AMD Ryzen 3 5300U vs AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

AMD Ryzen 3 5300U

The AMD Ryzen 3 5300U (not to be confused with the A4-5300, a CPU released in 2012) is a Lucienne family processor designed for use in thin and light laptops. The R3 5300U integrates four cores (quad core) based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. They are clocked at 2.6 (guaranteed base clock) to 3.8 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT for a total of 8 threads. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process. Compared to the older and similar Ryzen 3 4300U (Renoir), the Ryzen 3 5300U offers SMT and slightly higher clock speeds. The faster Ryzen 3 5400U is based on the newer Zen 3 architecture. See our hub page on the Renoir Processors for more information on the Lucienne / Renoir architecture.

In addition to the four CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated graphics adapter with 6 CUs at up to 1500 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 4 MB level 3 cache can be found on the chip.

Performance

The average 5300U in our database matches the Core i5-11300H, the Core i7-11375H and also the Ryzen 5 4500U in multi-thread performance, making it an outstandingly good chip as far as sub-US$700 laptops go.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Power consumption

The Ryzen 3 series chip has a default TDP of 15 W, a value that laptop makers are allowed to change to anything between 10 W and 25 W with clock speeds and performance changing accordingly as a result. By going for the lowest value possible, it will be possible to build a passively cooled system around the chip, however, most companies will do the opposite to achieve higher performance levels.

The AMD Ryzen 3 5300U is built with TSMC's 7 nm manufacturing process for average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is an entry-level, dual-core APU that was announced in 2020. The Ryzen features two Zen cores (SMT is enabled for a total of 4 threads) running at 2.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz and a Radeon RX Vega 3 graphics adapter (3 Compute Units = 192 unified shaders) running at up to 1,200 MHz. The specifications are similar to the older Ryzen 3 3200U, with the lower peak operating temperature of Ryzen 3 3250U (95 °C versus the 105 °C) being the only difference between the two.

AMD Ryzen 3 3250C is a special edition of Ryzen 3 3250U designed for use in Chromebooks. The specifications and performance figures appear to be identical between the two.

Architecture

Unlike the costlier Ryzen 5 3500U, Ryzen 3 3250U is not Zen+ based. It makes use of the ageing Zen architecture and is manufactured on the same 14 nm TSMC process as Ryzen 2000-series laptop-grade processors. This has several repercussions; the limited RAM support is one of them. DDR4-3200, DDR4-2933, DDR4-2666 modules are not supported here. It's just the DDR4-2400, DDR4-2133 and lower on.

The CPU has several PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and is thus compatible with NVMe SSDs (read/write rates will be limited to 3.9 GB/s) as well as discrete graphics cards. Ryzen 3 3250U gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP5 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

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Performance

As far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned, this Ryzen series chip directly competes with the Core i3-10110U, Core i3-1110G4 and also the Athlon Gold 3150U. While the 3250U is certainly not a powerhouse, mundane tasks such as web browsing and casual gaming pose little problem to it, as of early 2022.

Graphics

The Vega 3 is fairly close to Intel's UHD Graphics 620 as far as performance and capabilities go. The graphics adapter supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 fps, and it can HW-decode VP9, AVC, HEVC, MPEG-2 and other popular video codecs. The latest AV1 codec is not supported, though. Such a video will have to be decoded via software, with the limited CPU horsepower imposing a hard limit on the resolution that can be played back without stuttering.

The Vega will allow for a bit of light gaming; F1 2021 runs well at 720p / Low, to give you an example. Quality RAM will allow for higher frame rates and the opposite is true as well; please keep in mind that Vega 3 has no VRAM of its own.

Power consumption

Energy efficiency isn't great here. The Ryzen is built with a 14 nm manufacturing process leading to low, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

The APU has a default TDP, also known as the long-term Power Limit, of 15 W. Laptop makers are free to reduce that value a little, with 12 W being the lower limit, or give it a noticeable bump (up to 25 W are possible). Clock speeds and performance will change accordingly as a result.

While not as power-hungry as the Ryzen 3 3100 or any other desktop chip, the R3 3250U is still not likely to ever feature in a passively cooled laptop, tablet or mini-PC.