AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i5-6200U vs AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U

AMD Ryzen 3 3300U

The AMD Ryzen 3 3300U is a mobile SoC that was announced in January 2019. It combines four Zen+ cores (no SMT / Hyperthreading so only 4 threads) clocked at 2.1 - 3.5 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 6 graphics card with 6 CUs (384 Shaders) clocked at up to 1200 MHz. Specified at 15 Watt TDP, the SoC is intended for thin mid-range laptops.

The Picasso SoCs use the Zen+ microarchitecture with slight improvements that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvements. Furthermore, the 12nm process allows higher clock rates at similar power consumptions.

The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. As the features of the Picasso APUs are the same compared to the Raven Ridge predecessors, we point to our Raven Ridge launch article.

AMD states that the Picasso APUs are about 8% faster than the predecessors. Therefore, the Ryzen 3 3300U should be similar to the Ryzen 5 2500U (2 - 3.6 GHz but with SMT).

Intel Core i5-6200U

The Intel Core i5-6200U is an ULV (ultra low voltage) dual-core SoC based on the Skylake architecture and has been launched in September 2015. The CPU can be found in ultrabooks as well as normal notebooks. In addition to two CPU cores with Hyper-Threading clocked at 2.3 - 2.8 GHz (2 cores: max. 2.7 GHz), the chip also integrates an HD Graphics 520 GPU and a dual-channel DDR4-2133/DDR3L-1600 memory controller. The SoC is manufactured using a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors.

Architecture

Skylake replaces both Haswell and Broadwell and brings the same microarchitecture in every TDP class from 4.5 to 45 W. The extensive improvements of the Skylake design include increased out-of-order buffers, optimized prefetching and branch prediction as well as additional performance gains through Hyper-Threading. Overall, however, performance per clock has been increased by only 5 to 10 percent (compared to Haswell) respectively under 5 percent (compard to Broadwell), which is quite modest for a new architecture ("Tock").

Performance

According to the specified clock rates and the improved architecture, the Core i5-6200U should perform just slightly below the former Core i7-5500U (Broadwell, 15 W). Thus, the CPU has sufficient power for office and multimedia purposes as well as more demanding applications and multitasking.

Graphics

The integrated graphics unit called HD Graphics 520 represents the "GT2" version of the Skylake GPU (Intel Gen. 9). The 24 Execution Units, also called EUs, are clocked at 300 - 1000 MHz and offer a performance somewhere in range of a dedicated GeForce 820M. Games of 2015 can thus be played smoothly in low settings. For more information about performance and features, check our page for the HD Graphics 520.

Power Consumption

Specified at a TDP of 15 W (including CPU, GPU and memory controller), the CPU is best suited for small notebooks and ultrabooks (11-inches and above). Optionally, the TDP can be lowered to 7.5 watts (cTDP down), reducing both heat dissipation and performance and allowing even more compact designs.

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U

The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U is a mobile SoC for business laptops that was announced in April  2019. It combines four Zen+ cores (8 threads) clocked at 2.1 - 3.7 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics card with 8 CUs (512 Shaders) clocked at up to 1200 MHz. Specified at 15 Watt TDP, the SoC is intended for thin mid-range laptops. Compared to the similar consumer variant Ryzen 5 3500U, the PRO model features additional management and security features (e.g., full memory encryption) and longer warranty / availability.

The Picasso SoCs use the Zen+ microarchitecture with slight improvements that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvements. Furthermore, the 12nm process allows higher clock rates at similar power consumptions.

The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. As the features of the Picasso APUs are the same compared to the Raven Ridge predecessors, we point to our Raven Ridge launch article.

AMD states that the Picasso APUs are about 8% faster than the predecessors. Therefore, the Ryzen 5 3500U should be ahead the Ryzen 5 PRO 2500U (2 - 3.6 GHz) and nearly on par with the Ryzen 7 PRO 2700U (2.2 - 3.8 GHz).