AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U vs Intel Pentium 8505

AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U

The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U is a mobile SoC that was announced in January 2019. It combines four Zen+ cores (no SMT / Hyperthreading so only 4 threads) clocked at 2.1 - 3.5 GHz with a Radeon RX Vega 6 graphics card with 6 CUs (384 Shaders) clocked at up to 1200 MHz. Specified at 15 Watt TDP, the SoC is intended for thin mid-range laptops. Compared to the similar consumer variant Ryzen 3 3300U, the PRO model features additional management and security features (e.g., full memory encryption) and longer warranty / availability.

The Picasso SoCs use the Zen+ microarchitecture with slight improvements that should lead to a 3% IPS (performance per clock) improvements. Furthermore, the 12nm process allows for higher clock rates at similar power consumptions.

The integrated dual-channel memory controller supports up to DDR4-2400 memory. As the features of the Picasso APUs are the same compared to the Raven Ridge predecessors, we point to our Raven Ridge launch article.

AMD states that the Picasso APUs are about 8% faster than the predecessors. Therefore, the Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U should be similar to the Ryzen 5 PRO 2500U (2 - 3.6 GHz but with SMT).

Intel Pentium 8505

The Intel Pentium 8505 is an entry-level mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Alder Lake architecture. It was announced in early 2022 and offers one performance core (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 4 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 6 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.2 to 4.4 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.9 to 3.3 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 8 MB L3-cache. Compared to the faster Core i3-1215U, the Pentium offers one less P-core.

Performance

This is a fairly unpopular CPU, if the fact that we have not tested a single system built around it as of August 2023 is any indication. That said, we have tested a few systems featuring the Core i3-1215U, a chip with the same clock speeds and the same 4 E-cores but with 2 P-cores instead of 1. Based on that, expect the 8505 to be 10% to 20% behind the Ryzen 3 5300U and the Core i7-1185G7, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned.

Your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is and how high the CPU power limits are.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 48 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.1 GHz.

Power consumption

The Pentium has a Base power consumption of 15 W, with 55 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption. These values are fairly high; passive cooling solutions aren't really an option here.

The CPU is built with Intel's 3rd generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for decent, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.