Intel Celeron N3060 vs Intel Core i5-6287U

Intel Celeron N3060

The Intel Celeron N3060 is a low-end dual-core SoC for notebooks, which has been presented in April 2015. It is clocked at 1.6 - 2.48 GHz and part of the Braswell platform. Thanks to its new 14 nanometer low-power process (P1273) with tri-gate transistors, energy efficiency has been significantly improved compared to its predecessor architecture Bay Trail (e.g. Celeron N2840). The N3060 is successor (refresh) to the Celeron N3050 and compared to it it offers a improved Turbo clock rate (2.48 vs 2.1 GHZ).

In addition to the CPU cores, the SoC offers a DirectX 11.2-capable GPU as well as a DDR3L Memory Controller (2x 64 bit, 25.6 GB/s).

Architecture

The processor cores are based on the Airmont architecture, which is basically a slightly modified shrink of the previous Silvermont core. While performance per clock has not been improved, the more efficient 14 nm process leads to a better utilization of the CPU Burst (alias Turbo Boost) and a therefore somewhat higher overall performance.

Performance

Depending on the cooling of the SoC, the Boost clock rate of 2.48 can be held for longer periods and therefore leading to a faster performance as the older Celeron N3050 that can only reach 2.16 GHz. Using Windows, the CPU is adequate for simple everyday tasks such as light Internet browsing or office applications, but not for complex software or modern games.

Graphics

The HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) is based on the Intel Gen8 architecture, which supports DirectX 11.2 and is also found in the Broadwell series (e.g. HD Graphics 5300). With 12 EUs (Execution Units) and a clock speed of up to 600 MHz, the GPU is almost twice as fast as the HD Graphics (Bay Trail), but still not powerful enough to handle modern 3D games. The GPU also supports 4K/H.265 video acceleration. Although featuring a different name, the GPU was not changed from the N3050 (named HD Graphics alone).

Power Consumption

The entire SoC is rated at an TDP of 6 watts (SDP 4 watts). Thus, the chip can be cooled passively.

Intel Core i5-6287U

The Intel Core i5-6287U is a dual-core SoC based on the Skylake architecture and has been launched in September 2015. The CPU can be found in medium-sized ultrabooks as well as normal notebooks. In addition to two CPU cores with Hyper-Threading clocked at 3.1 - 3.5 GHz (2 cores: max. 3.3 GHz), the chip also integrates an Iris Graphics 550 GPU with 64 MB of eDRAM memory as well as a dual-channel DDR4-2133/DDR3L-1600 memory controller. The SoC is manufactured using a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors.

Architecture

Skylake replaces both Haswell and Broadwell and brings the same microarchitecture in every TDP class from 4.5 to 45 W. The extensive improvements of the Skylake design include increased out-of-order buffers, optimized prefetching and branch prediction as well as additional performance gains through Hyper-Threading. Overall, however, performance per clock has been increased by only 5 to 10 percent (compared to Haswell) respectively under 5 percent (compard to Broadwell), which is quite modest for a new architecture ("Tock").

Furthermore, the organisation of the eDRAM cache has been modified. Instead of acting like a victim cache, which has to be adressed via the L3/LLC, the eDRAM can now be adressed directly by programms just like the main memory. The size is still 128 MB for the quad-core models (4C + GT4e), while the dual-core chips (2C + GT3e) only offer 64 MB.

Performance

According to the specified clock rates and the improved architecture, the Core i5-6287U should perform similar to the former Core i5-5350H (Broadwell) and is one of the fastest mobile dual-cores as of late 2015.

Even demanding applications and multitasking are handled easily.

Graphics

The integrated graphics unit called Iris Graphics 550 represents the "GT3e" version of the Skylake GPU (Intel Gen. 9). The 48 Execution Units, also called EUs, are clocked at 350 - 1100 MHz and offer (thanks to the fast eDRAM cache) a performance similar to a dedicated GeForce 930M. Games of 2015 can thus be played smoothly in low or medium settings. For more information about performance and features, check our page for the Iris Graphics 550.

Power Consumption

Specified at a TDP of 28 W (including CPU, GPU and memory controller), the CPU is best suited for medium-sized notebooks (13-inches and above). Optionally, the TDP can be lowered to 23 watts (cTDP down), reducing both heat dissipation and performance.