AMD Ryzen 9 7900X vs Intel Core i3-1220P vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a fast high-end desktop processor of the Raphael series. It offers 12 cores based on the Zen 4 architecture that supports hyperthreading (24 threads). The cores clock from 4.7 (base) up to 5.7 GHz (single core boost). When all 12 cores are fully loaded, 5.1 GHz is the max. clock speed. The 7900X is the second fastest Ryzen at launch, only bested by the Ryzen 9 7950X with 4 more cores.

The performance of the R9 7900X is clearly better than the old Ryzen 9 5900X thanks to the improved architecture and modern 5nm process. Compared to Intels Raptor Lake Core i9-13700K the single-core performance is slightly lower and the multi-core performance slightly faster. The gaming performance is a bit lower, and is on average only on par with the Core i5-13600K and also lower than the old Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

The Raphael series still uses a chiplet design with two CCD-clusters (each with 8 possible cores) in 5nm and an IO-die (including the memory controller and the Radeon Graphics iGPU) in 6nm.

Intel Core i3-1220P

The Intel Core i3-1220P is a lower mid-range Alder Lake family SoC designed for use in ultra-light, ultra-thin laptops of the more affordable flavour. It was announced in early 2022 and it has 2 performance cores as opposed to the 6 cores of the top-of-the-line i7-1280P (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) mated to 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The i3's P-cores are Hyper-Threading-enabled for a total of 12 threads when combined with its E-cores. The clock speeds range from 1.5 GHz to 4.4 GHz for the performance cluster and 1.1 GHz to 3.3 GHz for the efficient cluster. The shortcomings of this processor as compared with the faster Core i5-1240P are many, including the significantly slower iGPU, lower CPU core count, lower clock speeds, complete lack of the vPro features.

Architecture

The i3 is a continuation of Intel's efforts to use the ARM-developed big.LITTLE technology for its own benefit. A single "little" Alder Lake core is supposed to be as fast as a Skylake core (as found in the venerable Core i7-6700HQ among other options) which is six years old at this point. All of Core i3-1220P's CPU cores enjoy access to 12 MB of L3 cache. The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to LPDDR5-5200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4x-4267 or DDR4-3200; Intel suggests using no more than 64 GB of RAM, for reference. Just like the other 12th Gen Intel Core processors, this Core i3 comes with the Thread Director which is a new functionality designed to help Windows 11 decide which cores to use for what workload for best performance and efficiency possible. Hardware acceleration of AI algorithms is supported via GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). PCI-Express 5.0 support has not found its way into Alder Lake P processors, so users will have to be content with PCI-Express 4.0 for the time being. Four PCI-Express 4 lanes allow for a read/write rate of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Please note that this is not a user-replaceable CPU. It gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FCBGA1744 socket interface).

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 1220P as of October 2023, we have tested a laptop featuring the i5-1240U, a chip with nearly the same specs (2 P-cores mated to 8 E-cores, all running at the same clock speeds as what the 1220P has). Based on that, we expect the 1220P to be just slightly ahead of the Core i5-11400H, the Core i7-1265U and also the Ryzen 5 5600U, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of your system is.

Graphics

The built-in graphics adapter in the form of the 64 EU UHD Graphics running at up to 1.1 GHz is a slightly downgraded 80 EU Iris Xe. The latter can be found in many Alder Lake-P and Tiger Lake-UP3 processors, like a Core i5-1250P or a Core i5-1145G7, respectively. Despite the lower EU cluster count, this is still a fairly capable iGPU, loaded with modern features such as the AV1 video decoding capability and SUHD 4320p monitor support. The UHD Graphics will happily drive up to 4 monitors simultaneously, provided the laptop has the outputs required. Its gaming performance is unlikely to please the crowds, though, as it will be good for resolutions no higher than 1600x900 and Low settings only in most titles trleased in 2021 and 2022. Your mileage may vary depending on how high the Power Limits are and how capable the cooling solution of a laptop is. Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent performance as well (the UHD Graphics has to make do with no dedicated video memory).

Power consumption

The i3's base power consumption (also known as the default TDP or Power Limit 1) is 28 W; its "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 20 W. In the meantime, the maximum Turbo power consumption (also known as the PL2) is not supposed to exceed 64 W.

This 12th generation Intel chip is built with Intel's fourth-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency. Expect the i3 to be significantly less power-hungry (and a lot easier to cool) than all other Alder Lake-P chips because of its lower core count.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a fast mid-range desktop processor of the Raphael series. It offers 6 cores based on the Zen 4 architecture that supports hyperthreading (12 threads). The cores clock from 4.7 (base) up to 5.7 GHz (single core boost). When all 6 cores are fully loaded, 5.3 GHz is the max. clock speed. 

The performance of the R5 7600X is clearly better than the old Ryzen 5 5600X thanks to the improved architecture and modern 5nm process. The single core performance is very good thanks to the high turbo clock speed (-400 MHz compared to the high end CPUs like the Ryzen 9 7950X). The multi-threaded performance is of course not that competitive due to only 6 cores.

The Raphael series still uses a chiplet design with two CCD-clusters (each with 8 possible cores) in 5nm and an IO-die (including the memory controller and the Radeon Graphics iGPU) in 6nm.

The R5 7600X is rated 105 Watt TDP and Raphael is rather power hungry compared to the 5000 series.