AMD Ryzen 7 5800H vs Intel Core i5-1245U vs Intel Core i5-1235U

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800H is a high-performance octa-core processor of the Cezanne product family. It was released in Q1 2021; it is designed for use in larger laptops, primarily gaming laptops and DTRs. The Ryzen features eight SMT-enabled Zen 3 cores running at 3.2 GHz (base clock speed) to 4.4 GHz (highest Boost frequency possible) along with the Vega 8 iGPU. The chip has 16 MB of L3 cache.

Architecture

The Ryzen 7 5800H is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process, just like the outgoing Ryzen 7 4800H was; both CPUs have 8 cores and 16 threads, too. The underlying microarchitecture is what makes the two vastly different as the newer Zen 3 microarchitecture brings a massive IPC improvement over Zen 2. To be specific, AMD promises an increase of up to 19%, with independent reviews pointing to a lower (but sizeable nonetheless) 12% increase.

Ryzen 5 5800H supports dual-channel DDR4-3200 and quad-channel LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Unlike the desktop-grade Ryzen 5000-series processors, Ryzen 5 5800H does not support PCI-Express 4.0, meaning NVMe SSDs will be limited to read/write rates of 3.9 GB/s.

The CPU gets soldered straight on to the motherboard (FP6 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

Performance

The Ryzen is a marvel of a processor. As far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned, the average 5800H in our database trades blows with the Intel Core i5-12500H, Core i7-11800H, Core i7-12650H, Core i9-11950H and also the AMD Ryzen 9 4900H. Needless to say, a system built around this CPU will have little difficulty chewing through pretty much any workload imaginable for years to come.

With the long-term CPU power limit of 75 W, the Lenovo Legion 5 15ACH is among the fastest 5800H-toting laptops that we have tested; it can be at least 20% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest laptops built around the 5800H in our database such as the HP Victus 16 or the Asus ZenBook 14X OLED.

Graphics

In addition to its eight CPU cores, the APU has the Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics adapter. Just like the name suggests, Vega 8 features 8 Compute Units (8 x 64 = 512 unified shaders); in the case of Ryzen 7 5800H, the Vega runs at up to 2,000 MHz.

On paper, this iGPU is inferior to the 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7. However, as is usually the case, synthetic benchmarks do not tell the entire story, as AMD's drivers are superior to those of Intel. As a result, the Vega will let you play a lot of games released in 2020 and 2021 at reasonable resolutions (up to Full HD 1080p) and Low to Medium presets. Mass Effect Legendary Edition is playable at 1080p (High), to give you an example. As the iGPU has no VRAM of its own, it is paramount that fast system RAM is used.

The graphics adapter definitely supports 2160p UHD monitors at 60 Hz. AVC, HEVC, MPEG-2, VP9-encoded videos can be hardware-decoded with the Vega but there is no AV1 support here; such a video will be software-decoded for much lower energy efficiency.

Power consumption

This AMD APU has a default TDP (also known as the long-term Power Limit) of 45 W that can be changed to anything between 35 W and 54 W by laptop makers, with clock speeds and performance changing accordingly as a result. No matter the exact value, an active cooling solution is a must.

The Ryzen 7 5800H is built with TSMC's 7 nm process for very decent, as of early 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i5-1245U

The Intel Core i5-1245U is a mid-range mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 2 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 12 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.6 to 4.4 GHz on the performance cluster and 1.2 to 3.3 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 12 MB L3 cache. Compared to the i7-1265U (fastest U-series CPU at launch), the 1245U offers lower clock speeds, a slower iGPU, but the full "Enterprise" vPro management features. Compared to the P-series (28W) or H-series (45W), the 15W TDP may limit the sustained performance.

Performance

Thanks to the 10 cores, the multi-threaded performance should be clearly faster than the older quad-core Tiger Lake CPUs with 15 Watt (like the Intel Core i7-1160G7). The sustained performance will be limited by the TDP setting and thermals and therefore only short term loads. Thanks to the architectural improvements of the big Golden Cove cores, the single thread performance should be better than similar clocked Tiger Lake CPUs.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. 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 only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 80 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.2 GHz.

The CPU is rated at 15 W base power (TDP, PL1) and 55 W max. Turbo power (PL2) and the whole SoC is manufactured on a 10nm process at Intel, which is known as Intel 7.

Intel Core i5-1235U

The Intel Core i5-1235U is a mid-range mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 2 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 12 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.3 to 4.4 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.9 to 3.3 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 12 MB L3 cache. Compared to the i5-1245U, the 1235U offers lower base clock speeds and only "Essentials" vPro management features. Compared to the P-series (28W) or H-series (45W), the 15W TDP may limit the sustained performance.

Performance

The average 1235U in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U and also, surprisingly enough, the i7-1250U and the i7-1260U, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. This is a very respectable result, as of mid 2023.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 27 W, the Beelink SEi12 is among the fastest systems built around the 1235U that we know of. It can be twice as fast in CPU-bound workloads as the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Architecture

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. 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 only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 80 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.2 GHz.

Power consumption

This ULV processor has a Base power consumption of 15 W (also known as the long-term power limit), with 55 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption. Both values are too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

Core i5-1235U is manufactured on Intel's fourth-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of mid-2022, energy efficiency.