Intel Core i5-7300U vs AMD PRO A8-9600B

Intel Core i5-7300U

The Intel Core i5-7300U is a fast dual-core processor for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It integrates 2 CPU cores with Hyper-Threading support clocked at 2.6 - 3.5 GHz (2 core Turbo also 3.5 GHz). Besides two cores, the processor is also equipped with the HD Graphics 620 GPU as well as a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L-1600/DDR4-2400). It is 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

With 2.5 to 3.5 GHz, the Core i5-7300U clocks significantly higher than the old Core i5-7200U (2.5 - 3.1) and Core i5-6200U (2.3 - 2.8 GHz). Thanks to the fast Turbo frequency, the performance should be slightly below to the Core i7-7500U (2.7 - 3.5 GHz, but 4 MB L3 cache). Therfore, the performance is sufficient for demanding tasks.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 520) running at 300 - 1100 MHz. The performance depends a lot on the memory configuration; it should be comparable to a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M in combination with fast DDR4-2133 dual-channel memory.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby Lake now supports hardware decoding for H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors, which were 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, but it can also be reduced to 7.5 Watts by the notebook manufacturers (cTDP down). This will obviously affect the performance, because the Turbo Boost cannot be maintained for longer periods.

AMD PRO A8-9600B

The AMD PRO A8-9600B is a mid-range APU of the Bristol Ridge series (7th generation of APUs) with 4 CPU-cores (two Excavator modules) clocked at 2.4 - 3.3 GHz. It is intended for business laptops and features the same specifications as the consumer AMD A10-9600P SoC.

It was announced in mid 2016 and is based on the same silicon as Carrizo but with more and refined features. It is a ULV-chip with a TDP of 15 Watt and integrates a Radeon R5 graphics card (384 shader cores / 6 compute cores) and a dual-channel DDR4-1866 memory controller. As Carrizo its a full featured SoC that offers all I/O ports on the chip.

The A10-9600P is slightly faster than the old 15-Watt top model of Carrizo, the FX-8800P. Therefore, the CPU performance is similar to a Broadwell 15 Watt Core i3 like The i3-5010U. See our Bristol Ridge article for more information on the architecture and improvements compared to Carrizo.