AMD Ryzen 7 5825U vs Intel Core i3-8100H

AMD Ryzen 7 5825U

The AMD Ryzen 7 5825U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Cezanne generation. It is part of the "Barcelo" refresh in early 2022 and offers 100 MHz higher clocked CPU cores compared to the old Ryzen 7 5800U. The R7 5825U integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture and is the fastest U-series processor at launch. They are clocked at 2 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.5 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (16 threads). The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process.

The new Zen 3 microarchitecture offers a significantly higher IPC (instructions per clock) compared to Zen 2. For desktop processors AMD claims 19 percent on average and in applications reviews showed around 12% gains at the same clock speed.

Performance

The average 5825U in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 7 7735U and the Core i7-1270P, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. Which is a really good result, as of early 2023.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 37 W, the 2022 Envy x360 15 is among the fastest laptops built around the 5825U that we know of. It can be more than 15% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

In addition to the eight CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU with 8 CUs at up to 2000 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 16 MB level 3 cache (up from 8 MB at the 4800U) can be found on the chip.

The TDP of the APU is specified at 15 Watt (default) and can be configured from 10 to 25 Watt by the laptop vendor (most chips are configured higher than 15 Watt). That means the chip is intended for thin and light laptops (but with fans).

Intel Core i3-8100H

The Intel Core i3-8100H is a mid-range processor for laptops with four cores based on the Coffee Lake architecture and was announced mid 2018. The processor clocks at 3 GHz (no Turbo Boost) and can execute up to four threads simultaneously (no Hyper-Threading). According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in an improved 14nm (14nm++) process.

The Coffee Lake architecture is similar to Kaby Lake and differs only in the amount of cores (now six cores for the high end versions) and the improved 14nm process (14nm++ according to Intel).

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a slightly higher performance as its clock rate has been increased by 50 MHz (rumored). The architecture is identical to that of the Intel HD Graphics 630. We do expect a performance improvement, but as a low-end solution it will probably only display current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i5 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.