Intel Core i3-8121U vs Intel Core i7-8550U. Specifications, performance, tests

Background information about the processors being compared, series, generation and market segment.

• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  Intel Core i3 Intel Core i7
• Generation
  8 8
• CPU group
  Intel Core i 8000U Intel Core i 8000U

Basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base and turbo frequency, and cache size. These parameters indirectly tell about the speed of the processor, the higher they are the better.

• Frequency
  2.20 GHz 1.80 GHz
• CPU Cores
  2 4
• Turbo (1 Core)
  3.20 GHz 4.00 GHz
• CPU Threads
  4 8
• Hyperthreading
  Yes Yes
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  normal normal

Internal Graphics does not affect the performance of the CPU, performs the work of the graphics card in its absence or on mobile devices.

• GPU name
  no iGPU Intel UHD Graphics 620
• GPU frequency
  0.30 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo 1.15 GHz
• Execution units
  24
• Shader
  192
• Max. GPU Memory
  -- 64 GB
• Max. displays
  3
• Generation
  9.5
• DirectX Version
  12
• Technology
  14 nm
• Release date
  Q3/2016

Built-in codecs used to encode and decode content. Significantly speeds up the required operations.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  No Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  No Decode / Encode
• h264
  No Decode / Encode
• VP9
  No Decode / Encode
• VP8
  No Decode / Encode
• AV1
  No No
• AVC
  No Decode / Encode
• VC-1
  No Decode
• JPEG
  No Decode / Encode

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Intel Core i7-8550U and Intel Core i3-8121U. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM DDR4-2400 SO-DIMM
• Max. Memory
  32 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  2 2
• PCIe version
  3.0 3.0
• PCIe lanes
  16 12

• AES-NI
  Yes Yes

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Intel Core i3-8121U and Intel Core i7-8550U to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

• TDP (PL1)
  15 W 15 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Intel Core i3-8121U and Intel Core i3-8121U, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) x86-64 (64 bit)
• Virtualization
  VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
• ISA extensions
  SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, AVX-512 SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2
• L3-Cache
  4.00 MB 8.00 MB
• Architecture
  Cannon Lake U Kaby Lake U Refresh
• Technology
  10 nm 14 nm
• Socket
  BGA 1356 BGA 1356
• Release date
  Q2/2018 Q3/2017