i3-8120 vs Ryzen Z2
Contents
Primary details
Comparing processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 1031 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop processor |
| Series | AMD Hawk Point (Zen 4/4c) | Intel Core i3 |
| Power efficiency | 26.17 | no data |
| Designer | AMD | Intel |
| Manufacturer | no data | Intel |
| Architecture codename | Hawk Point-U (Zen 4) (2023−2025) | Coffee Lake (2017−2019) |
| Release date | 6 January 2025 (less than a year ago) | 1 September 2018 (6 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120 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 | 8 (Octa-Core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 16 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 3.3 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 5.1 GHz | 3.7 GHz |
| Bus type | no data | DMI 3.0 |
| Bus rate | no data | 4 × 8 GT/s |
| L1 cache | 512 KB | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 8 MB | 1 MB |
| L3 cache | 16 MB | 6 MB (shared) |
| Chip lithography | 4 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | 178 mm2 | 126 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 100 °C | no data |
| Maximum case temperature (TCase) | no data | 72 °C |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | no data | - |
Compatibility
Information on Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120 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 | no data | 1 (Uniprocessor) |
| Socket | FP7/FP7r2/FP8 | 1151 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 28 Watt | 51 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX512, FMA3, MMX (+), SHA, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, SSSE3 | no data |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | + |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | no data | + |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120 are enumerated here.
| VT-d | no data | + |
| VT-x | no data | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR5 | DDR4 Dual-channel |
| Maximum memory size | no data | 64 GB |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | no data | 38.397 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card | AMD Radeon 780M | Intel UHD Graphics 630 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Ryzen Z2 and Core i3-8120.
| PCIe version | no data | 3.0 |
Pros & cons summary
| Integrated graphics card | 16.62 | 2.83 |
| Recency | 6 January 2025 | 1 September 2018 |
| Physical cores | 8 | 4 |
| Threads | 16 | 4 |
| Chip lithography | 4 nm | 14 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 28 Watt | 51 Watt |
Ryzen Z2 has 487.3% faster integrated GPU, an age advantage of 6 years, 100% more physical cores and 300% more threads, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 82.1% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between AMD Ryzen Z2 and Intel Core i3-8120. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that Ryzen Z2 is a notebook processor while Core i3-8120 is a desktop one.
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