AMD Ryzen 5 8500G vs Intel Core Ultra 7 268V Comparison

The Intel Core Ultra 7 268V and AMD Ryzen 5 8500G sit in the same overall performance band: both land at the 74th percentile against all CPUs in the database, with average benchmark scores of 20,897 for the Intel chip and 20,425 for the AMD part. That near-parity in aggregate hides a sharp split in what each one is good at. The recorded data shows the Ryzen 5 8500G winning 12 of the 19 head-to-head tests while the Core Ultra 7 268V takes 7, and the margins swing wildly depending on the workload, from a modest 3.1 percent encryption gap to a 120.7 percent blowout in prime number computation. The two chips also target fundamentally different power envelopes: a 17 W TDP for the Intel part versus 65 W for the AMD part.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The biggest single result in the entire dataset belongs to Intel. In PassMark Find Prime Numbers, the Core Ultra 7 268V scored 192 against 87 for the Ryzen 5 8500G, a 120.7 percent advantage. PassMark Floating Point Math goes the same way: 57,628 versus 39,074, a 47.5 percent win for the Lunar Lake chip. PassMark Physics also favors Intel, 1,617 to 1,318, a 22.7 percent margin. These are not small differences; in workloads dominated by sustained floating point throughput and integer prime search, the Core Ultra 7 268V is in a different class.

AMD's largest wins are concentrated in rendering and integer-heavy multithreaded work. Cinebench R23 Multi-Core is the standout: the Ryzen 5 8500G posted 18,368 points against 10,653 for the Core Ultra 7 268V, a 42 percent gap. Cinebench R20 Multi-Core shows the same pattern at 7,714 versus 6,887, a 10.7 percent AMD lead, and Cinebench R15 Multi-Core lands at 1,851 versus 1,616, a 12.7 percent AMD advantage. The reason is straightforward from the thread counts: the Ryzen 5 8500G runs 6 cores and 12 threads while the Core Ultra 7 268V runs 8 cores and 8 threads with no SMT, so heavily threaded rendering scales better on the AMD part.

Single-core results are more mixed than the multicore picture. Cinebench R23 Single-Core goes to AMD decisively, 2,593 versus 1,921, a 25.9 percent lead, and Cinebench R20 Single-Core also favors AMD at 1,089 versus 972, 10.7 percent ahead. But Cinebench R15 Single-Core flips to Intel, 293 versus 261, a 12.3 percent win, and Geekbench Single-Core is nearly a tie with AMD ahead by 3.6 percent (2,354 versus 2,270). PassMark Single Thread favors Intel, 4,051 versus 3,891, a 4.1 percent edge. The single-thread story is therefore test-dependent, with neither chip holding a consistent lead.

The remaining PassMark suite splits along workload character. Geekbench Multi-Core favors Intel, 9,963 versus 9,444, a 5.5 percent win, one of the more surprising results given AMD's rendering dominance. PassMark Multithread favors AMD, 21,610 versus 19,297, 10.7 percent ahead. Data Compression goes to AMD by 27.5 percent (250,197 versus 181,443), Integer Math by 32.4 percent (63,123 versus 42,669), Random String Sorting by 23.8 percent (29,407 versus 22,416), Extended Instructions by 19.8 percent (19,098 versus 15,323), and Data Encryption narrowly by 3.1 percent (14,220 versus 13,779).

FAQ

Q: Which CPU is faster overall?

A: The average benchmark scores are nearly identical, 20,897 for the Core Ultra 7 268V and 20,425 for the Ryzen 5 8500G, and both sit at the 74th percentile against all CPUs in the database. However, the Ryzen 5 8500G wins 12 of 19 head-to-head tests, so it takes more individual matchups even though the aggregate is a wash.

Q: Which one is better for rendering workloads?

A: The Ryzen 5 8500G, clearly. It leads Cinebench R23 Multi-Core by 42 percent and also wins every other Cinebench multicore and most single-core tests. Its 12 threads, versus 8 on the Intel part, are the main driver.

Q: Does either chip win in floating point math?

A: Yes, the Core Ultra 7 268V, by a wide margin: 57,628 versus 39,074 in PassMark Floating Point Math, a 47.5 percent advantage. It also leads Find Prime Numbers by 120.7 percent.

Q: How do their power envelopes compare?

A: The Core Ultra 7 268V is rated at 17 W TDP while the Ryzen 5 8500G is rated at 65 W. Despite the much lower power rating, the Intel chip stays competitive across the suite, which is the core story of this pairing.

Q: What platforms do they use?

A: The Core Ultra 7 268V uses Intel BGA 2833, a soldered mobile-oriented interface, while the Ryzen 5 8500G uses AMD Socket AM5, a standard desktop-socket form factor.

Q: Do they support ECC memory?

A: The Ryzen 5 8500G supports ECC; the Core Ultra 7 268V does not. The AMD part also lists DDR5 support and a memory bandwidth figure of 83.2 GB/s, while memory support for the Intel part is listed as dependent on the motherboard.

Architecture Differences

The Core Ultra 7 268V is a Lunar Lake design built on TSMC's 3 nm process. It carries 8 cores and 8 threads with a 2.20 GHz base clock and a 5.00 GHz boost clock. Its cache layout is unusual in the database entries compared here: 192 KB of L1 per core and a very large 2.5 MB of L2 per core, plus 12 MB of shared L3. That per-core L2 allocation is more than double the AMD part's, which likely explains some of the strong floating point and physics results. Integrated graphics are handled by the Arc 140V, and PCI Express support is Gen 5 with 4 CPU lanes.

The Ryzen 5 8500G is a Zen 4 architecture part, codenamed Phoenix2, built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, a 3.50 GHz base clock, and a 5.00 GHz boost clock, matching the Intel chip's peak frequency. Cache is 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3, giving it more total L3 than the Intel part. The package measures 137 mm² and carries 20,900 million transistors. Its integrated GPU is the Radeon 740M, and it offers PCIe Gen 4 with 14 CPU lanes, plus dual-channel DDR5 with ECC support.

The contrast is stark: Intel leans on a denser node, more cores but fewer threads, and a large per-core L2, while AMD leans on SMT threading, more shared L3, more PCIe lanes, and a higher base clock within a much higher power rating.

The Verdict

The data supports a clean split. Choose the Ryzen 5 8500G if the workload is multithreaded rendering, compression, integer math, or string sorting: its 42 percent Cinebench R23 Multi-Core lead, 32.4 percent Integer Math lead, and 27.5 percent Data Compression lead are decisive, and its 12-of-19 head-to-head record confirms broader coverage across common tests. It is also the only one of the two with ECC support, a socketed AM5 interface, and a stated launch MSRP of $179.

Choose the Core Ultra 7 268V if efficiency, floating point throughput, or physics simulation matters most. It delivers a 47.5 percent Floating Point Math advantage and a 120.7 percent Find Prime Numbers advantage, and it posts these numbers within a 17 W TDP, roughly a quarter of the AMD part's 65 W rating. Its Geekbench Multi-Core win of 5.5 percent shows it can also take some general-purpose tests outright. Note that its BGA 2833 package means it is soldered rather than socketed, and it lacks both ECC support and an unlocked multiplier, as does the AMD part.

For context against the wider market, the Core Ultra 7 268V's average score sits within a fraction of a percent of chips like the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, Intel Core i5-12600T, and Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, while the Ryzen 5 8500G clusters alongside the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, AMD Ryzen 5 5600, and AMD EPYC 7713. Neither chip is an outlier; both are solidly upper-middle performers.

Specification Differences

• Cores/Threads: 8 cores, 8 threads (Intel) versus 6 cores, 12 threads (AMD)
• Base Clock: 2.20 GHz (Intel) versus 3.50 GHz (AMD); both boost to 5.00 GHz
• TDP: 17 W (Intel) versus 65 W (AMD)
• Socket: Intel BGA 2833 versus AMD Socket AM5
• Process Node: 3 nm (Intel) versus 4 nm (AMD), both on TSMC
• L1 Cache: 192 KB per core (Intel) versus 64 KB per core (AMD)
• L2 Cache: 2.5 MB per core (Intel) versus 1 MB per core (AMD)
• L3 Cache: 12 MB shared (Intel) versus 16 MB shared (AMD)
• PCIe: Gen 5, 4 CPU lanes (Intel) versus Gen 4, 14 CPU lanes (AMD)
• Memory: unknown for Intel, motherboard-dependent, versus DDR5 with ECC and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth for AMD
• Integrated Graphics: Arc 140V (Intel) versus Radeon 740M (AMD)
• Transistors/Die Size: listed only for AMD at 20,900 million and 137 mm²
• Release Dates: 2024-09-23 for Intel versus 2024-01-07 for AMD

Where Each One Wins

Core Ultra 7 268V wins for: floating point compute (47.5 percent ahead), prime number workloads (120.7 percent ahead), physics simulation (22.7 percent ahead), Geekbench Multi-Core (5.5 percent ahead), PassMark Single Thread (4.1 percent ahead), and Cinebench R15 Single-Core (12.3 percent ahead). Its efficiency profile, delivering these results at 17 W, makes it suited to power-constrained designs where sustained floating point or physics performance matters.

Ryzen 5 8500G wins for: all Cinebench multicore tests (up to 42 percent ahead in R23), Cinebench R23 and R20 single-core (25.9 and 10.7 percent ahead), integer math (32.4 percent ahead), data compression (27.5 percent ahead), string sorting (23.8 percent ahead), extended instructions (19.8 percent ahead), PassMark Multithread (10.7 percent ahead), and encryption (3.1 percent ahead). Its 12 threads, socketed platform, ECC support, and 14 PCIe Gen 4 lanes make it the pick for threaded production work and upgradable systems.