core i3 vs Atom

[bulls96]

Is there a huge performance difference? Battery life difference?

Been struggling to decide if ill get the pro 3 or just get an 8 inch win8 tablet. I need a tablet more than a laptop. It'd be nice though to have a laptop but I stilt rather bring a tablet around when I travel. I currently use a Surface RT. I do want to be able to run iTunes, some work appsand a little PhotoShop. Ive been using Remote desktopon RT to do this.

Thanks!

 

[jnjroach]

The Current Crop of ATOM CPU benchmark very closely to Sandybridge Core Machines (2nd Gen Core CPU) but unfortunately are struggling with some Video and Power Management Driver issues which has been the hallmark of the ATOM Platform. The 4th GEN Core i3 will out perform the ATOM on all benchmarks, this one is also the "Y" Variant SoC which is very efficient.

 

[kevinlevrone]

Is there a huge performance difference? Battery life difference?

Been struggling to decide if ill get the pro 3 or just get an 8 inch win8 tablet. I need a tablet more than a laptop. It'd be nice though to have a laptop but I stilt rather bring a tablet around when I travel. I currently use a Surface RT. I do want to be able to run iTunes, some work appsand a little PhotoShop. Ive been using Remote desktopon RT to do this.

Thanks!

The Core i3-4020Y used in the SP3 is twice faster compared to the Atom Z3740 and about 80% faster compared to Atom Z3770 in Passmark. There is no real comparison between them. Also remember that Surface Pro tablets have real SSD drives, while the 8" Win8 tablets have eMMC storage which is like 3-4 times slower.

On the other hand, and 8" tablet can be had for about $250 while the Surface Pro 3 costs 3 times more, so there is no real cross-shopping comparison either.

I would highly recommend getting a Surface Pro 1 if you find a deal at $499 for the 4GB/128GB, or even a Surface Pro 2 if the price drops to like $600 in the near future (it should).

I had an 8" Dell Venue 8 Pro and it was too small to do anything useful, and also the screen resolution is too low (on all 8" tablets). The Surface Pro 2 I am using right now is good enough to be my only computer, both for work and for home.

 

[N.G.]

Hey Kevin,

You got data to back that up? Looks to me like they are approximately the same.
Intel Z3770 vs Core i3 4020Y

I'm getting something. Bought into both Surface Generation 1 and 2 and I'm not sure about 3. Might give up and put both the surfaces on desks and switch to atom tablets weighing less than 600grams with real keyboards like the Thinkpad 10 or elitepad 1000. I've never successfully used either generation 1 or 2 type keyboards to type more than a page, and another floppy keyboard doesn't make me happy. Already decided to get the wife an ASUS hybrid to replace her Surface. I don't know why they couldn't have made a slot docking keyboard out of the power cover for the 3.

I know they work on desks and conference tables but since I graduated from that environment and retired to the beach, I prefer to type on couches and lounge chairs. Guess I'll try a SP3 with the new keyboard when my local MS store gets them.

 

[N.G.]

Geekbench results make the SP3 likely to be a whole lot faster than the Thinkpad 10, of course these are complete (different) systems, so storage and memory make a huge difference. The I3 is also 4mb, which is kind of cheating, if you are trying to compare CPUs. If the storage system with the Z3795 is a lot slower that is really going to skew the results.

Dell Inc. Venue 11 Pro 7130 vs LENOVO 20C3Z06ZUS - Geekbench Browser

The lenovo is apparently similar to or a prototype of the Thinkpad 10, from the referring link. Wasn't able to verify.

Reminds me of the recent AMD Mullins comparison to Bay Trail in an Elitepad 1000 - the mullins system appeared to have a hell of a lot faster expensive memory sub systems.

Took a calculus based statistics course once and one of the two texts was "How to Lie with Statistics."

 

[CrippsCorner]

Also remember that Surface Pro tablets have real SSD drives, while the 8" Win8 tablets have eMMC storage which is like 3-4 times slower.

Are you sure about that? I was just reading today...

"I will sometimes refer to the internal storage in Surface Pro 3 as "SSD" storage, but there is no actual SSD drive in the device."

http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/surface-pro-3-understanding-hardware-each-version

 

[kevinlevrone]

Hey Kevin,

You got data to back that up? Looks to me like they are approximately the same.

That cpuboss site is a scam, it just shows up with unremarkable data scraped from other sites.

Here are some real benchmarks:

PassMark - Intel Core i3-4020Y @ 1.50GHz - Price performance comparison
PassMark - Intel Atom Z3740 @ 1.33GHz - Price performance comparison
PassMark - Intel Atom Z3770 @ 1.46GHz - Price performance comparison

 

[kevinlevrone]

Are you sure about that? I was just reading today...

"I will sometimes refer to the internal storage in Surface Pro 3 as "SSD" storage, but there is no actual SSD drive in the device."

http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/surface-pro-3-understanding-hardware-each-version

Yes, I am sure about this. I was not implying that the Surface 3 SSD has an actual 2.5" SSD box inside. It just has the SSD electronics with the latest SATA interface laid out on the SP3 board in a space minimizing way. By contrast, the Atom tablets have an eMMC communication interface which is a lot slower (3-4 times).

Some articles are really stupid and mislead non-tech readers with simple sentences.

 

[jnjroach]

Are you sure about that? I was just reading today...

"I will sometimes refer to the internal storage in Surface Pro 3 as "SSD" storage, but there is no actual SSD drive in the device."

http://winsupersite.com/mobile-devices/surface-pro-3-understanding-hardware-each-version

I think Paul T. is mistaken, this sure looks like a mSATA Drive....

 

[CrippsCorner]

I might just show him that I hate that dickhead...

 

[kristalsoldier]

I might just show him that I hate that dickhead...

Paul Thurrott? I would have to, in some part, agree! Arrogant fellow, more often than not!

 

[N.G.]

In my house, on my couch, it takes the same time for my kindle fire 8.9 hdx Snapdragon 800 to render a page as my Surface Pro 1 i5-3317u. The Fire hdx has been measured at a sunspider time of 692 ms. The surface pro at 150 ms. Other older devices are noticeably slower. The Atom z3770 has been measured at 458 ms, with the z3795 reported a bit slower but using around half the power.

Both devices play internet video about the same. Over the past year to six months, the Surface, because of Win 8.1, has become my favorite device to use for everything (not just Office, photos, printing and x86 apps) except Kindle books, carrying around and using in bed (one experience of dozing off with the SP over my nose cured me of that.) I don't play high-resource games, or edit video and I don't compile nuthin any more.

I have attributed the discrepancy/performance-similarity between Fire hdx and the SP1 to my lousy internet provider and a better wifi subsystem in the Fire than the SP.

What I think that means with regard to the question is that without a better wifi system in the SP3 than the SP1 has, an I3 (or I5) won't get me (with the lousy internet provider) much better performance than an Atom with the same 64 bit OS and memory.

There is some talk about the atoms not being up to the task of painting the 1920x1200 screens in these new 10 inch Bay Trail tablets, but there doesn't seem to be user experience that reflects it.