Intel Core i5-8265U vs AMD Ryzen 5 3550H vs Intel Core i5-8365U

Intel Core i5-8265U

The Intel Core i5-8265U is a power efficient quad-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Whiskey Lake generation and will probably be announced in August 2018. Compared to the similar named Kaby Lake-R processors (e.g. Core i5-8250U), the Whiskey Lake CPUs are now produced in a further improved 14nm process (14nm++) and offer higher clock speeds. The architecture and features are the same. The i5-8265U offers e.g. high Turbo clock speeds of 3,9 GHz (versus 3,4 GHz of the i5-8250U) for a single core (3.8 for two cores, 3.7 GHz for all four cores). The integrated GPU is still named Intel UHD Graphics 620 and the dual-channel memory controller still supports the same RAM speeds as Kaby-Lake-R (DDR4-2400 / LPDDR3-2133). Thermal Velocity Boost is not supported (only in the Core i7-8565U).

The Whiskey Lake SoCs are used with a new PCH produced in 14nm that supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) and CNVi WiFi/BT parts.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake and Kaby Lake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. That means Whiskey Lake is a Kaby Lake chip manufactured in the improved 14nm++ process.

Performance

The performance of the i5-8265U depends on the cooling solution of the laptop and the defined TDP limits for short and long term performance. We already saw big differences for Kaby Lake-R (e.g., i7-8550U benchmarks), especially for long term (sustained) performance. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the additionalTurbo  clock speed can be made use of. For the Core i7, Intel estimates between 3-11% higher performance to the Kaby-Lake-R generation and that should be similar in the Core i5 (as long as the cooling is sufficient).

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 and Whiskey 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 a further improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors (14nm++), the same as the 8th Gen Coffee 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.

Warning: Above information is partly still based on rumors and leaks and may therefore change till release.

AMD Ryzen 5 3550H

The AMD Ryzen 5 3550H is a mobile SoC that was announced in January 2019. It combines four Zen+ cores (8 threads) clocked at 2.1 GHz to 3.7 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics adapter with 8 CUs (512 Shaders) clocked at up to 1,200 MHz. Compared to the similar Ryzen 5 3500U, the 3550H offers a 20 Watt higher TDP and therefore a better performance under long periods of load. The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. As the features of the Picasso APUs are the same compared to the Raven Ridge predecessors, we point to our Raven Ridge launch article.

The Picasso SoCs use the Zen+ microarchitecture with slight improvements that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvements. Furthermore, the 12 nm process allows higher clock rates at similar power consumptions.

Performance

The average 3550H in our database proves to be a solid mid-range CPU, its multi-thread benchmark scores hovering close to those of the Intel Core i7-10710U and the Core i5-8257U. Which is a little slow for an H-class processor, as of late 2021, but still more than enough for the vast majority of apps and games, provided one is fine with having to wait a little longer than usual for that 4K video encoding job to get completed.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and sufficiently high CPU power limits, the Pavilion Gaming 15-ec0002ng is among the fastest laptops powered by the 3550H that we know of. It can be more than 20% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Ryzen 5 series chip has a default TDP (also known as the long-term power limit) of 35 W. Laptop makers are free to reduce that value significantly with 12 W being the minimum AMD-recommended value. Clock speeds and performance would take a hit as a result; either way, that's a little too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

Last but not the least, the AMD Ryzen 5 3550H is built with a 12 nm process for lower-than-average, as of mid 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i5-8365U

The Intel Core i5-8365U is a power efficient quad-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Whiskey Lake generation and was announced in April 2019 as part of two vPro capable CPUs of the WHL-U series. Compared to the similar named Kaby Lake-R processors (e.g. Core i5-8250U), the Whiskey Lake CPUs are now produced in a further improved 14nm process (14nm++) and offer higher clock speeds. The architecture and features are the same. The i5-8365U offers e.g. high Turbo clock speeds of 4.1 GHz (versus 3.4 GHz of the i5-8250U) for a single core. The integrated GPU is still named Intel UHD Graphics 620 and the dual-channel memory controller still supports the same RAM speeds as Kaby-Lake-R (DDR4-2400 / LPDDR3-2133). Thermal Velocity Boost is not supported (only in the Core i7-8565U).

Compared to the predecessor, the Core i5-8265U, the i5-8365U offers a 200 MHz higher Turbo Boost. As the i5-8365U first appeared in a Thinkpad, the CPU most likely supports vPRO for additional hardware management features.

The Whiskey Lake SoCs are used with a new PCH produced in 14nm that supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) and CNVi WiFi/BT parts.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake and Kaby Lake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. That means Whiskey Lake is a Kaby Lake chip manufactured in the improved 14nm++ process.

Performance

The performance of the i5-8365U depends on the cooling solution of the laptop and the defined TDP limits for short and long term performance. We already saw big differences for Kaby Lake-R (e.g., i7-8550U benchmarks), especially for long term (sustained) performance. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the additionalTurbo  clock speed can be made use of. Compared to the Core i5-8265U (see for benchmarks), the 200 MHz higher Turbo Boost should result in some gains in single core benchmarks.

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 and Whiskey 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 a further improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors (14nm++), the same as the 8th Gen Coffee 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.