Intel i3-6006u vs Pentium N5000 vs Celeron N4000

[bishaldekaajb]

I've decided to buy one of the 4GB models of Asus Vivobook X507 laptops but I am a bit confused while choosing the processor.

I mainly use laptop for typing and movie watching. I do also use GIMP editor sometimes.

People usually say that i3 is better than Pentium but here I can see an opposite picture. The Pentium N5000 processor has more cores and more L3 cache memory. It's maximum clock speed is higher than the i3-6006u processor too. Additionally it's TDP is 6W which is much lesser than the 15W TDP of i3-6006u. The price of the Pentium N5000 model is Rs. 2000 (30 usd) lesser than the i3 model.

Is Pentium N5000 really better than i3-6006u? Any guide to help me choose the right laptop would be much appreciated. Ty

 

[rgd1101]

lower power usually mean lower processing power
more cores/higher speed not equal better cores

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Pentium-Silver-N5000-SoC.271794.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i3-6006U-Notebook-Processor.183138.0.html

N5000 better at multicore

 

[Solandri]

People usually say that i3 is better than Pentium but here I can see an opposite picture. The Pentium N5000 processor has more cores and more L3 cache memory. It's maximum clock speed is higher than the i3-6006u processor too. Additionally it's TDP is 6W which is much lesser than the 15W TDP of i3-6006u. The price of the Pentium N5000 model is Rs. 2000 (30 usd) lesser than the i3 model.

The N5000 is a year newer than the i3-6006U, so it's not at all surprising that a newer Pentium is better than an older i3.

The N5000 6W TDP is because it's designed for low-load applications. It normally runs at 1.1 GHz (vs 2 GHz for the i3-6006U). It can burst up to 2.7 GHz, but will quickly drop back down to 1.1 GHz when it gets too hot. That's why it's called burst speed, instead of turbo boost like on the i5 and i7 (which can operate continuously at their boost clock speeds).

That said, 4 cores @ 1.1 GHz is better than 2 cores @ 2.0 GHz for multithreaded tasks. So in most cases the N5000 is going to be better. The I3 *might* pull ahead in complex sustained tasks like video encoding due to its higher base clock speed and hyperthreading.

The amount of cache is a bit misleading. The N5000 has a 4MB L2 cache, meaning it's only got L1 and L2 cache (L1 is usually a 32kB). It's also shared between 4 cores (though it should be associative so each core can access all of it). The i3 has an L1 cache, a 2x256 kB L2 cache (not shared - each core gets 256 kB), and a 3 MB L3 cache. While that sounds like it should favor the N5000, cache is tiered as L1, L2, L3 because the bigger the cache, the longer it takes to look up stuff in it. The tiny L1 and a small L2 cache helps reduce cache access latency - the CPU gets the info it needs quicker, and can move on to the next instruction.

So the fact that the N5000's L2 cache (4 MB) is much larger than the i3's L2 cache (256 kB per core) is actually a disadvantage. And the i3 uses a large 3MB L3 cache to make up for the lack of capacity in the L2 cache. Overall, I suspect that the cache on the i3 performs better.

 

[bendriodx]

People usually say that i3 is better than Pentium but here I can see an opposite picture. The Pentium N5000 processor has more cores and more L3 cache memory. It's maximum clock speed is higher than the i3-6006u processor too. Additionally it's TDP is 6W which is much lesser than the 15W TDP of i3-6006u. The price of the Pentium N5000 model is Rs. 2000 (30 usd) lesser than the i3 model.

The N5000 is a year newer than the i3-6006U, so it's not at all surprising that a newer Pentium is better than an older i3.

The N5000 6W TDP is because it's designed for low-load applications. It normally runs at 1.1 GHz (vs 2 GHz for the i3-6006U). It can burst up to 2.7 GHz, but will quickly drop back down to 1.1 GHz when it gets too hot. That's why it's called burst speed, instead of turbo boost like on the i5 and i7 (which can operate continuously at their boost clock speeds).

That said, 4 cores @ 1.1 GHz is better than 2 cores @ 2.0 GHz for multithreaded tasks. So in most cases the N5000 is going to be better. The I3 *might* pull ahead in complex sustained tasks like video encoding due to its higher base clock speed and hyperthreading.

The amount of cache is a bit misleading. The N5000 has a 4MB L2 cache, meaning it's only got L1 and L2 cache (L1 is usually a 32kB). It's also shared between 4 cores (though it should be associative so each core can access all of it). The i3 has an L1 cache, a 2x256 kB L2 cache (not shared - each core gets 256 kB), and a 3 MB L3 cache. While that sounds like it should favor the N5000, cache is tiered as L1, L2, L3 because the bigger the cache, the longer it takes to look up stuff in it. The tiny L1 and a small L2 cache helps reduce cache access latency - the CPU gets the info it needs quicker, and can move on to the next instruction.

So the fact that the N5000's L2 cache (4 MB) is much larger than the i3's L2 cache (256 kB per core) is actually a disadvantage. And the i3 uses a large 3MB L3 cache to make up for the lack of capacity in the L2 cache. Overall, I suspect that the cache on the i3 performs better.

I want to ask whether is it ok to ho for n5000 pentium model laptop or a different one considering the burst frequency concept because it will rarely go to max clock