Intel Core i7-7820HQ vs AMD FX-7600P

Intel Core i7-7820HQ

The Intel Core i7-7820HQ is a fast quad-core processor for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the second fastest model of the consumer series at the time of the announcement. Only the i7-7920HQ and Xeon E3-1535M v6 are faster. Besides four cores including Hyper-Threading support running at 2.9 - 3.9 GHz (4 cores up to 3.5 GHz, 2 cores up to 3.7 GHz), the processor is also equipped with the HD Graphics 630 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

Due to the higher clock speeds, the performance of the i7-7820HQ is slightly faster than the old Skylake top model Core i7-6920HQ (2.9 - 3.8 GHz). The performance is sufficient even for very demanding tasks and on par with powerful desktop quad-core processors.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 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.

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.

AMD FX-7600P

The quad-core AMD FX-7600P is a mid-range processor based on the Kaveri architecture. It was revealed in June 2014 for notebooks and is manufactured by GlobalFoundries using a 28 nm SHP process. In addition to having two CPU modules for a total of four integer cores clocked at 2.7 - 3.6 GHz, the AMD chip also integrates a Radeon R7 GPU clocked at up to 686 MHz with 512 GCN shaders and a dual-channel DDR3-2133 memory controller. The FX-7600P was the fastest mobile Kaveri APU in 2014.

In addition to the CPU and GPU cores, the APU also integrates a dual-channel DDR3-2133 memory controller, UVD 4.0 video decoder, VCE 2.0 video encoder and TrueAudio audio processor.

Architecture 

Kaveri is the successor to the 2013 Richland architecture (e.g. A10-5750M). The revised CPU cores, codenamed Steamroller, represent the third generation of the module-based Bulldozer design. A number of major changes include modified decoders (now one per integer core), optimized branch prediction, and increased L1 I-cache from 64 KB to 96 KB per module. These revisions boost the performance per clock slightly over a similarly clocked Richland APU. For more details about the AMD Kaveri architecture, see our detailed analysis here:

Analysis of the AMD Kaveri Notebook Platform

Performance 

In our benchmarks with a demo laptop from AMD the performance of the processor cores was comparable to a Haswell Core i5-4210U. The single thread performance is the bottleneck of the CPU and only on a level of the previous A10-5750M (Richland) or Haswell Core i3-4030U.

Overall, the FX-7600P will be sufficient for multitasking daily workloads (Office, Internet browsing, multimedia) as well as more demanding programs.

Graphics

The Radeon R7 (Kaveri) GPU of the FX-7600P features a core clock of up to 686 MHz and 512 shader units. Since the GPU is based on AMD's GCN 1.1 architecture, both DirectX 11.2 "Tier 2" and Mantle are supported. Furthermore, the GPU can be used for general purpose computing in various applications, such as Adobe Photoshop via the OpenCL API. 

In terms of 3D performance, the GPU benefits from its high raw computational power and memory support up to DDR3-2133. Thus, the Radeon R7 is just slightly behind Intel's Iris Pro Graphics 5200 and roughly on par with a dedicated GeForce GT 730M. The integrated GPU in the Core i3 and i5 Haswell processors (like HD Graphics 4400) is left clearly behind.

As of Q2 2014, the Radeon R7 in the FX-7600P is one of the fastest integrated notebook graphics solutions that can handle many current games at low or medium settings at WXGA resolution.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the entire APU is rated at 35 Watts, which is similar to other competing mid-range models. As a result, the FX-7600P is best suited for 14-inch notebooks or larger.