Intel Core i7-4578U vs Intel Core i3-10110Y vs Intel Core i7-4940MX

Intel Core i7-4578U

Intel Core i3-10110Y

The Intel Core i3-10110Y is an extremely power efficient dual-core SoC for small laptops and tablets that was announced in August 2019. The faster models, like the Core i5-10310Y offer two additional cores however.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 10110Y as of August 2023, we have tested at least one laptop utilizing the 10100Y, an insignificantly slower chip (Amber Lake, 2 cores, 4 threads, up to 3.9 GHz.) Based on that, expect the 10110Y to be noticeably faster than the AMD 3050e. Performance of this kind is totally sufficient for basic day-to-day activities, as of late 2022.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are.

The integrated graphics adapter however is still the same as in the previous generations. It should be still called Intel UHD Graphics 615 and runs at 300 - 1000 MHz in the i3. Furthermore, the SoC integrates a VP9 and H.265 de- and encoder.

The TDP is specified at 7 Watts but can be varied from 5.5 to 9 Watt from the manufacturer (cTDP up/down) resulting in different performance (especially Turbo durations). Interestingly, the faster Core i5-10210Y with two more cores can be configured to lower 4.5 Watt.

Intel Core i7-4940MX

The Intel Core i7-4940MX is a high-end quad-core processor for laptops and successor of the i7-4930MX. It is based on the Haswell architecture and was launched in Q1/2014. Due to Hyperthreading, the four cores can handle up to eight threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 3.1 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.9 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 4.0 GHz (for 1 active core). Furthermore, the Extreme CPUs offer an unlocked multiplicator for easy overclocking.

Architecture

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, increasing the performance per clock by about 5 - 10 percent. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Performance

Compared to the Core i7-4930MX, the 4940MX is clocked just 100 MHz higher and therefore only slightly faster. Overall, the performance is similar to the Desktop Core i7-4770K. Even extremly demanding software or multitasking will be handled easily.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 400 MHz up to 1350 MHz with Turbo Boost, making it about 30 % faster than the HD 4000. This is slightly slower than the AMD Radeon HD 8650G, but similar to a dedicated GeForce GT 720M.

Power Consumption

The i7-4940MX is rated at a TDP of 57 W including graphics card, memory controller and VRMs.  Therefore, the CPU is only suited for laptops 17-inches or greater.