Intel Core i7-8650U vs AMD Ryzen 7 1700

Intel Core i7-8650U

The Intel Core i7-8650U 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 i7-7600U, which were still dual-cores, the i7-8650U is equipped with four cores but at a lower base frequency of 1.9 GHz. The Turbo Boost can go up to 4,2 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 behaviour 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. The performance however is highly depending on the TDP settings and cooling solution of the laptop. Especially, longer loads will show varying results in different laptops.

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 7 1700

The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 is a fast desktop processor with 8 cores and SMT (16 threads) that was introduced in early 2017. It is based on the new Zen architecture and it is the slowest model at the time of announcement. With 65 Watt it is also less power hungry than the Ryzen 1700X.

The CPU cores clock from 3 base speed up to 3.75 GHz (XFR). The 2-core Turbo is specified at 3.7 GHz and using all 8 cores, the CPU can reach up to 3.2 GHz. The clock rate and TDP rating is the only difference to the faster Ryzen 7 models.

The performance in applications that can make use of all 8 cores is very competitive to high end Intel CPUs at a very good price point. However, non optimized apps like many games can't make full use of the new architecture.

A detailed look at the new Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X and 1700 can be found in our review.