AMD Athlon Silver 7120U vs Intel Core i3-8109U

Last updated: 2024-04-16

CPU comparison with benchmarks


AMD Athlon Silver 7120U		Intel Core i3-8109U
CPU comparison AMD Athlon Silver 7120U or Intel Core i3-8109U - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results. The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. Up to 16 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U was released in Q3/2022. The Intel Core i3-8109U has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.60 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-8109U was released in Q4/2017.

AMD Athlon (29)	Family	Intel Core i3 (205)
AMD Athlon Silver 7000 (2)	CPU group	Intel Core i 8000U (8)
5	Generation	8
Mendocino (Zen2)	Architecture	Coffee Lake U
Mobile	Segment	Mobile
--	Predecessor	--
--	Successor	--

CPU Cores and Base Frequency The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 2 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the AMD Athlon Silver 7120U is 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz) while the Intel Core i3-8109U has 2 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i3-8109U is at 3.00 GHz (3.60 GHz).
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
2	Cores	2
2	Threads	4
normal	Core architecture	normal
No	Hyperthreading	Yes
No	Overclocking ?	No
2.40 GHz	Frequency	3.00 GHz
3.50 GHz	Turbo Frequency (1 Core)	3.60 GHz
--	Turbo Frequency (All Cores)	3.20 GHz

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
--	AI hardware	--
--	AI specifications	--

Internal Graphics The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U or Intel Core i3-8109U has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.
AMD Radeon 610M	GPU	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
0.40 GHz	GPU frequency	0.30 GHz
1.90 GHz	GPU (Turbo)	1.05 GHz
9	GPU Generation	9.5
6 nm	Technology	14 nm
3	Max. displays	3
2	Compute units	48
128	Shader	384
Yes	Hardware Raytracing	No
No	Frame Generation	No
8 GB	Max. GPU Memory	32 GB
12	DirectX Version	12

Hardware codec support A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.
AMD Radeon 610M	GPU	Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec h264	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP9	Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode	Codec VP8	Decode / Encode
Decode	Codec AV1	No
Decode / Encode	Codec AVC	Decode / Encode
Decode	Codec VC-1	Decode
Decode / Encode	Codec JPEG	Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U can use up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 44.0 GB/s. The Intel Core i3-8109U supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GB/s.
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
LPDDR5-5500	Memory	LPDDR3-2133, DDR4-2400
16 GB	Max. Memory	32 GB
2 (Dual Channel)	Memory channels	2 (Dual Channel)
44.0 GB/s	Max. Bandwidth	38.4 GB/s
Yes	ECC	Yes
1.00 MB	L2 Cache	--
2.00 MB	L3 Cache	4.00 MB
3.0	PCIe version	3.0
4	PCIe lanes	16
3.9 GB/s	PCIe Bandwidth	15.8 GB/s
Thermal Management The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the AMD Athlon Silver 7120U is 15 W, while the Intel Core i3-8109U has a TDP of 28 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
15 W	TDP (PL1 / PBP)	28 W
--	TDP (PL2)	--
--	TDP up	--
--	TDP down	20 W
95 °C	Tjunction max.	100 °C
Technical details The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U is manufactured in 6 nm and has 3.00 MB cache. The Intel Core i3-8109U is manufactured in 14 nm and has a 4.00 MB cache.
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Characteristic	Intel Core i3-8109U
6 nm	Technology	14 nm
Unknown	Chip design	Monolithic
x86-64 (64 bit)	Instruction set (ISA)	x86-64 (64 bit)
SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, FMA3	ISA extensions	SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
FT6	Socket	BGA 1528
AMD-V, SVM	Virtualization	VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes	AES-NI	Yes
Windows 11, Linux	Operating systems	Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q3/2022	Release date	Q4/2017
--	Release price	--

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AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save! Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.00 GHz (3.60 GHz) buy now on Amazon and save!

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks

AMD Athlon Silver 7120U (87%)

Intel Core i3-8109U (100%)

⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks

AMD Athlon Silver 7120U (78%)

Intel Core i3-8109U (95%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	711 (81%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	881 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz	1199 (59%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	2021 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	1093 (92%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	1185 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz	1911 (76%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	2524 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U AMD Radeon 610M @ 1.90 GHz	383 (47%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 @ 1.05 GHz	806 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz	4978 (100%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	4268 (86%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	55 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	107 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	366 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	916 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 3.50 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.60 GHz	153 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.


	AMD Athlon Silver 7120U 2C 2T @ 2.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	Intel Core i3-8109U 2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz	381 (100%)

Devices using this processor
AMD Athlon Silver 7120U	Intel Core i3-8109U
Unknown	Unknown

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