Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y vs AMD A12-9700P

Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y

The Intel Pentium 4415Y is a low power entry level processor for small laptops or tablets and based on the Kaby Lake architecture. It was announced in Q2 2017 and offers two processor cores clocked at 1.6 GHz (no Turbo Boost). 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. Compared to the much faster Core m3-7Y30, the Pentium 4415 offers no Turbo Boost, different CPU and GPU clock speeds, a smaller L3 cache and a higher TDP of 6 Watt.

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

Due to the missing Turbo Boost, the Pentium 4415Y offers a significantly worse single thread performance than the more expensive Core m3-7Y30. This should be noticeable in daily tasks.

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 850 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 TDP is rated at 6 Watt and can be reduced to 4,5 Watt (cTDP down).

AMD A12-9700P

The AMD A12-9700P is a mainstream SoC from the Bristol-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2016. The ULV chip with a TDP of 15 Watts (can be configured to 12 Watts) has four CPU cores (two Excavator modules), 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

The performance of the A12-9700P is between the two 15-Watt processors A10-9600P and FX-9800P, and therefore roughly on par with a 15-Watt Core i3 from the Skylake or Kaby Lake series, respectively. 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. Due to the TDP limitation, the performance of the A12-9700P will drop significantly under sustained workloads.

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 A12-9700P 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.