Core m3-7Y30 vs A8-3850

The Core m3-7Y30 packs 2 cores / 4 threads, while the A8-3850 offers 4 cores / 4 threads — the A8-3850 has 2 more cores. Boost clocks reach 2.6 GHz on the Core m3-7Y30 versus 2.9 GHz on the A8-3850 — a 10.9% clock advantage for the A8-3850 (base: 1 GHz vs 2.9 GHz). The Core m3-7Y30 uses the Kaby Lake (2016−2019) architecture (14 nm), while the A8-3850 uses Llano (2011−2012) (32 nm). In PassMark, the Core m3-7Y30 scores 2,418 against the A8-3850's 2,421 — a 0.1% lead for the A8-3850. Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 768 vs 363, a 71.6% lead for the Core m3-7Y30 that directly translates to higher frame rates. L3 cache: 4 MB on the Core m3-7Y30 vs 0 kB on the A8-3850.

The Core m3-7Y30 uses the FCBGA1515 socket (PCIe 3.0), while the A8-3850 uses FM1 (PCIe 2.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Both support up to LPDDR3-1866 / DDR3L-1600 memory speed. The A8-3850 supports up to 32 GB of RAM compared to 16 GB — 66.7% more capacity for professional workloads. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. PCIe lanes: 10 (Core m3-7Y30) vs 20 (A8-3850) — the A8-3850 offers 10 more lanes for additional GPUs or NVMe drives. Chipset compatibility: Kaby Lake-Y SoC (Core m3-7Y30) and A55,A75 (A8-3850).

Neither processor supports overclocking. Virtualization support: VT-x / VT-d / EPT (Core m3-7Y30) vs AMD-V (A8-3850). Both include integrated graphics — Intel HD Graphics 615 (Core m3-7Y30) and Radeon HD 6550D (A8-3850) — useful as a fallback for troubleshooting or display output without a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core m3-7Y30 targets Ultra-portable, A8-3850 targets Mainstream Desktop. Direct competitor: A8-3850 rivals Core i3-2105.