i3-7020U vs i7-6500U

Place in the ranking	1903	2093
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i7	Intel Core i3
Power efficiency	13.01	10.29
Architecture codename	Skylake (2015−2016)	Kaby Lake (2016−2019)
Release date	1 September 2015 (9 years ago)	10 April 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$393	$281

Detailed specifications

Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores	2 (Dual-core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	4	4
Base clock speed	2.5 GHz	2.3 GHz
Boost clock speed	3.1 GHz	2.3 GHz
Bus type	OPI	OPI
Bus rate	4 GT/s	4 GT/s
Multiplier	25	23
L1 cache	128 KB	128 KB
L2 cache	512 KB	512 KB
L3 cache	4 MB	3 MB
Chip lithography	14 nm	14 nm
Die size	98.57 mm²	no data
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	100 °C
Number of transistors	1750 Million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration	1 (Uniprocessor)	1 (Uniprocessor)
Socket	FCBGA1356	FCBGA1356,FC-BGA1356,FPBGA1356
Power consumption (TDP)	15 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2	Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI	+	+
AVX	+	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	+
Speed Shift	no data	+
My WiFi	+	+
Turbo Boost Technology	2.0	-
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	+
Idle States	+	+
Thermal Monitoring	+	+
Flex Memory Access	+	+
Smart Response	+	+

Security technologies

Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	-	-
EDB	+	+
Secure Key	+	+
MPX	+	+
Identity Protection	+	+
SGX	Yes with Intel® ME	Yes with Intel® ME
OS Guard	+	+

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U are enumerated here.

AMD-V	+	+
VT-d	+	+
VT-x	+	+
EPT	+	+

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3, DDR4	DDR4
Maximum memory size	32 GB	32 GB
Max memory channels	2	2
Maximum memory bandwidth	34.134 GB/s	34.134 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card Compare	Intel HD Graphics 520	Intel HD Graphics 620
Max video memory	32 GB	32 GB
Quick Sync Video	+	+
Clear Video	+	+
Clear Video HD	+	+
Graphics max frequency	1.05 GHz	1 GHz
InTru 3D	+	+

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported	3	3
eDP	+	+
DisplayPort	+	+
HDMI	+	+
DVI	+	+

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

4K resolution support	+	+
Max resolution over HDMI 1.4	4096x2304@24Hz	4096x2304@24Hz
Max resolution over eDP	4096x2304@60Hz	4096x2304@60Hz
Max resolution over DisplayPort	4096x2304@60Hz	4096x2304@60Hz
Max resolution over VGA	N/A	no data

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX	12	12
OpenGL	4.5	4.5

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-6500U and Core i3-7020U.

PCIe version	3.0	3.0
PCI Express lanes	12	12

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i7-6500U 2.06
+26.4%

i3-7020U 1.63

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i7-6500U 3275
+26.8%

i3-7020U 2583

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i7-6500U 719

i3-7020U 735
+2.2%

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i7-6500U 1641
+10.2%

i3-7020U 1489

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

i7-6500U 4886
+36.2%

i3-7020U 3588

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

i7-6500U 10844
+34.2%

i3-7020U 8083

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

i7-6500U 316
+39.2%

i3-7020U 227

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

i7-6500U 128
+37.6%

i3-7020U 93

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

i7-6500U 1.8
+28.6%

i3-7020U 1.4

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

i7-6500U 2482
+29.3%

i3-7020U 1920

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.

i7-6500U 20
+31%

i3-7020U 16

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.

i7-6500U 105
+31.3%

i3-7020U 80