AMD Ryzen 7 5700U vs Intel Core i5-1135G7

AMD Ryzen 7 5700U

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700U is an APU of the Lucienne product family designed for leaner laptops. The Ryzen features eight Zen 2 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz (base clock speed) to 4.3 GHz (Boost) as well as a Vega 8 iGPU. Thread-doubling SMT tech is enabled in this CPU for up to 16 concurrent processing threads.

Architecture

In spite of what its name may suggest, Ryzen 7 5700U is not a Zen 3 part, meaning this is a Ryzen 4000 series mobile processor in disguise. Nevertheless, the CPU is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process and its performance as well as energy efficiency figures are very strong compared to what Intel currently has to offer in this segment.

The Ryzen 7 features 8 MB of Level 3 cache. Its built-in memory controller is designed to work with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Unlike the desktop Ryzen 5000 processors, Ryzen 7 5700U does not support PCI-Express 4.0, meaning those speedy NVMe SSDs will be limited to read/write rates of 3.9 GB/s.

The Ryzen gets soldered directly to the motherboard (FP6 socket) and is thus not user-replaceable.

Performance

Long-term performance sustainability of a mobile CPU tends to depend heavily on cooling system performance as well as TDP settings of a laptop. That said, Ryzen 7 5700U is one of the fastest U-class CPUs of 2021. As such, a 5700U will outshine any U-class Intel CPU, beating certain H-class Intel processors such as the Intel Core i5-11400H in the process. AMD Zen 2 is a fairly mature architecture, and eight Zen 2 cores are a force to be reckoned with, even at a 15 W TDP.

Graphics

In addition to its eight CPU cores, Ryzen 7 5700U features the Radeon RX Vega series graphics adapter with 8 CUs (= 512 shaders) running at up to 1,900 MHz. This iGPU trails behind the 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 in synthetic benchmarks, yet its real-world performance is good enough for many games released in 2020 and 2021 at reasonable resolutions (up to Full HD 1080p) and low to medium quality. As the Vega has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

The graphics adapter definitely supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 Hz, and will gladly HW-decode AVC, HEVC and VP9-encoded videos. There is no AV1 support here though.

Power Consumption

This Ryzen is manufactured on the 7 nm TSMC process for a very decent energy efficiency. Ryzen 7 5700U has a default TDP of 15 W that can be changed to anywhere between 10 W and 25 W by and OEM. The chip won't look out of place in super-slim laptops of all sizes (with an active cooling solution, if possible) as well as mini-PCs and portable gaming consoles and other fancy things.

Intel Core i5-1135G7

The Intel Core i5-1135G7 is a quad-core, mid-range SoC designed to be used in ultra-light laptops. The Tiger Lake-UP3 processor was introduced in September 2020. It features four Willow Cove CPU cores running at 2.4 GHz (base clock speed @ 28 W TDP) Boosting up to 4.2 GHz (1-core Boost). The all-core Boost clock speed sits at 3.8 GHz. This is a Hyper-Threading-enabled CPU, allowing for up to 8 concurrent processing threads.

Architecture

A sizeable performance-per-MHz boost is one of the multiple strengths of Tiger Lake compared to the older Ice Lake and Comet Lake product families. Core i5-1135G7 is compatible with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4x-4267 RAM, supports PCI-Express 4.0 (4 lanes) and is capable of HW-accelerating AI workloads. Thunderbolt 4, USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6 support is partially baked into the chip. Four PCI-Express 4.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

The i5 is manufactured on Intel's second-gen 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin that is supposedly comparable to TSMC's 7 nm process that Ryzen 4000 series laptop-grade processors are manufactured on. Both the CPU cores and the iGPU enjoy access to 8 MB of L3 cache. The higher-end Core i7-11x5 parts are notable for their larger Level 3 cache (12 MB versus 8 MB), faster iGPUs and higher clock speeds. Core i5-1135G7 is supposed to be permanently soldered to the motherboard (BGA1449 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

Performance

The i5's long-term Boost sustainability will depend heavily on how high the Power Limits and how good the cooling solution of a laptop are. That being said, the average Core i5-1135G7 in our database is just as fast as the Core i5-10400H, Core i5-8300H, and Ryzen 7 3700U in multi-core benchmarks. The CPU acts even nicer when under single-core load, reaching similar heights as the Ryzen 7 5600X and Core i7-8700K. The performance may not be ground-breaking, but it’s still on the sunnier side. This Core i5 will have no difficulty coping with some light gaming and video editing on the go, and the more mundane tasks including the usual web browsing and spreadsheet editing will pose no problem, either.

Graphics

The 80 EU Iris Xe Graphics G7 is based on Intel's Gen 12 architecture. The iGPU is somewhat faster than the older Iris Plus G7 (Ice Lake) and much faster than the UHD 620 (Comet Lake). The 80 EUs are clocked at 400 MHz to 1,300 MHz. This graphics adapter can drive up to 4 monitors in resolutions up to SUHD [email protected] and hardware decode the AVC, HEVC, VP9 and last but not the least AV1 video streams. The iGPU's gaming performance is close to what a typical GeForce MX250 has in store; casual gamers will be happy with the Xe as it will easily handle most titles at 720p on low or medium quality settings. An important thing to keep in mind is that the iGPU has no video memory of its own, making fast RAM a necessity.

Power Consumption

The Core i5's 10 nm manufacturing process and low core count render it relatively energy-efficient. Just like all other Tiger Lake-UP3 processors, Core i5-1135G7 has a long-term Power Limit of 12 W to 28 W (OEMs get to set the value according to their needs). This makes the i5 a good fit for thinner, lighter systems as well as an occasional Windows tablet. The CPU's long-term performance sustainability is likely to be very poor in passively cooled setups.