The TDP configuration in the current ThinkPad E495 is still not ideal with a limitation at 11 Watts. The Ryzen 5 3500U runs at 3.5 GHz in the Cinebench R15 Single test and is on par with the ThinkPad E485, where the Ryzen 5 2500U still rann at 3.6 GHz. The Intel chips still have a small advantage in this respect.

It gets more interesting when we look at the Multi test, because the 11W 25W are sufficient for 4x 3.0-3.1 GHz. For comparison: The ThinkPad T490 uses a Core i7-8565U with a steady consumption 25W, which is just enough for 4x 2.9 GHz. The Core i7 is a bit faster in the first Cinebench run, but is beaten by the Ryzen 5 under sustained load (see below). It is interesting that the performance of the 3500U is steady, while the ThinkPad E485 still suffered from a slight drop after a few iterations.

The two Intel CPUs in the ThinkPad E480 and E490 can only consume 15W under sustained workloads, and the average score of the Core i5-8265U in the ThinkPad E490 is more than 25% lower.

