AMD PRO A12-9800B vs Intel Core i7-10875H vs AMD A12-9720P

AMD PRO A12-9800B

The AMD PRO A12-9800B is a mobile mainstream SoC from the Bristol-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2016. It is the business version of the AMD FX-9800P and features the same specifications. The PRO A12-9800B is (together with the FX-9800P) the fastest Bristol Ridge APU with a 15-Watt TDP and the successor to the 15-Watt A12-8800B / 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 A12-9800B 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 A12-9800B 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 i7-10875H

The Intel Core i7-10875H is a high-end processor for laptops with eight cores based on the Comet Lake architecture (CML-H, 4th generation of Skylake). The processor clocks at between 2.3 and 5.1 GHz (4.3 with all 8 cores, 4.9 without Thermal Velocity boost) and can execute up to sixteen threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. The processor is still manufactured in the old 14nm (14nm++) process. Compared to the predecessors, the Comet Lake-H series CPUs offer only increased clock rates.

The Comet Lake architecture is similar to Coffee Lake and offers the same features and is produced in the same 14nm process. Other than the improved clock rates, the memory controller now also supports faster DDR4-2933 RAM. More information on Comet Lake and all the models and articles on it can be found here.

The Core i7-10875H supports the management features vPro, TXT and SIPP. 

Performance

The performance of the Core i7-10875H should be somewhere around the older Core i9-9880H. Thanks to the 8 cores and high Turbo speeds, even demanding applications should run very good on the CPU. However, long term performance is always depending on the laptop cooling system and system configuration.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a similar performance as the UHD630 in the Core i7-9880H. As a  low-end solution it will only run current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i7 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.

AMD A12-9720P

The AMD A12-9720P is a mainstream SoC from the Bristol Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was introduced in 2017. The ULV chip with a TDP of 15 Watts (can be configured to 12 Watts, not verified) has four CPU cores (two Excavator modules) clocked at 2.7 - 3.8 GHz (4.05 GHz for single core were briefly achievable in our test sample), a Radeon R7 iGPU 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

The average A12-9720P in our database is in the same league as the Core i5-4210U, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned, making the former a fairly slow chip that's suitable for basic day-to-day activities only as of late 2022.

Graphics

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 A12-9720P with 15 Watts, which is comparable to Intel's ULV models. This means the CPU is a good choice for thin notebooks starting with a 12-inch screen.