Intel Core i5-1135G7 vs AMD Ryzen 3 5400U

Intel Core i5-1135G7

The Intel Core i5-1135G7 is a quad-core, mid-range SoC designed to be used in ultra-light laptops. The Tiger Lake-UP3 processor was introduced in September 2020. It features four Willow Cove CPU cores running at 2.4 GHz (base clock speed @ 28 W TDP) Boosting up to 4.2 GHz (1-core Boost). The all-core Boost clock speed sits at 3.8 GHz. This is a Hyper-Threading-enabled CPU, allowing for up to 8 concurrent processing threads.

Architecture

A sizeable performance-per-MHz boost is one of the multiple strengths of Tiger Lake compared to the older Ice Lake and Comet Lake product families. Core i5-1135G7 is compatible with dual-channel DDR4-3200 or quad-channel LPDDR4x-4267 RAM, supports PCI-Express 4.0 (4 lanes) and is capable of HW-accelerating AI workloads. Thunderbolt 4, USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6 support is partially baked into the chip. Four PCI-Express 4.0 lanes allow for read/write rates of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

The i5 is manufactured on Intel's third-gen 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin that is supposedly comparable to TSMC's 7 nm process that Ryzen 4000 series laptop-grade processors are manufactured on. Both the CPU cores and the iGPU enjoy access to 8 MB of L3 cache. Higher-end Core i7-11x5 processors are notable for their larger Level 3 cache (12 MB versus 8 MB), faster iGPUs and higher clock speeds. Core i5-1135G7 is supposed to be permanently soldered to the motherboard (BGA1449 socket interface) and is thus not user-replaceable.

Performance

The average i5-1135G7 in our database delivers multi-thread benchmark scores close to those of the Core i7-10810U, Core i5-1145G7, Core i5-1230U and also the Ryzen 7 3780U. The performance may not be ground-breaking, but it’s still on the sunnier side. This Core i5 will have no difficulty coping with some light gaming and video editing on the go, and the usual web browsing and spreadsheet editing will pose no problem to it, either.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 25 W, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14ITL05 is among the fastest laptops built around the 1135G7 that we know of. It can be about 60% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Graphics

The 80 EU Iris Xe Graphics G7 is based on Intel's Gen 12 architecture. The iGPU is somewhat faster than the older Iris Plus G7 (Ice Lake) and much faster than the UHD 620 (Comet Lake). The 80 EUs are clocked at 400 MHz to 1,300 MHz. This graphics adapter can drive up to 4 monitors in resolutions up to SUHD 4320p@60 and hardware decode the AVC, HEVC, VP9 and last but not the least AV1 video streams. The iGPU's gaming performance is close to what a typical GeForce MX250 has in store; casual gamers will be happy with the Xe as it will easily handle most titles at 720p on low or medium quality settings. An important thing to keep in mind is that the iGPU has no video memory of its own, making fast RAM a necessity.

Power consumption

Just like all other Tiger Lake-UP3 chips, the i5-1135G7 has a default TDP of 12 W to 28 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value to get higher clock speeds and thus better performance. Either way, these values are a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The CPU is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for decent, as of mid 2022, energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 3 5400U

The AMD Ryzen 3 5400U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Cezanne generation. The R3 5400U integrates four of the eight cores based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture and is the slowest U-series processor of the Cezanne generation at launch. The cores are clocked at 2.6 (guaranteed base clock) to 4 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (8 threads). The chip is manufactured in the modern 7 nm process at TSMC.

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

While we have not tested a single system built around the 5400U as of August 2023, we are fairly confident the chip is a little faster than the Ryzen 3 5300U and its four Zen 2 cores running at clock speeds similar to what the 5400U has. Naturally, your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is and how high the CPU power limits are.

In addition to the four CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 integrated graphics card with 6 CUs and up to 1600 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 8 MB level 3 cache (same as the old 4800U) can be found on the chip.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 3 has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 15 W. Laptop manufacturers are free to change that value to anything between 10 W and 25 W if so desired, with clock speeds and performance changing correspondingly. Those values aren't low enough to allow for passively cooled designs.

This is a 7 nm chip; it thus has higher-than-average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.