Question Different Intel-based computer performing unexpectedly different while streaming F1 TV Pro with Widevine ?

[Tonka_NL]

Hi all,

I have the following computers:

Acer Veriton mini desktop
i5 3570T
4-core
Fan cooled
2,3 ghz base clock speed
3,5 ghz max turbo speed

Intel NUC 7th gen
Intel celeron J4005
2-core
Fan cooled
2,0 ghz base clock speed
2,7 ghz turbo clock speed

HP Pavillion laptop
i7 6700HQ
4-core
Fan cooled
2,6 ghz base clock speed
3,5 ghz turbo clock speed

Acer Swift laptop
Intel pentium N4200
4-core
Passive cooling
1,1 ghz base clock speed
2,5 ghz turbo (burst) clock speed

Dell laptop
i5 8200Y
2-core
Passive cooling
1,6 gz base clock speed (configurable TDP base speed)
3,9 ghz turbo clock speed

ISP data bandwith = 300mbps
All streams tested via wired LAN 1gbps

the NUC (celeron J4005) (wired 1gbs UTP) serves as a mediacenter (win 10 in tablet mode) on which I want to be able to watch HD or 4K streaming TV. In this case specifically: F1 via web (F1tvpro).
Browser is Edge, which supports Widevine. Currently this is not the case and I'm seeking to replace this machine.

When streaming an F1 race on the NUC, the streams stutters and lags.
The CPU maxes out at 100% load, clock speed goes to roughly 2,3ghz.
The onboard graphics UHD 600 also maxes out to 100%. this is odd, because of all of the computers, this is the only one of that the graphics maxes out. All hardware accelleration etc settings are identical on all machines.

pentium N4200
When I play the same stream on the Acer Swift (Pent N4200) the stream stutters and lags
The cpu load maxes out at 100%
The clock speed goes up to 1,5ghz (base clock 1,1 ghz). So almost not about base.
Onboard graphics (intel 505) moves between 15 and 50%. Most of the time it hovers around 15%.

When I play the same stream on the quite old Acer veriton (i5 3570T) the stream runs flawlessly
The cpu load moves between 60 and sometimes 100% load.
The clock speed goes up to 2,9 ghz (base clock 2,3 ghz)
Onboard graphics are not shown in taskmanager/performance tab

When I play the same stream on the Dell laptop (i5 8200Y) the stream stutters and lags
The cpu load maxes out at 100%
The clock speed goes up to base speed 1,6 ghz (does not turbo)
Onboard graphics (UHD 615) show about 15%.

When I play the same stream on the HP Pavilion (i7 6700HQ) the stream plays flawlessly
The cpu load goes up to 40%
The clock speed goes up to 3,1 ghz (base = 2,6ghz) (edit: with the laptop unplugged, the clock speed goes down to circa 1,4 - 1,6 ghz, still plays flawlessly.. -sigh-)
Onboard graphics Intel 530 goes to about 15% load.
The dedicated nvidia 960M does nothing

My questions are the following:
What matters when playing a stream via a browser with Widevine encoding? CPU speed, the # of cores or the graphipcs card?
The i5 dualcore on the relatively recent Dell laptop can't play it (clock speed almost does not turbo). Does anyone have an idea why? Because of passive cooling?
The pentium 4 core Acer can't play it either (clock speed does not go up quite enough), also passive cooling
The old veriton 4 core i5 is able to play it, even with old onboard graphics. CPU speed goes up do 2,9 ghz.
HP i7 (not quite recent) quad code doesn't break a sweat, loadwise, but CPU goes up to about 3 ghz.

So my assumption is, I need minimum 4 cores with the capablility to go let's say 2,5-3 ghz?

I'm not sure how to compare an older i5 4 core (veriton) to the newer i7 4 core (but more logical processors?), but they are up to the job.

So, if I want to replace the NUC with a newer model, does the 2 core i3 11th gen suffice? (Intel NUC 11 Performance kit NUC11PAHi3 Product Specifications ) <- 40w TDP
I'd recon the performance gains compared to the Veriton and HP i7 have been sufficient?

Or do I need a 4 core i5 which are crazy expensive?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[geofelt]

Stuttering is usually the temporary lack of a needed resource.
In this case, cpu capability.
Most cpu activity starts with the single thread performance of the cpu.
That is most easily estimated by looking at the passmark performance numbers.
For example, the I5-3570T has 4 processing threads and a rating of 4057.
That is when all 4 threads are fully busy.
The single thread rating is 1728. Single thread performance usually matters most
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-3570T+@+2.30GHz&id=1477
The J4005 has 2 threads and a rating of 1586/1097
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+J4005+@+2.00GHz&id=3200
The i7-6700HQ has 8 threads and a rating of 6522/1912
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-6700HQ+@+2.60GHz&id=2586
N4200 has 4 threads 2150/851
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+N4200+@+1.10GHz
I5-8200Y has 4 threads 2270/1544
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8200Y+@+1.30GHz&id=3372
Of them all, the I3-1115g4 will be the best.
4 threads and a rating of 6188/2670:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-1115G4+@+3.00GHz&id=3877

 

[Tonka_NL]

Thanks for your elaborate reply. I was unaware of the difference between cores and threads.
After some reading up I came to the same conclusion as you.
The benchmark specs of the i3 exceed the single thread performance of the older i7 and also the 4 thread performance comes close to the the 8 thread mark of the i7.
So I bought the NUC and as expected.. doesn’t break a sweat 😉