Intel Core i3-10110U vs AMD Ryzen 3 3250U vs Intel Core i3-1005G1

Intel Core i3-10110U

The Intel Core i3-10110U is a dual-core SoC of the Comet Lake family. The i3 is designed for use in ultraportable laptops of the more affordable flavor as well as mini-PCs. It was announced in August 2019. Just like the other Comet Lake processors, this Core i3 features several advantages over the outgoing Whiskey Lake family including support for faster memory (up to LPDDR4-2933).

Core i3-10110U runs at 2.1 GHz to 4.1 GHz (only 3.7 GHz are reachable when under multi-thread load). Hyper-Threading support is enabled for 4 processing threads in total.

Performance

The average 10110U in our database shapes up to be a decent entry-level CPU, as of late 2021, its multi-thread benchmark scores nearly matching those of the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U and also the Core i3-8145U. While not a whole lot faster than Intel's more affordable Pentium Gold and Pentium Silver chips, the i3 will still let you run most apps with virtually no annoying slowdowns.

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 Intel UHD Graphics 620 runs at up to 1,000 MHz. What makes this specific iGPU peculiar is that it only has 23 Execution Units at its disposal, not the 24 EUs typical for a UHD Graphics 620. Otherwise, it's the usual affair with 4K monitor support (up to three displays at the same time) and a hardware video decoder that's friends with VP9, AVC, HEVC but not the newer AV1 video codec.

Power consumption

This Core i3 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 15 W, a value that laptop makers are allowed to change to anything between 10 W and 25 W with clock speeds and performance changing correspondingly. By going for the lowest value, it will be possible to build a passively cooled system around the SoC.

The i3-10110U is built with one of the old 14 nm Intel processees for low, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is an entry-level, dual-core APU that was announced in 2020. The Ryzen features two Zen cores (SMT is enabled for a total of 4 threads) running at 2.6 GHz to 3.5 GHz and a Radeon RX Vega 3 graphics adapter (3 Compute Units = 192 unified shaders) running at up to 1,200 MHz. The specifications are similar to the older Ryzen 3 3200U, with the lower peak operating temperature of Ryzen 3 3250U (95 °C versus the 105 °C) being the only difference between the two.

AMD Ryzen 3 3250C is a special edition of Ryzen 3 3250U designed for use in Chromebooks. The specifications and performance figures appear to be identical between the two.

Architecture

Unlike the costlier Ryzen 5 3500U, Ryzen 3 3250U is not Zen+ based. It makes use of the ageing Zen architecture and is manufactured on the same 14 nm TSMC process as Ryzen 2000-series laptop-grade processors. This has several repercussions; the limited RAM support is one of them. DDR4-3200, DDR4-2933, DDR4-2666 modules are not supported here. It's just the DDR4-2400, DDR4-2133 and lower on.

The CPU has several PCI-Express 3.0 lanes and is thus compatible with NVMe SSDs (read/write rates will be limited to 3.9 GB/s) as well as discrete graphics cards. Ryzen 3 3250U gets soldered permanently on to the motherboard (FP5 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

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Performance

As far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned, this Ryzen series chip directly competes with the Core i3-10110U, Core i3-1110G4 and also the Athlon Gold 3150U. While the 3250U is certainly not a powerhouse, mundane tasks such as web browsing and casual gaming pose little problem to it, as of early 2022.

Graphics

The Vega 3 is fairly close to Intel's UHD Graphics 620 as far as performance and capabilities go. The graphics adapter supports UHD 2160p monitors at 60 fps, and it can HW-decode VP9, AVC, HEVC, MPEG-2 and other popular video codecs. The latest AV1 codec is not supported, though. Such a video will have to be decoded via software, with the limited CPU horsepower imposing a hard limit on the resolution that can be played back without stuttering.

The Vega will allow for a bit of light gaming; F1 2021 runs well at 720p / Low, to give you an example. Quality RAM will allow for higher frame rates and the opposite is true as well; please keep in mind that Vega 3 has no VRAM of its own.

Power consumption

Energy efficiency isn't great here. The Ryzen is built with a 14 nm manufacturing process leading to low, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

The APU has a default TDP, also known as the long-term Power Limit, of 15 W. Laptop makers are free to reduce that value a little, with 12 W being the lower limit, or give it a noticeable bump (up to 25 W are possible). Clock speeds and performance will change accordingly as a result.

While not as power-hungry as the Ryzen 3 3100 or any other desktop chip, the R3 3250U is still not likely to ever feature in a passively cooled laptop, tablet or mini-PC.

Intel Core i3-1005G1

The Intel Core i3-1005G1 is a low-power, Ice Lake family processor (SoC) featuring 2 cores, 4 threads, 4 MB of L3 cache and the UHD G1 (32 EUs) iGPU. It saw the light of day in 2019. The chip is designed for use in highly portable laptops of the more affordable flavour; the CPU cores run at 1.2 GHz to 3.4 GHz which is not a lot.

Architecture & Features

Ice Lake family chips are powered by Sunny Cove CPU cores.The latter aim to do what Palm Cove cores (that we never really got a chance to get a taste of) were expected to do, delivering a double-digit IPC uplift over the venerable Skylake architecture thanks to a range of small improvements across the board including scheduler improvements, larger caches and buffers, and support for new instruction sets.

Thunderbolt 3 support is built right into the Core i3 (meaning it has several PCIe 3 lanes exclusive to Thunderbolt devices, reducing the number of additional components required for Thunderbolt to work) and so is Intel CNVi Wi-Fi 6 support (making it easier for Intel to sell its proprietary WLAN cards to laptop makers). The Core i3-1005G1 also has the DL Boost and GNA features for applications centered around machine learning.

The 4 GT/s bus is indicative of a consumer-grade chip, since CPUs for gaming laptops and portable workstations usually employ the faster 8 GT/s bus. RAM support is nothing to sneeze at, at up to DDR4-3200 or LPDDR4-3733. NVMe SSDs are supported, with data transfer rates limited to 3.9 GB/s (this is what four PCIe 3 lanes are good for). SATA drives and even eMMC chips are also natively supported here.

This is not a user-replaceable CPU, as it gets permanently soldered to the motherboard (BGA1526 socket interface).

OS support is limited to 64-bit Windows 10 and 64-bit Windows 11, as well as many Linux distros.

Performance

The average 1005G1 in our database is a disappointment, its multi-thread benchmark scores only matching those of Intel's Core i5-7267U and AMD's Ryzen 3 2300U. This is unfortunately in line with what we've been seeing from other Ice Lake family processors; they tend to be held back by their comparatively low clock speeds. While not as slow as many Celerons and Pentiums, this Core i3 will still look out of place in anything but the most affordable laptops and mini-PCs.

With its long-term CPU power limit of 25 W, the Lenovo V17-IIL 82GX008TGE is among the fastest laptops built around this Core i3 that we know of.

Graphics

The Core i3-1005G1 features the UHD Graphics G1 (32 EUs) graphics adapter running at up to 900 MHz. This DX12-compatible iGPU is not much faster than the dated UHD 620 graphics solution, making it almost useless to gamers, and there are no cutting-edge features such as ray tracing support to be found here, either. The list of supported resolutions tops out at 5120 x 3200, and there is no hardware AV1 codec support meaning such a video will be SW-decoded with rather low energy efficiency. The usual HEVC, AVC and VP9 options are supported, thankfully.

The G1 will drive up to 3 monitors simultaneously, provided the system has the outputs required. Higher-end Ice Lake chips are equipped with the G4 (48 EUs) or the G7 (64 EUs) adapters that are significantly faster.

Power consumption

The Core i3 has a 15 W default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit), a value that laptop makers are allowed to reduce slightly - 13 W being the lower limit - resulting in lower clock speeds and lower performance. Either way, that's a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The SoC is built with Intel's second-gen 10 nm process (not "10 nm SuperFin" or "Intel 7") for average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.