Intel Core i3-1220P vs Intel Core i7-7660U vs Intel Core i5-7287U

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.

Intel Core i7-7660U

The Intel Core i7-7660U is a fast dual-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. The CPU has two processor cores clocked at 2.5-4 GHz (two cores up to 3.8 GHz). The processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper Threading. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU with 64 MB eDRAm, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to the Core i7-7600U, the 7660 does have a higher single-core Turbo of 4 GHz (+100 MHz), but a lower dual-core Turbo (-100 MHz) and a lower base frequency (-300 MHz). However, the CPU part can also use the 64 MB eDRAM as L5 cache.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

At 2.5-4 GHz, the Core i7-7660U has a slightly lower frequency (except for the single-core Turbo) compared to the Core i7-7600U, but the CPU part can also use the 64 MB eDRAM, so the performance should be similar.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 640 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-1050 MHz and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 920MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Pro 540, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors announced in January should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel still specifies the TDP with 15 Watts, which is typical for ULV chips. Depending on the usage scenario, the TDP can vary between 7.5 (cTDP Down) and 25 Watts.

Intel Core i5-7287U

The Intel Core i5-7287U is a fast dual-core SoC for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. The CPU has two processor cores clocked at 3.3-3.7 GHz (two cores also up to 3.7 GHz). The processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper Threading. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 GPU with 64 MB eDRAM, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

The performance of the 28-Watt CPU should be on par with the Core i7-7560U (2.4-3.8 GHz, also 64 MB eDRAM, 15 Watts), where the Turbo Boost is usually shorter compared to the 7287U due to the lower TDP. This means the i5 is still one of the faster dual-core processors and should be sufficient for most scenarios. Some games might still require a real quad-core processor and therefore nit run perfectly on the dual-core processor, despite Hyper Threading.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 650 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-1100 MHz and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 920MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Pro 550, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors announced in January should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel specifies the TDP with 28 Watts, which can be reduced to 23 Watts (cTDP Down) depending on the usage scenario. The TDP is pretty high compared to the common 15-Watt TDP for dual-core processors, but allows a better utilization of CPU and GPU Turbo.