15 Watts, which is comparable to Intel's ULV models. This means the APU is a good choice for thin notebooks starting with a 12-inch screen.

Intel Core i5-7500

The Intel Core i5-7500 is a fast mid-range quad-core processor for desktops based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It offers four cores (no HyperThreading and therefore also only 4 threads at once) that run at 3.4 - 3.8 GHz.

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

The performance of the i5-7500 is comparable to a mobile Core i7-7700HQ. Therefore, the performance is sufficient even for demanding applications and games.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 1100 MHz. The performance depends a lot on the memory configuration; it should be comparable to a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M in combination with fast DDR4-2133 dual-channel memory.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors, which were 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 slightly. Intel still specifies the TDP with 65 Watts, which is a lot more than the 45 Watts of the mobile Kaby-Lake-H CPUs but less than e.g. the Core i5-7600K (91 Watt).

Intel Core m3-7Y32

The Intel Core m3-7Y32 is a very efficient dual-core SoC for tablets and passively cooled notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced early 2017. It is the more or less the successor to the in 2016 introduced Core m3-7Y30 that offers 400 MHz less Turbo Boost clock speed. Thanks to Hyper Threading, the processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously. The chips also includes the Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L/LPDDR3) as well as VP9 and H.265 video de- and encoder. It is still produced in a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors. 

Architecture

Intel basically used the familiar micro architecture from the Skylake generation, so the per-MHz performance is identical. Only the Speed-Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of the voltages and clocks was improved, and the matured 14 nm process now also enables much higher frequencies and better efficiency than before. 

Performance

Since Intel basically removed the Core m5 and Core m7 series or included them into the higher i5 and i7 series, respectively, the m3-7Y32 is officially the last Core-m chip (together with the former m3-7Y30). Thanks to its high Turbo clock, the 7Y32 can sometimes keep up with the 15 Watt models for short peak load and single-thread scenarios, but the clocks will drop significantly under sustained workloads. The CPU is still suitable for many more demanding applications as well as multitasking. Thanks to the improved efficiency, the CPU can often even beat the Core m5 and m7 siblings from the previous Skylake generation.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU has 24 Execution Units (EUs) like the old HD Graphics 515 and runs with clocks between 300 and 900 MHz in combination with this processor. The performance heavily depends on the TDP limit as well as the memory configuration; with fast LPDDR3-1866 RAM in dual-channel mode, the GPU should sometimes be able to compete with the HD Graphics 520, but can also be much slower in other scenarios. Modern games from 2016 will, if at all, only run smoothly in the lowest settings.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now also supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process with FinFET transistors, so the power efficiency was once again improved significantly. The typical TDP for the Y-series is specified at 4.5 Watts, and can be adjusted in both directions depending on the usage scenario.