[Comparison] Intel Core i3-1215U vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500U – an uphill battle for the Intel

LaptopMedia.com Comparisons [Comparison] Intel Core i3-1215U vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500U - an uphill battle for the Intel

From: Severin Kolakov 15 June 2022 / 22:12 0

One of the positive surprises of 2021 was the arrival of the first Ryzen 5000U-series processors, which didn’t have a lot going for them in terms of hype.

They were using the older Zen 2 architecture, which killed a lot of the traction that the 5000U-series had, as many people were expecting Zen 3, which did arrive eventually. However, the Zen 2 CPUs delivered a lot of performance, and notebooks with them came at very good prices, making them very hot commodities for people who like a good deal.

Going to the newest generation of CPUs, we have Intel’s Alder Lake U-series, with so far the Core i3-1215U being the only CPU that we have managed to put to the test. Today we are having the Core i3 go against the Ryzen 5 5500U, to see just how the new tech compares to a successful powerhouse chip.

Today, we compare the Intel Core i3-1215U against the AMD Ryzen 5 5500U.

You can take a look at our Top Laptop CPU Ranking, where we showcase the best and the newest laptop processors.

You can find more information about both CPUs here: Intel Core i3-1215U / AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

Specs table

	Intel Core i3-1215U	AMD Ryzen 5 5500U
Architecture	Alder Lake-U	Zen 2
Cores / Threads	6/8	6/12
Clock Speeds – Base/Boost	0.90 – 4.40GHz	2.10 – 4.00GHz
Cache	10MB	11MB
Lithography	10nm	7nm
TDP	15W	15W
Memory type	DDR5-4800, LPDDR5-5200 DDR4–3200MHz LPDDR4x–4266MHz	DDR4-3200MHz, LPDDR4x-3733MHz
Integrated GPU	Intel UHD Graphics (Alder Lake, 64EU)	AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 (R4000/5000, 15W)

CPU benchmarks

The Ryzen 5 puts the Core i3 to shame, scoring 104% higher in Cinebench 20, while also being around 1.3 seconds quicker in Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion

The difference in computing power is large but also expected, as the Ryzen 5 5500U sits much higher on the imaginary totem pole, or in our case, the Top Laptop CPU Ranking. Furthermore, Ryzens have proven to be very efficient, delivering long battery life that makes a laptop last through a whole day of use. However, if you like having the latest tech in your arsenal, maybe wait up for the more powerful Alder Lake chips to hit the market.