Intel Core i7-7500U vs AMD Ryzen 7 4700U vs Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6

Intel Core i7-7500U

The Intel Core i7-7500U is a dual-core processor of the Kaby Lake architecture. It offers two CPU cores clocked at 2.7 - 3.5 GHz and integrates HyperThreading to work with up to 4 threads at once. The architectural differences are rather small compared to the Skylake generation, therefore the performance per MHz is very similar. The SoC includes a dual channel DDR4 memory controller and Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics card (clocked at 300 - 1050 MHz). It is manufactured in an improved 14nm FinFET process (14nm+) at Intel. Compared to the old Skylake Core i7-6500U (2.5 - 3.1 GHz), the i7-7500U clock speed is up to 400 MHz higher.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700U

The AMD Ryzen 7 4700U is a processor for thin and light laptops based on the Renoir architecture. The 4700U integrates all eight cores based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture. They are clocked at 2 (guaranteed base clock) to 4.1 GHz (Turbo). There is no support for the thread-doubling SMT tech. The chip is manufactured on the modern 7 nm TSMC process and partly thanks to it AMD advertises a 2x improved performance per Watt for the Renoir chips. Compared to the faster R7 4800U, the 4700U offers slightly lower clock speeds and no support for SMT / Hyperthreading.

In addition to the eight CPU cores, the APU also integrates a Radeon RX Vega 7 integrated graphics card with 7 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 can be found on the chip. See our hub page on the Renoir Processors for more information.

Performance

The average 4700U in our database proves to be a rather competent little processor. It trades blows with the much more power-hungry Intel Core i7-10750H, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned. While it fails to get far enough away from the more affordable Ryzen 5 4600U, this Ryzen 7 is still a good CPU for most tasks.

Your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is and how high the CPU power limits are.

Power consumption

The Ryzen 7 4700U is a 15 W chip. However, laptop makers are allowed to change that value to anything between 10 W and 25 W, with clock speeds and long-term performance changing accordingly as a result. By going for the lowest value, it is possible to build a passively cooled system around the APU.

The fairly modern 7 nm TSMC process this Ryzen is manufactured on makes for above average, as of mid 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6

The Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6 is a fast quad-core processor notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the second fastest mobile Xeon model and the performance is slightly better tha the 100 MHz slower clocked consumer Core i7-7820HQ. Compared to the Core processors, the chip also supports ECC-RAM (error correction). Besides four cores including Hyper-Threading support running at 3 - 4 GHz (4 cores up to 3.6 GHz, 2 cores up to 3.8 GHz), the processor is also equipped with the professional HD Graphics P630 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

Thanks to the higher clocks, even the smaller model of the mobile Xeons is ahead of the fastest Skylake models (Xeon E3-1575M v6) and is therefore als powerful enough for very demanding applications.

Graphics

The integrated professional Intel HD Graphics P630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 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. It offers certified drivers for 15 professional and CAD applications.

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 45 Watts, but it can also be reduced to 35 Watts by the notebook manufacturers (cTDP down). This will obviously affect the performance, because the Turbo Boost cannot be maintained for longer periods.