AMD Ryzen 5 5600G vs Intel Core i7-13620H

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a Zen 3-based, desktop-grade APU featuring the Radeon Vega 7 graphics adapter. This Ryzen 5 was unveiled in H1 2021. It features six SMT-enabled CPU cores for 12 threads in total, running at 3.9 GHz to 4.4 GHz.

The CPU ships with AMD's Wraith Stealth cooler (as long as it's not an OEM version).

Architecture

Zen 3-based processors bring a moderate performance boost over Zen 2 generation CPUs. Core counts are left where they were before, while per-MHz performance is getting several percentage points higher.

Ryzen 5 5600G's CPU cores have access to 16 MB of L3 cache. The processor is compatible with DDR4-3200 RAM and has plenty of PCI-Express 3.0 lanes for connecting graphics cards, SSDs and other devices. Four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 3.9 GB/s, provided a sufficiently fast NVMe SSD is used. PCI-Express 4.0 spec is not supported here, since Ryzen 5 5600G is pretty much a laptop-grade SoC in disguise rather than a "proper" desktop chip, like a Ryzen 5 5600X.

You can replace this Ryzen with a faster CPU easily as it uses AMD's AM4 socket interface. Another way to get a performance boost would be to overclock the CPU, which is easy to do with AMD's very own software (many motherboard vendors offer overclocking software of their own as well).

Performance

The six Zen 3 cores will rip through most workloads rutlessly, more demanding ones included (like gaming and high-res video editing). Multi-thread benchmarks put the R5 5600G in the same league as the Core i5-10600K, Core i7-10700, Core i5-11600K, Core i7-11850H. A huge advantage of the Ryzen over the aforementioned alternatives is its decent integrated graphics adapter - more on this below.

Graphics

The Radeon RX Vega 7 iGPU has seven Compute Units (= 448 shaders) and runs at up to 1,900 MHz. It is casual gaming-friendly, allowing one to play most games at 900p / Low quality preset. On the other hand, there is no SUHD 4320p monitor support here, nor can the graphics adapter HW-decode AV1, the latest video codec.

Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent gaming performance as the Vega has no memory of its own.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 is manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process for great, as of early 2022, energy efficiency.

The chip has a default TDP of 65 W (also known as the long-term Power Limit). According to AMD's guidelines, that 65 W value can be reduced by PC makers significantly, the lower limit being 45 W, resulting in lower temperatures, lower clock speeds and lower performance. Either way, an active cooling solution is a must for a system built around this Ryzen.

Intel Core i7-13620H

The Intel Core i7-13620H is a high-end mobile CPU for laptops of the Raptor Lake-H series (based on the Alder Lake architecture). It was announced in early 2023 and offers 6 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 4 of the 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 16 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 2.4 to 4.9 GHz (single-core boost, all-core boost up to 4.7 GHz) on the performance cluster and 1.8 to 3.6 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 24 MB L3 cache. Compared to the older i7-12650H, the 13620H offers higher clock speeds.

Performance

Thanks to the improved clock speeds, the i7-13620H should be able to clearly best the old i7-12650H. Still, the faster i7 models of the 13th gen offer more e-Cores and therefore a clearly better multi-threaded performance.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-5200 (up from DDR5-4800 of the 12th gen.). The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU now supports PCIe 5.0 x8 for a GPU and two PCIe 4.0 x4 for SSDs.

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 64 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) clocked at up to 1.5GHz.

Power consumption

The i7-13620H is rated at a TDP of 55W (PL1, 115W PL2) and is manufactured in a further improved 10nm process (Intel 7) that allows the higher clock speeds compared to the 12th gen CPUs.