Mediatek MT8121 vs Intel Core i7-1195G7 vs Mediatek MT8321

Mediatek MT8121

The Mediatek MT8121 is a low-cost ARM SoC (System on a Chip) mainly used in tablets. It is manufactured in 28 nm and integrates a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. The CPU cores are typically clocked at 1.3 GHz while the GPU is clocked at 156 MHz.

Performance

Since the Cortex-A7 architecture is somewhat slower than a Krait or Cortex-A9 design at the same clock speeds, the performance of the MT8121 is just below Nvidia's Tegra 3 or the Samsung Exynos 4412. The PowerVR SGX 544 is also just a low-cost solution not designed for ultra-high resolution displays or very demanding games.

Features

In addition to the processor and GPU, the SoC integrates a decoder for 1080p video, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 as well as GPS, but lacks a 2G/3G/4G radio. Cameras are supported up to a resolution of 13 MP.

Power consumption

Thanks to the energy-efficient A7 cores and 28 nm manufacturing, the power consumption is likely very low and suitable for even smaller tablets.

Intel Core i7-1195G7

The Intel Core i7-1195G7 is a quad-core SoC from the Tiger Lake-UP3 product family designed for thin laptops and Ultrabooks that was introduced in 2021. It integrates four Willow Cove processor cores (8 threads thanks to Hyper-Threading). The base clock (minimum) depends on the configured TDP and can range from 1.3 GHz (12 Watt TDP) up to 2.9 GHz (28 W). The Turbo on one core can reach up to 5 GHz (Turbo Boost 3.0). All cores can reach up to 4.6 GHz. The i7-1195G7 is part of the Tiger Lake UP3 refresh and is the fastest CPU of the Tiger-Lake U line.

Furthermore, Tiger Lake SoCs supports four lanes of PCIe 4, AI hardware acceleration, and the partial integration of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 and Wi-Fi 6E in the chip.

The 1195G7 integrates the Intel Iris Xe graphics adapter with 96 EUs clocked at 400 - 1400 MHz. The GPU and CPU can together use the 12 MB of L3 cache.

Performance

The average 1195G7 in our database matches the Intel Core i5-10300H in multi-thread performance while, perhaps surprisingly, lagging behind the AMD Ryzen 3 5300U. The makes the i7 a decent lower mid-range chip, as of early 2022. It'll run most apps with virtually no delays or slowdowns which is what the vast majority of users wants.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of slightly more than 30 W, the VAIO SX14 VJS144X0111K is among the fastest laptops built around the 1195G7 that we know of. It can be about 40% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

Power consumption

This Core i7 series chip has a default TDP of 12 W to 28 W, the expectation being that laptop makers will go for a higher value in exchange for higher performance. Either way, that's a tad too high to allow for passively cooled designs.

The i7-1195G7 is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as SuperFin for below average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

Mediatek MT8321

The Mediatek MT8321 is a low-cost ARM SoC (System on a Chip) mainly used in smartphones. It is most likely manufactured in 28 nm and integrates a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and a ARM Mali-400 MP2. The CPU cores are clocked at up to 1.3 GHz while the GPU is clocked at up to 500 MHz. Furthermore, the chip includes a EDGE / HSPA+ / WDCDMA radio and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. The integrated single channel memory controller supports LPDDR3 RAM.

Performance

Since the Cortex-A7 architecture is somewhat slower than a Krait or Cortex-A9 design at the same clock speeds, the performance of the MT8121 is just below Nvidia's Tegra 3 or the Samsung Exynos 4412. The PowerVR SGX 544 is also just a low-cost solution not designed for ultra-high resolution displays or very demanding games.