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SP 4 Core M3 vs SP3 Core i5?

elee532

Member
Anyone know what to expect in terms of performance between the new Surface Pro 4 with the Core M3 compared to the current Surface Pro 3 sporting the Core i5?

The i5 in my SP3 more than meets my performance needs. Wondering if I would see a performance drop if I went with an SP4 running the Core M3.

Thanks!
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
Roughly about 15% drop.
With a grain of salt
Geekbench core i5-4300u single core 2890 multi core 5650
Geekbench core m3-6y30 single core 2485 multi core 4749 *only 1 64 bit sample

Passmark
core i5-4300u - - 3750
core m3-6y30* - 3352
*estimated 15% increase from Core-M 5y10 - 2915 There are currently no Core m3-6y30 passmark scores.
 
OP
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elee532

Member
Thanks! That's really helpful. I'm thinking I would notice very little performance difference going from the Surface Pro 3 with Core i5 to the Pro 4 with the Core M3.

90% of my usage is Office 2013 (probably 2016 soon) and a pretty old version of PhotoShop (CS3). Would you agree the 15% drop wouldn't be too noticeable?
 
I have the i-3 and it's done everything I need so I may be looking at the core m myself and I'm glad they finally ditched the 64gb entry storage
 

daveyp

Member
I have the i-3 and it's done everything I need so I may be looking at the core m myself and I'm glad they finally ditched the 64gb entry storage

ditto. i3 has been a great companion. as long as you dont need to connect an array of high res monitors. fanless design is as nice perk in the core m as well, but i'm a little concerned with the increased resolution (+60%) combined with a similar, possibly lower-performing CPU
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Battery life would be the only reason I'll consider a core m to replace my i5 sp3. Otherwise I just can't justify the cost. If no significant improvement then I'd rather shell out for an i5 or i7
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I'm considering replacing my S3 Atom with a core m SP4.
However, an i5 has plenty of horsepower for most tasks so if you wanted the lighter, fanless experience and a slight performance drop didn't mean much then it's a reasonable tradeoff.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
Another question... is the fanless Core M more likely to get warm to the touch than an i5 with fan?
Hard to say really although there's a big difference between the power range i.e. watts which directly relates to heat. the core m3 range is 3.8w to 7w, 4.5w TDP and the i5 is 15w TDP.

I have 3w, 9w, & 10.5w light bulbs ... the 3w you can put your hand on it, hold it, its barely warm at all, almost not warm. At 9w its noticeably warm but I can hold it. I'll just say it doesn't take me long to feel the 10.5w bulb :)

The Surface 3 Atom has a believed range of 2w to 7w (Intel doesn't publish the TDP, assumed to be 4w, or max number only the bottom number) sometimes gets warm but comfortably so. I would expect about the same of the core m.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
Preliminary NOT Sp4 3DMark Cloud Gate score for a Core m3-6y30 in an HP 8075 (whatever that is, it's new)
The i5-4300U score is from an SP3.
6y30 vs i54300u.PNG


Shows Core m3-6y30 HD 515 Graphics is 25% better than HD 4400 in SP3 i5-4300U while the Physics portion of the test is not quite as good. Overall this is a good result for the Core m3-6y30.
 
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