AMD Pro A12-8800B vs Intel Core i3-7020U

AMD Pro A12-8800B

The AMD Pro A12-8800B is the top-tier Carrizo APU of 2015 for business laptops. It is a SoC containing two Excavator CPU modules (with 4 integer and 2 FP units counted as 4 compute cores), a Radeon R7 graphics card with 8 compute cores (512 shaders), a DDR3-2133 (35 Watt cTDP) memory controller and a video engine (including UVD 6 with hardware HEVC / H.265 decoding). It is similar to the consumer version, the FX-8800P, but offers business support and a ensure a long-tail support program. 

The performances of the CPU and GPU cores depend on the configurable TDP. This cTDP can range from 12 to 35 Watts depending on the cooling solution and size of the laptop. Thus, clock speeds of the compute cores will vary. E.g., the GPU can score between 1992 points (15 Watts) to 2753 points (+38% with 35 Watts cTDP) in 3DMark 11 (based on the similar FX-8800P).

According to AMD, the 35 Watt configuration scores 12% (Cinebench single-thread) and 15% (Cinebench Multi-threaded) higher compared to the previous Steamroller generation (most likely the AMD FX-7600P). If configured to 15 Watt instead, the gains are higher (40% to 55%) compared to the 19 Watt Kaveri FX-7500 APU. See more benchmarks on our FX-8800P page.

More technical details and features of the 6th generation of APUs (Carrizo) can be found in our launch article.

Intel Core i3-7020U

The Intel Core i3-7020U is a dual-core processor of the Kaby Lake architecture. It offers two CPU cores clocked at 2.3 GHz (without Turbo Boost) and integrates HyperThreading to work with up to 4 threads at once. The architectural differences are rather small compared to the Skylake generation, therefore the performance per MHz should be very similar. The SoC includes a dual channel DDR4 memory controller and Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics card (clocked at 300 - 1000 MHz). It is manufactured in an improved 14nm FinFET process at Intel. Compare to the old i3-7100U, the newer i3-7020U is clocked 100 MHz lower (CPU cores) and therefore the current entry level model for the Core i3 line. The similar Pentium Gold 4415U offers less Cache (2 versus 3 MB) and a slower GPU.

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.