Intel Core i5-8260U vs AMD Ryzen 5 3450U

Processor comparisons 03-04-2021

   If there are difficulties with the choice of a CPU, you will solve them by reading the comprehensive tests Intel Core i5-8260U vs AMD Ryzen 5 3450U and understand which is better for games or simple use for machine learning, programming, video editing, rendering, streaming. Here is useful information from many benchmarks or real video editing and streaming tests. A step-by-step analysis of all the specifications, so that it can be easier to read, is summarized in the table.
   From the comparison video, you can get the results of parallel examination in software tests such as Handbrake, Prime95, AIDA64, World of Tanks enCore Benchmark, Furmark, DaVinci Resolve Studio, Blender, RealBench, WPrime, SuperPi, 7zip, MATLAB, 3DMark, Dolphin Emulator, Gears 5, Blender, PCMark 10, VeraCrypt, Cinebench 23 (20, 15), GeekBench 6, 5.2, PassMark, UserBenchmark.
   Gaming performance of CPUs in:

Cyberpunk 2077
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Watch Dogs Legion
Fortnite
Rainbow Six Siege
Fallout 76
DOOM: Eternal
Last Man Standing
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Borderlands 3
Valheim
Halo Infinite
Valorant
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone
Grand Theft Auto V
Death Stranding
Apex Legends
Red Dead Redemption 2
Overwatch

After looking at the data of all benchmarks and videos, you can already make an informed decision about which CPU is better to buy for gaming AMD Ryzen 5 3450U or Intel Core i5-8260U.

Summary benchmark results

As a percentage of the maximum value based on a sample from the entire base of all processors
Processor Benchmark

Core i5-8260U

52%

Ryzen 5 3450U

52%

Gaming performance
Summary result of all game benchmarks.

Core i5-8260U

52%

Ryzen 5 3450U

51%

For the maximum in this test, the results of the most powerful processor in the site database are taken. And of course, this is a server processor, on which no one will run games. Because the cost of this processor reaches several tens of thousands of dollars. Therefore, if you think that the selected CPU has a little game result, look at the FPS that it produces in real games in the final table below.
List of other games in which processors were compared: Metro Exodus, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, League of Legends (LOL), Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Ghostrunner, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Battlefield V, Control, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Horizon Zero Dawn, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS GO), Monster Hunter World, DOTA 2A, Half-Life: Alyx, NBA 2K20, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Forza Horizon 4, Hitman 3.

Gaming benchmark

Fortnite	92.3	90.9
Valorant	104.9	103.3
Cyberpunk 2077	58.7	57.9
Apex Legends	98.6	97.1
Call of Duty Warzone	78.7	77.5
Overwatch	85.0	83.7
Red Dead Redemption 2	72.4	71.3
DOOM Eternal	52.4	51.7
Warzone	81.8	80.6
Assassin's Creed	88.1	86.8
Valheim	87.1	85.7

The numbers in this table indicate the maximum FPS that was received on the device with the corresponding processor. Depending on the configuration of the computer (RAM size and Video Card) and graphics quality settings (Ultra, Medium, Normal), the results may differ quite significantly. We recommend that you better study the results of the Cinebench, GeekBench and Passmark becnmarks.
The computers participating in the comparisons not only were the equipped with different video cards and different amounts of RAM. But users also tested them at different screen resolutions: 2K, FullHD or 4K. Therefore, the game benchmark data is approximate. But all video cards met the average system requirements of games. You will get more accurate information about how powerful the processor will be in games, if you compare it in one assembly with the video card that is installed in your computer.

Power consumption

Core i5-8260U

221%

Ryzen 5 3450U

176%

To make a final resolution on which processor is better, you should also consider the generation of its core. It is clear that the newer the generation, the better the performance of the processor in games and benchmarks, as well as its energy efficiency. In this case the Core i5-8260U is more energy efficient than the Ryzen 5 3450U since it has less power consumption: 15W vs. 15W. Power consumption is especially important for laptops. And TDP should be taken into account when choosing a processor cooling system. It is necessary to calculate so that the TDP data specified in the cooler specification is greater than the TDP of the compared processor.

Software benchmarks

Let's say you plan to use the processor not only for gaming, but also for machine learning, programming, streaming, video editing or video rendering, then first of all you need to pay attention to the performance in multi-threaded mode. In this mode, to reach maximum performance, the processor includes all threads and cores that it has. You will learn this data from the benchmark tables below. Before using the data from these tests, be sure to check whether the software you are going to use on your computer supports multi-threaded mode. Since there are still many programs that can use only one core to run, and all the advantages of multi-core mode turns out to be unnecessary.

Cinebench 23, 20 an 15
The results of this benchmark show Single-threaded and Multi-threaded CPU performance

	Intel Core i5-8260U	AMD Ryzen 5 3450U
Cinbench 15 Single-core	157	128
Cinbench 15 Multi-core	596	675
Cinbench 20 Single-core	409	328
Cinbench 20 Multi-core	2046	1511
Cinbench 23 Single-core	1029	860
Cinbench 23 Multi-core	4033	4042

Passmark
This popular benchmark displays Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Intel Core i5-8260U	AMD Ryzen 5 3450U
Single-Core	2385	2008
Multi-Core	7652	7359

GeekBench 6, 5.2
This benchmark shows Multi-threaded and Single-threaded processor performance

	Intel Core i5-8260U	AMD Ryzen 5 3450U
Single-Core	997	796
Multi-Core	4222	2857

Comparison of specifications

In the specification comparison table, the most helpful will be the the possibility of overclocking it and release date of the processor. The newer the processor, the longer it will last you. And the easier it will be to upgrade the system in the future. The same benefits from the presence of overclocking. When the processor can be overclocked, thereby increasing its performance, then it will still be able to produce maximum FPS even in the newest games. The savings are obvious! It turns out that you do not need to buy a new CPU to enjoy the games any longer.

	Intel Core i5-8260U	AMD Ryzen 5 3450U
Announcement date	April 01, 2020	October 01, 2020
Type	Laptop	Laptop
Socket	FCBGA1528	FP5
Core name	Coffee Lake	Matisse
Architecture	x86	Zen 2
Generation	8	2
Turbo Frequency	3.9 MHz	3.5 MHz
Frequency	1.6 MHz	2.1 MHz
Cores	4	4
Threads	8	8
Bus rate	4 GT/s OPI
Bit	64	64
Lithography	14 nm	12 nm
Transistors count	1900 millions	4200 millions
Power consumption (TDP)	15 W	15 W
Memory type	DDR4-2400, LPDDR3-2133
Max. Memory	64 Gb
Memory Frequency		2400
Memory bandwidth	37.5 GB/s
L1 cache		384KB
L2 cache		2MB
L3 cache	6 MB	4MB
Overclocking	No	No
Supports ECC	No	No
Part number		YM3450C4T4MFG

In this comparison block, you should pay attention to the differences in clock speed and the number of cores. Here Ryzen 5 3450U is 23% better than Core i5-8260U in terms of CPU frequency. Also keep in mind that high CPU frequency affects battery life through power consumption (relevant for laptops).

Result:
The number of parameters for which Intel Core i5-8260U is better: 25
The number of parameters for which AMD Ryzen 5 3450U is better: 9
However, it should be understood that all the number in the article above do not mean that taking them into account you should entirely trust a simple quantitative comparison. Better to watch the testing video and read the reviews of real owners of Intel Core i5-8260U and AMD Ryzen 5 3450U before making a choice which CPU to buy for gaming and which not.

Intel Core i5-8260U - all data

• Cinebench r15 score
• Cinebench r20 score
• Cinebench r23 score
• GeekBench 6, 5.2 score

• Intel Core i5-8260U specs and review.

• AMD Ryzen 5 3450U specs and review.