AMD A9-9420e vs Intel Core i7-7700T vs AMD A4-9120

AMD A9-9420e

The AMD A9-9420e is an entry-level chip from the Stoney-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation). It was first found in the Dell Inspiron 3000 with passive cooling and 4 GB DDR4 RAM. The performance in that device was way below the normal A9-9420 as the clock speed only reached up to 2,5 GHz. It also includes a Radeon R5 GPU with 192 shaders as well as a single-channel DDR4-2133 memory controller, H.265 video engine and chipset with all I/O ports.

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

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the A9-9420 between 10-25 Watts, but the passively cooled A9-9420e should be positioned lower than 9 Watt.

Intel Core i7-7700T

The Intel Core i7-7700T is a fast quad-core processor for desktops based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. It is the top model of the 35 Watt models and significantly slower than the similar named Core i7-7700K. The four Skylake based CPU cores are clocked from 2.9 - 3.8 GHz and support HyperThreading / SMT (8 threads).

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

The performance of the i7-7700T is slightly faster than the Core i5-7600K with sufficient cooling and TDP settings. Therefore, the CPU is fine to handle even demanding tasks and apps.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 has 24 Execution Units (similar to previous HD Graphics 530) running at 350 - 1150 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.

AMD A4-9120

The AMD A4-9120 is an entry-level chip from the Stoney-Ridge APU series for notebooks (7th APU generation), which was announced mid 2017. At its launch, the A4-9210 is a mid-range 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 2.2 - 2.5 GHz. It also includes a Radeon R3 GPU with 128 shaders at 655 MHz, as well as a single-channel DDR4-2133 memory controller, H.265 video engine and chipset with all I/O ports.

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 range, the A4-9120 should be noticeably slower than the A6-9210 or A9-9410.

Graphics Card

The integrated Radeon R2 (Stoney Ridge) GPU offers only 2 CUs (=128 shaders) and a core clock of 655 MHz. More details about the GPU are available in the linked articles above. 

Power Consumption

AMD specifies the TDP of the A4-9120 with 15 Watts, but it can be configured between 10-15 Watts. This means the APU is a good choice for thin and light notebooks.