AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 vs Intel Core i5-12500H vs AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360

AMD Ryzen AI 9 365

The Ryzen AI 9 365 is a relatively powerful Strix Point family processor that debuted in June 2024. The chip features 10 CPU cores running at 2.0 GHz to 5.0 GHz, along with the 12 CU RDNA 3.5 Radeon 880M graphics adapter and the 50 TOPS XDNA 2 neural engine. Other key features include PCIe 4, USB 4 and LPDDR5x-7500 RAM support.

Of the 10 CPU cores, 4 are full Zen 5 cores with the other 6 being smaller Zen 5c cores. The latter probably run at somewhat lower clock speeds than the former. In the meantime, the more expensive Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 has both more CPU cores and a faster 16 CU integrated graphics adapter.

Architecture and Features

Strix Point family APUs are powered by Zen 5 and Zen 5c microarchitecture cores found in two separate clusters, the latter being a slightly slower, smaller and more energy-efficient version of the former. One of the differences between Zen 5 and Zen 5c is cache size; Zen 5 cores have larger caches to work with.

Either way, mobile Zen 5 implementation is reportedly (ChipsAndCheese) closer to desktop Zen 4 than to desktop Zen 5 due to differing cache sizes, vast differences in AVX-512 throughput and other factors.

Elsewhere, the Ryzen AI 9 chip supports DDR5-5600 and LPDDR5x-7500 RAM, giving system designers a choice between lower latency and higher throughput respectively. The chip is natively compatible with USB 4 (and therefore Thunderbolt). It has PCIe 4.0 support for throughput of 1.9 GB/s per lane, just like its 8000 series predecessors did. The integrated XDNA 2 NPU, which is a lot more complex than first-gen XDNA was, delivers up to 50 INT8 TOPS for accelerating various AI workloads.

As is usual for laptop CPUs, the Ryzen is not user-replaceable as it gets soldered down for good.

Performance

At 30 W, this Ryzen AI 9 series CPU is only just fast enough to compete with much older chips such as the Ryzen 9 4900H and Ryzen 9 PRO 6950HS in multi-threaded benchmarks, suggesting power efficiency is the focus here rather than sheer performance.

Graphics

The Radeon 880M is the direct successor to the 780M. It packs just a few differences under the hood, such as faster caches; its 12 RDNA 3.5 architecture CUs/WGPs (768 unified shaders) run at up to 2,900 MHz. With well over 30 fps in both Once Human and The First Descendant (1080p - Low), this iGPU is certainly fast enough for a fair bit of casual as well as competitive gaming.

Naturally, the Radeon is capable of driving four SUHD 4320p60 monitors simultaneously. It can also efficiently encode and decode the most popular video codecs such as AVC, HEVC, VP9 and AV1. The latest addition to that list, the VVC codec, is not supported unlike it is with Intel Lunar Lake chips.

Power consumption

The 365 is supposed to have a base TDP of 28 W, with laptop makers free to crank it up to up to 54 W. Which they will most likely do to maximize performance.

The 4 nm TSMC process that these CPUs are built with makes for above average, as of late 2024, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i5-12500H

The Intel Core i5-12500H is a high-end mobile CPU for laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 4 of the 6 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and all 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 2.5 to 4.5 GHz on the performance cluster and 1.8 to 3.3 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compared to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 18 MB L3 cache. Compared to the 12600H, the 12500H offers base clock for both clusters, a slower clocked iGPU and only "Essentials" vPro support.

Performance

The average 12500H in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 9 6900HS, Ryzen 9 6900HX, Core i7-12650H and also the Core i9-11900H, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. For something that's supposedly a mid-range chip, this kind of performance is just outrageously good, as of Q3 2023.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 80 W, the Gigabyte G7 KE is among the fastest laptops built around the 12500H that we know of. It can be more than 40% faster in CPU-bound workloads than 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 1.3 GHz.

Power consumption

This Core i5 has a "minimum assured" power consumption of 35 W. Its Base power consumption sits at 45 W and its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption isn't supposed to exceed 95 W. A high-performance cooling solution is a must for a CPU like this one here.

Last but not he least, Intel Core i5-12500H is manufactured on Intel's fourth-generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360

The Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 is a relatively powerful Strix Point family processor that debuted in October 2024. The hybrid architecture APU has 8 CPU cores onboard (a mix of three Zen 5 and five Zen 5c cores) running at 2.0 to 5.0 GHz, along with the 12 CU RDNA 3.5 Radeon 880M graphics adapter and the 50 TOPS XDNA 2 neural engine. The AMD Secure Processor (which in a nutshell is an on-package ARM co-processor) is onboard as well as are a few other higher-end features such as AMD-Vi. Other key features include PCIe 4, USB 4 and up to LPDDR5x-8000 RAM support, including ECC RAM.

Architecture and Features

Strix Point family APUs are powered by Zen 5 and Zen 5c microarchitecture cores found in two separate clusters, the latter being a slightly slower, smaller and more energy-efficient version of the former. One of the differences between Zen 5 and Zen 5c is cache size; Zen 5 cores have larger caches to work with.

Either way, mobile Zen 5 implementation is reportedly (ChipsAndCheese) closer to desktop Zen 4 than to desktop Zen 5 due to differing cache sizes, vast differences in AVX-512 throughput and other factors.

Elsewhere, the Ryzen AI 7 PRO chip supports DDR5-5600 and LPDDR5x-8000 RAM, giving system designers a choice between lower latency and higher throughput respectively. The chip is natively compatible with USB 4 (and therefore Thunderbolt). It has PCIe 4.0 support for a throughput of 1.9 GB/s per lane, just like its 8000 series predecessors did. The integrated XDNA 2 NPU, which is a lot more complex than first-gen XDNA was, delivers up to 50 INT8 TOPS for accelerating various AI workloads.

As is usual for laptop CPUs, the Ryzen 7 AI PRO chip is not user-replaceable as it gets soldered down for good.

Performance

We fully expect this PRO series processor to be 15% to 25% slower than the 10-core Ryzen AI 9 365 chip for Core Ultra 7 155U-like multi-thread benchmark scores. Of course, a lot depends on how high the power targets are which can differ vastly between designs.

Graphics

The Radeon 880M is the direct successor to the 780M. It packs several differences under the hood, such as faster caches; its 12 RDNA 3.5 architecture CUs/WGPs (768 unified shaders) run at up to 2,900 MHz. With well over 30 fps in both Once Human and The First Descendant (1080p - Low), this AMD iGPU is certainly fast enough for a fair bit of casual as well as competitive gaming.

Naturally, the Radeon is capable of driving four SUHD 4320p60 monitors. It can also efficiently encode and decode the most popular video codecs such as AVC, HEVC, VP9 and AV1. The latest addition to that list, the VVC codec, is not supported unlike it is with Intel Lunar Lake chips.

Power consumption

The 360 is supposed to have a low-term TDP power target of 28 W, with laptop makers free to crank it up to up to 54 W. Which they will most likely do to maximize performance.

The 4 nm TSMC process that these CPUs are built with makes for above average, as of late 2024, energy efficiency.