AMD Ryzen 5 40 vs Intel Core 5 320: Old Zen 2 vs Wildcat Lake

By name, the AMD Ryzen 5 40 and Intel Core 5 320 appear to be processors of the same class, but benchmark results show a discrepancy of almost double. The Ryzen 5 40 features four Zen 2 cores and eight threads. The Core 5 320 is built on Wildcat Lake and combines two performance cores with four energy-efficient cores.

AMD introduced the Ryzen 5 40 in October 2025, but inside it is the well-known Mendocino. In terms of configuration, the Ryzen 5 40 closely resembles the Ryzen 5 7520U: Zen 2 architecture, four cores, a maximum frequency of 4.3 GHz, and Radeon 610M. Essentially, AMD has rebranded an old budget platform.

The Core 5 320 appeared in the second quarter of 2026 and is built on the much newer Wildcat Lake architecture. Moreover, Intel's advantage becomes less theoretical when looking at the prices of ready-made laptops: the cheapest models with the Core 5 320 are not much more expensive than those with the Ryzen 5 40.

Key Differences

AMD limits the Ryzen 5 40 to a maximum of 16 GB LPDDR5-5500 and uses Radeon 610M with two compute units. The Core 5 320 supports up to 64 GB of memory, DDR5-6400 or LPDDR5X-7467, and its integrated graphics feature two Xe-cores. Intel also has a separate NPU with a performance of up to 16 TOPS.

The Core 5 320 has a new CPU architecture, significantly more powerful integrated graphics, a separate NPU, and support for faster memory.

Geekbench 6 in Specific Laptops

However, performance details on paper are less important than the results from specific laptops.

In this sample, the Ryzen 5 40 averages about 1289 points in single-core and 4488 points in multi-core tests. The Core 5 320 scores approximately 2507 and 7665 points respectively.

The difference is about 95% in Single Core and 71% in Multi Core in favor of Intel. The gap is substantial even considering the differences between specific laptops.

In Single Core, the Core 5 320 is nearly twice as fast, making the advantage noticeable in everyday tasks sensitive to single-core speed.

The results of different laptops vary due to power limits, cooling, memory, and BIOS settings. However, even taking this into account, the results of the two processors differ significantly. The lowest score for the Core 5 320 in the table is noticeably higher than both scores for the Ryzen 5 40.

Eight Threads of Ryzen 5 40 Don't Help

The Ryzen 5 40 has four cores and eight threads, while the Core 5 320 has six cores without Hyper-Threading.

The additional threads of the Ryzen do not provide an advantage here. In Geekbench 6, the Core 5 320 is about 71% faster in multi-threaded mode. Therefore, in tasks such as archiving, compiling, photo processing, and other multi-threaded workloads, the Core 5 320 will be significantly faster.

The Ryzen 5 40 remains a processor for basic tasks: browsing, office programs, video conferencing, and video playback.

The gap is also evident in PassMark. On the current CPU comparison page, the Core 5 320 surpasses the Ryzen 5 40 by 55% in Single Thread and approximately 52% in overall CPU Mark.

Intel is Faster with Integrated Graphics

The Radeon 610M sounds better than it performs in tests. It’s the minimum RDNA 2 configuration with just two compute units. This configuration has been seen in budget Mendocino processors since 2022.

The Core 5 320 features Intel Graphics with two Xe-cores. This is also entry-level integrated graphics, but in terms of computational performance, it is significantly faster than the Radeon 610M.

Geekbench 6 OpenCL results:

The two results for the Core 5 320 yield an average of about 12,594 points compared to 4600 for the Ryzen 5 40. This is approximately 2.7 times higher than the Radeon 610M's result.

The Ryzen sample here is small, so this 2.7 ratio should not be taken as a precise measure of gaming performance. OpenCL cannot be directly translated into FPS. However, the test clearly shows how low the computational performance of the Radeon 610M is by modern standards.

For old games, less demanding online games, and multimedia, the Radeon 610M is still serviceable. Intel Graphics in the Core 5 320 is not aimed at gaming either, but it has a significantly higher performance headroom.

The Core 5 320 Features an NPU

The Ryzen 5 40 lacks a dedicated neural processing unit. The Core 5 320 has Intel AI Boost with a performance of up to 16 TOPS.

In browsing, office work, and video playback, the NPU doesn’t play a significant role. However, the very fact that it is present is noteworthy: the Ryzen 5 40 lacks a separate AI block, while Intel is already adding it even to the Core 5.

Laptop Prices

Prices help explain who actually needs the Ryzen 5 40. This processor targets the lower segment of the market, and the most affordable laptops with it are indeed cheaper than most models with the Core 5 320. However, the difference is not always significant.

Examples of European prices from early September 2026:

Comparing processors solely based on the average prices of laptops here isn’t valid. The Core 5 320 is installed in both relatively simple Vivobooks and in expensive XPS and OmniBook models with better screens, cases, and configurations. Hence, €1,000 for an XPS does not mean that the processor itself belongs to that price class.

The lower end of the market is much more telling. A laptop with the Ryzen 5 40 can be found for about €480, while models with the Core 5 320 start at about €500. However, the cheapest Intel configurations are sold without Windows, so direct comparison requires considering the configurations.

With a difference of €20-50, the Ryzen 5 40 looks weak. The savings are too small compared to the nearly double advantage of the Core 5 320 in Single Core, significantly higher multi-core performance, and much stronger integrated graphics.

The Ryzen 5 40 becomes more interesting when a specific laptop is cheaper by €100-150 or more. Especially if a simple computer for browsing, documents, studies, and video is needed, and the additional performance from Intel won’t be utilized.

What to Choose

At similar prices, a laptop with the Core 5 320 looks much more advantageous. In our sample, it is about twice as fast in Geekbench 6 Single Core and 71% faster in Multi Core. It has faster integrated graphics, supports up to 64 GB of memory, DDR5/LPDDR5X, PCIe 4.0, and has a separate NPU.

The Ryzen 5 40 should primarily be considered in truly inexpensive laptops. For browsing, documents, studies, and video playback, its performance is sufficient. However, the Ryzen 5 name creates the impression of a higher class than this processor demonstrates in practice.

AMD has updated the branding much more strongly than the hardware. If a laptop with the Ryzen 5 40 is €100-150 cheaper than an equivalent with the Core 5 320, the savings can still be justified. However, with a difference of just a few dozen euros, the Core 5 320 seems much more reasonable: the performance boost is too great to choose the Ryzen just for a small discount.