Intel Core i7-1260U vs AMD Ryzen 7 7730U

Intel Core i7-1260U

The Intel Core i7-1260U is a mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers 2  performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 12 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.1 to 4.7 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.8 to 3.5 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 12 MB L3 cache. The 1260U offers "Enterprise" vPro management features. Compared to the P-series (28W) or H-series (45W), or even the 15W U-series, the 9W TDP will limit the sustained performance.

Performance

Compared to the old 7 Watt Comet Lake-Y series (like the i7-10510Y), the performance should be clearly better thanks to the 10 cores and the improved architecture of the P-cores. Compared to the 15 W U-series (like the similar specified Core i7-1265U) the sustained performance will be clearly limited by the 9 Watt TDP. As always, the performance will also greatly depend on the cooling solution, especially for fanless laptops and tablets.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers all 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 0.95 GHz.

Power consumption

This 12th gen Core i7 processor has a Base power consumption of 9 W, with 29 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption. It is built with Intel's 2nd gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent energy efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 7 7730U

The AMD Ryzen 7 7730U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Cezanne generation. It is part of the second "Barcelo" refresh in early 2023 and offers the same specifications as the old Ryzen 7 5825U. The CPU integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture clocked at 2 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.5 GHz (Turbo) and support SMT / Hyperthreading (16 threads). The chip is manufactured in 7nm at TSMC.

The Zen 3 microarchitecture offers a significantly higher IPC (instructions per clock) compared to Zen 2 but stays behind the current Zen 4 based CPUs (e.g. 7040HS series).

Performance

The average 7730U in our database is in the same league as the Ryzen 7 5825U, Ryzen 7 6800U, Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U and also the Core i7-1360P, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 30 W, the ThinkPad E14 G5-21JSS05C00 is among the fastest laptops built around the 7730U that we know of. It can be almost 40% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

In addition to the eight CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 8 GPU with 8 CUs at up to 2000 MHz. The dual channel memory controller supports DDR4-3200 and energy efficient LPDDR4-4266 RAM. Furthermore, 16 MB level 3 cache (up from 8 MB at the 4800U) can be found on the chip.

The TDP of the APU is specified at 15 Watt (the 5825U was specified at 10 - 25W).