Intel Core i5-4278U vs AMD A6-9220e

Intel Core i5-4278U

AMD A6-9220e

The AMD A6-9220e is an entry-level chip from the Stoney-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2017. The 9220e is an entry-level Stoney Ridge processor (dual-core version of Bristol Ridge) and integrates two CPU cores (one Excavator module with 2 integer and on FP unit) clocked between 1.6 - 2.4 GHz. It also includes a Radeon R4 GPU, probably with 192 shaders at 600 MHz, as well as a single-channel DDR4-2133 memory controller, H.265 video engine and chipset with all I/O ports. Compared to the similar named A6-9220 the 9220e is significantly slower clocked (2.5 - 2.9 GHz) including the GPU (600 versus 655 MHz) and can be passively cooled thanks to the TDP of 6W.

Architecture

Stoney Ridge is the successor of the Carrizo architecture and the design is almost identical. Thanks to optimized manufacturing processes and more aggressive Boost behavior, however, the clocks are a bit higher at the same power consumption. The memory controller now also supports DDR4-RAM, in this case up to 2133 MHz. Stoney Ridge is the designation for the smaller dual-core and single-core chip, while Bristol Ridge is the bigger quad-core chip with dual-channel memory controller. More technical details are available in the following articles:

• AMD's Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge Architecture
• AMD: Bristol Ridge APUs announced

Performance

Because of the significantly lower clock speed, the A6-9220e is noticeably slower than the A6-9220. In the Cinebench R15 Multi benchmark the 9220 reaches 38% higher scores, in the single thread test its more than twice as fast (219% versus the 9220 in the HP 255 G6). Compared to Intel CPUs, the A6-9220e is on par with the old Celeron N2820 in Cinebench (single and multi core). Therefore, the CPU is placed in the lowest segment (performance wise) and only suited for light tasks and light multitasking.

Graphics Card

The integrated Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge) GPU is probably similar to the R5 with 192 active shader units (3 compute cores), but a reduced clock of just 655 instead of 800 MHz. More details about the GPU are available in the linked articles above. 

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the A6-9220e with 6 Watts and therefore significantly below the 15 W of the A6-9220. This means the APU can be passively cooled and is a good choice for thin and light notebooks.