Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core i5-7300U vs AMD Ryzen 3 3300U
On paper, the AMD Ryzen 3 3300U has more cores (4 against 2), and the AMD Ryzen 3 3300U carries more L3 cache. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
Intel Core i5-7300U
Intel · Core 7th generation · Laptop
AMD Ryzen 3 3300U
AMD · Ryzen 3000 · Laptop
Cores and clocks
Cache and power
Platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
Cores and threads
The Ryzen 3 3300U has 4 cores and 4 threads against 2 and 4. More threads help with work that can be split into many pieces at once: rendering, compiling, video export, running several heavy programs together. They do little for work that runs on a few threads, which includes most games and most everyday software, where the speed of one core decides the result.
Cache
The Ryzen 3 3300U carries 4 MB of L3 cache against 3 MB. Cache is fast memory on the chip, and a larger one means the cores wait on main memory less often. Games, large spreadsheets and compiling respond to it; rendering and video export, which stream through data in order, respond much less.
Power and cooling
The Ryzen 3 3300U is rated at 35 W against 25 W. The rating is the heat the cooler has to move for the chip to hold its speed, and modern chips draw well above it in short bursts. In a laptop the maker chooses the real limit inside a range, so the same chip can behave like two different processors in two machines. That spread is what a sustained test measures and a specification sheet cannot. A chip whose cooling falls short does not fail. It slows down, and it does so after the first minute, which is why short benchmarks miss it.
Platform
Laptop processors are soldered to the board, so this is a choice between machines, not between chips you can swap. What differs between two laptops with these parts is mostly the power limit and the cooling the maker gave each one.
Manufacturing process
The Ryzen 3 3300U is built on a 12 nm process against 14 nm. A finer process generally does the same work for less power. The names are marketing labels rather than measurements, though, and they are not comparable between manufacturers, so treat the row as a sign of how recent the design is and no more.
Which to pick, on paper
- A quiet or compact build
- Core i5-7300U
- 25 W against 35 W: less heat to move, so a smaller cooler and slower fans.
What no table says
How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the Core i5-7300U better than the Ryzen 3 3300U?
- By need, on the specifications: a quiet or compact build: the Core i5-7300U. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
- Do the Core i5-7300U and the Ryzen 3 3300U use the same socket?
- Laptop processors are soldered in place, so neither can be swapped for the other.
- Does the Core i5-7300U or the Ryzen 3 3300U have integrated graphics?
- Both do: Intel HD Graphics 620 on the Core i5-7300U and Radeon Vega 6 Graphics on the Ryzen 3 3300U.
- Which runs hotter, the Core i5-7300U or the Ryzen 3 3300U?
- The Ryzen 3 3300U is rated at 35 W against 25 W, so it produces more heat under load and needs the larger cooler. How hot either one actually runs depends on the cooler and the case more than on the chip.
More comparisons
- Intel Core i5-7300U vs Intel Core i5-8250U
- Intel Core i5-7300U vs Apple M6
- Intel Core i5-7300U vs Intel Core i5-1135G7
- Intel Core i5-7300U vs Intel Core i5-1145G7
- Intel Core i5-7300U vs Intel Core i7-1165G7
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i5-8250U
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Apple M6
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i5-1135G7
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i5-1145G7
- AMD Ryzen 3 3300U vs Intel Core i7-1165G7
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.