Intel Core i5-8250U vs AMD Ryzen 5 2600H vs AMD Ryzen 3 2200G

Intel Core i5-8250U

The Intel Core i5-8250U is a power efficient quad-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Kaby Lake Refresh generation and was announced in August 2017. Contrary to its direct predecessor the Core i5-7200U, which were still dual-cores, the i7-8250U is equipped with four cores but at a lower base frequency of 1.6 GHz. The Turbo Boost can go up to 3,4 GHz and therefore also offer good short term single core speeds. The GPU is now named Intel UHD Graphics 620 but otherwise identical to the Intel HD Graphics 620. The integrated memory controller supports DDR4-2400 / LPDDR3-2133 and dual channel memory.

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

According to Intel, the new quad core models are up to 40% faster than their dual core predecessors. Due to the reduced TDP and the same 14nm+ process, the long term performance and throttling behavior will be interesting and depending on the laptop design. Therefore, the older 35 Watt quad-core models should be faster in applications that demand longer CPU loads.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Intel Gen 9.5) is untouched from the 8th Gen Kaby Lake chips. With fast dual-channel memory it can reach the performance of a dedicated GeForce 920M.

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 (14nm+), the same as the 7th Gen Kaby Lake processors. 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.

AMD Ryzen 5 2600H

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600H is a mobile SoC that was announced late 2018. It is intended for mid-sized to big laptops and combines four Zen cores (8 threads) clocked at 3.2 (base) - 3.6 GHz (boost) with a Radeon RX Vega 8 Mobile graphics card with 8 CUs (512 Shaders, unverified). The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-3200 memory.

Compared to the older Ryzen 5 2500U for slim and light laptops, the 2600H offers a higher TDP (45 Watt versus 15 Watt), higher clocked memory, a higher base clock (3.3 versus 2 GHz) and a faster integrated GPU.

More information on Raven Ridge can be found in our launch article.

The performance should be slightly better than the Ryzen 5 2600U due to the higher TDP and base clock speed. Especially longer loads should profit from this. Due to the high TDP (configurable from 35 - 54 Watt), the Ryzen 7 2600H is best suited for bigger laptops.

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G

The AMD Ryzen 3 2200G is a desktop APU that was announced in early 2018. It combines four Zen cores (4 threads as no SMT/HyperThreading support) clocked at 3.5 - 3.7 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics card with 8 CUs (512 of the 704 Shaders on the chip) clocked at up to 1100 MHz. The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR-2933. The TDP is specified at 65 Watt and the CPU, GPU and memory are unlocked for overclocking. More information on Raven Ridge can be found in our launch article.