AMD Athlon Silver 3050C vs Intel Core i3-8121U

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


AMD Athlon Silver 3050C CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Core i3-8121U
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C Intel Core i3-8121U

CPU comparison

AMD Athlon Silver 3050C or Intel Core i3-8121U - 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 3050C has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. Up to 32 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The AMD Athlon Silver 3050C was released in Q3/2020.

The Intel Core i3-8121U has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Core i3-8121U was released in Q2/2018.
AMD Athlon (29) Family Intel Core i3 (205)
AMD Athlon Silver 3000 (3) CPU group Intel Core i 8000U (CL) (1)
4 Generation 8
Dali (Zen) Architecture Cannon Lake U
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050C has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the AMD Athlon Silver 3050C is 2.30 GHz (3.20 GHz) while the Intel Core i3-8121U has 2 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Core i3-8121U is at 2.20 GHz (3.20 GHz).
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C Characteristic Intel Core i3-8121U
2 Cores 2
4 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
Yes Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
2.30 GHz Frequency 2.20 GHz
3.20 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 3.20 GHz
2.30 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 2.70 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 3050C Characteristic Intel Core i3-8121U
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050C or Intel Core i3-8121U 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 RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge) GPU no iGPU
1.10 GHz GPU frequency --
-- GPU (Turbo) --
8 GPU Generation --
14 nm Technology
3 Max. displays
3 Compute units --
192 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory --
12 DirectX Version --

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 RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge) GPU no iGPU
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050C can use up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 38.4 GB/s. The Intel Core i3-8121U 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 3050C Characteristic Intel Core i3-8121U
DDR4-2400 Memory LPDDR4-2400, DDR4-2400
32 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
38.4 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
Yes ECC No
1.00 MB L2 Cache --
4.00 MB L3 Cache 4.00 MB
3.0 PCIe version 3.0
8 PCIe lanes 16
7.9 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth 15.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the AMD Athlon Silver 3050C is 15 W, while the Intel Core i3-8121U has a TDP of 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C Characteristic Intel Core i3-8121U
15 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
25 W TDP up --
12 W TDP down --
95 °C Tjunction max. 105 °C

Technical details

The AMD Athlon Silver 3050C is manufactured in 14 nm and has 5.00 MB cache. The Intel Core i3-8121U is manufactured in 10 nm and has a 4.00 MB cache.
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C Characteristic Intel Core i3-8121U
14 nm Technology 10 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, AVX-512
FP5 Socket BGA 1356
AMD-V, SVM Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
Yes AES-NI Yes
Operating systems Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q3/2020 Release date Q2/2018
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C (96%)
Intel Core i3-8121U (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C (70%)
Intel Core i3-8121U (100%)

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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
774 (96%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
810 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 2.30 GHz
1389 (70%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
1987 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
1114 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 2.30 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
2414 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge) @ 1.10 GHz
422 (100%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 2.30 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
4395 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 3.20 GHz
139 (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 3050C AMD Athlon Silver 3050C
2C 4T @ 2.30 GHz
0 (0%)
Intel Core i3-8121U Intel Core i3-8121U
2C 4T @ 2.70 GHz
305 (100%)

Devices using this processor
AMD Athlon Silver 3050C Intel Core i3-8121U
Unknown Unknown

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