Athlon Silver 7120U vs i7-720QM

Place in the ranking	2428	1928
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Series	Intel Core i7	no data
Power efficiency	2.19	12.49
Architecture codename	Clarksfield (2009−2010)	Mendocino (Zen 2) (2022−2023)
Release date	23 September 2009 (15 years ago)	20 September 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$546	no data

Detailed specifications

Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U 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	4 (Quad-Core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	8	2
Base clock speed	1.6 GHz	2.4 GHz
Boost clock speed	2.8 GHz	3.5 GHz
Bus type	DMI 1.0	no data
Bus rate	2.5 GT/s	no data
Multiplier	12	no data
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	64 KB (per core)
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	512 KB (per core)
L3 cache	6 MB (shared)	2 MB (shared)
Chip lithography	45 nm	6 nm
Die size	296 mm²	100 mm²
Maximum core temperature	100 °C	no data
Number of transistors	774 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	no data

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U 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
Socket	FCPGA988,PGA988	FP6
Power consumption (TDP)	45 Watt	15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® SSE4.2	XFR, FMA3, SSE 4.2, AVX2, SMT
AES-NI	-	+
AVX	-	+
vPro	+	no data
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	1.0	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
PAE	36 Bit	no data

Security technologies

Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-d	+	no data
VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3-1066, DDR3-1333	DDR5 Dual-channel
Maximum memory size	8 GB	no data
Max memory channels	2	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	21.335 GB/s	no data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics card

None

AMD Radeon 610M

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U.

PCIe version	2	3.0
PCI Express lanes	16	4

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.

i7-720QM 1.04

Athlon Silver 7120U 1.98
+90.4%

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.

i7-720QM 1657

Athlon Silver 7120U 3142
+89.6%

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.

i7-720QM 301

Athlon Silver 7120U 962
+220%

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.

i7-720QM 847

Athlon Silver 7120U 1584
+87%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.04	1.98
Recency	23 September 2009	20 September 2022
Physical cores	4	2
Threads	8	2
Chip lithography	45 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	45 Watt	15 Watt

i7-720QM has 100% more physical cores and 300% more threads.

Athlon Silver 7120U, on the other hand, has a 90.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 650% more advanced lithography process, and 200% lower power consumption.

The Athlon Silver 7120U is our recommended choice as it beats the Core i7-720QM in performance tests.

Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-720QM and Athlon Silver 7120U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.