AMD Ryzen 3 7320C vs AMD Athlon Silver 7120C

AMD Ryzen 3 7320C

The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C is a mobile processor for Chromebooks of the Mendocino series. It integrates four older Zen 2 cores (similar to the Ryzen 4000 series like the Ryzen 3 4300U). The CPU cores clock from 2.4 GHz (base) to 4.1 GHz (single core Turbo) and can use 4 MB L3 cache. Thanks to SMT/Hyperthreading, the CPU can work on 8 threads simultaneously. The integrated memory controller only supports fast LPDDR5 memory (5500 MHz max.). Compared to the fastest Mendocino model the Ryzen 5 7520C, the 7320C offers lower clocked CPU cores (400 MHz base, and 200 MHz Turbo).

The 7320C is the Chromebook version of the Ryzen 5 7320U with identical specifications.

The integrated graphics card (Radeon 610M iGPU) uses the modern RDNA 2 architecture, but only 2 CUs (128 shaders) and clocks with up to 1.9 GHz.

The CPU performance should be slightly better than a Ryzen 4000U quad-core thanks to the faster memory and high clock speeds. Therefore, the CPU should be faster than the old Ryzen 3 4300U (4x 2.7 - 3.7 GHz, Zen 2, 7nm).

The Mendocino series are produced in a relatively modern 6nm FinFET process at TSMC and should offer a good power efficiency. The R3 7320C is rated at 15 W TDP and therefore well suited for thin and light laptops.

AMD Athlon Silver 7120C

The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U is a mobile processor for cheap Chromebooks of the Mendocino series. It integrates two older Zen 2 cores (similar to the Ryzen 4000 series). The CPU cores clock from 2.4 GHz (base) to 3.5 GHz (single core Turbo) and can use 2 MB L3 cache. It does not support SMT/Hyperthreading and therefore supports only 2 threads. The integrated memory controller only supports fast LPDDR5 memory (5500 MHz max.). Compared to the faster Mendocino models like the Ryzen 5 7520C, the 7120C offers only two cores, no SMT, a smaller L3 cache and reduced clock speeds, leading to a clearly lower CPU performance. The specifications are identical to the Athlon Silver 7120U for (Windows) laptops.

The integrated graphics card (Radeon 610M iGPU) uses the modern RDNA 2 architecture, but only 2 CUs (128 shaders) and clocks with up to 1.9 GHz.

The CPU performance should be similar than the fastest Ryzen dual-core (Ryzen 3 3250U, 2.6 - 3.5 GHz, Zen 1) but clearly stay behind modern quad-core CPUs (in multi threaded tests). 

The Mendocino series are produced in a relatively modern 6nm FinFET process at TSMC and should offer a good power efficiency. The Athlon Gold 7120C is rated at 8-15 W TDP and therefore well suited for thin and light laptops.