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CPU Core Details

CPU Codename Kaby Lake-U Carrizo-L
MoBo Socket BGA 1356 BGA769 (FT3b)
Notebook CPU yes yes
Release Date 30 Oct 2016 06 May 2015
CPU Link GD Link GD Link
Approved

CPU Technical Specifications

{
CPU Cores 2 4
CPU Threads 4 4
Clock Speed 2.5 GHz 2.2 GHz
Turbo Frequency 3.1GHz 2.5 GHz
Max TDP 15 W 15 W
Lithography 14 nm 28 nm
Bit Width 64 Bit 64 Bit
Max Temperature 100°C 90°C
Virtualization Technology no no

CPU Cache and Memory

L1 Cache Size 128 KB 256 KB
L2 Cache Size 512 KB 2048 KB
L3 Cache Size 3 MB -
Memory Types
Max Memory Size 32 GB -
Memory Channels 2 2
ECC Memory Support no no

CPU Graphics

Integrated Graphics no no
Base GPU Frequency - -
Max GPU Frequency - -
DirectX - -
Displays Supported - -

CPU Mini Review

Mini Review Core i5-7200U 2-Core 2.5GHz is an energy efficient mobile processor based on the 14nm, Kaby Lake-U Microarchitecture. It offers 2 Physical Cores (4 Logical), initially clocked at 2.5GHz, which may go up to 3.1GHz and 3MB of L3 Cache. Among its many features, HyperThreading, Turbo Boost and Virtualization are activated. The processor integrates powerful Graphics called Intel HD Graphics 620, initially clocked at 300MHz and that go up to 1GHz, in Turbo Mode which share the L2 Cache and system RAM with the processor. Both the processor and integrated graphics have a rated board TDP of 15W. It is a powerful processor whose performance is good. It's thus capable of running most applications smoothly without any problem. APU A8-7410 Quad-Core is a Middle-Class Mobile Processor based on the 28nm, Puma+ MicroArchitecture. It offers 4 Physical Cores (4 Logical), initially clocked at 2.2GHz, which may go up to 2.5GHz and 2MB of L2 Cache. Among its many features, Turbo Core and Virtualization are activated. The Processor Integrates Relatively Graphics called Radeon R5 7410, with 128 Shader Processing Units clocked at 847MHz, which share the L Caches and System RAM with the processor. Both the processor and integrated graphics have a rated board TDP of 15W. It offers average performance. This means it will become a bottleneck in some demanding applications.

Gaming Performance Comparison

In terms of overall gaming performance, the Intel Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz is massively better than the AMD APU A8-7410 Quad-Core when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.

Both the Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz and the APU A8-7410 Quad-Core were released at the same time, so are likely to be quite similar.

The 4 has 2 more cores than the Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz. { With 4 cores, the 4 is much less likely to struggle with the latest games, or bottleneck high-end graphics cards when running them.

Both the Intel Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz and the AMD APU A8-7410 Quad-Core have the same number of threads. The APU A8-7410 Quad-Core has one thread per physical core, whereas the $strippedName1 uses hyperthreading and has 2 logical threads per physical core.

Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.

More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.

The Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz and APU A8-7410 Quad-Core are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz has a 0.3 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. As such, we need to look elsewhere for more reliable comparisons.

Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.

The <span class='gpu2Mention'>APU A8-7410 Quad-Core</span> has a 1536 KB bigger L2 cache than the <span class='gpu1Mention'>Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz</span>, and although the APU A8-7410 Quad-Core does not appear to have an L3 cache, its larger L2 cache means that it wins out in this area.

The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.

Both the Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz and the APU A8-7410 Quad-Core have the same TDP of 15 Watts, but the Core i5-7200U 2.5GHz has a lower lithography size, and so will affect your yearly electricity bills less adversely.