Intel Celeron N3060 vs Intel Core i5-6350HQ

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 i5-6350HQ

The Intel Core i5-6350HQ is a fast quad-core processor for notebooks based on the Skylake architecture and was announced in the beginning of 2016. Besides four CPU cores (no Hyperthreading support), which are clocked at 2.3-3.2 GHz (probable Turbo steps: 4 cores: up to 2.8 GHz, 2 cores: up to 3.0 GHz), the processor also integrates the Iris Pro Graphics P580 as well as a dual-channel memory controller (DDR3L-1600/DDR4-2133). It is manufactured in a 14 nm process with FinFET transistors. 

Compared to the Core i5-6300HQ, the i5-6350HQ does have a much more powerful GPU, but does not support the instruction set extension TSX-NI in return.

Architecture

Intel uses Skylake to replace both Broadwell as well as Haswell and therefore uses one core design for all TDP classes between 4.5-45 Watts. Several improvements of the Skylake architecture include bigger Out-to-Order-Buffer, optimizations for pre-fetching as well as bigger gains by Hyperthreading. However, the changes are small for a "Tock" – a new micro architecture – in general, so the per-MHz performance is only between 5-10 % (compared to Haswell) or less than 5 % higher (compared to Broadwell), respectively.

The Core i5-6350HQ also benefits from the additional eDRAM cache in some cases, which can accelerate memory-heavy applications in particular.

Performance

Depending on the effect of the eDRAM cache, the i5-6350HQ is roughly on par with the i7-4700HQ (Haswell) when you stress up to four cores. If the software does support more cores, however, the Core i5 will fall behind by up to 25 % due to the lack of Hyperthreading. Still, even the most demanding applications and excessive multi-tasking are no problem for the CPU.

Graphics

The integrated GPU with the designation Iris Pro Graphics P580 (also known as "GT4e") represents the fastest version of the Skylake GPU (Intel Gen. 9). 72 Execution Units (EUs) run at 350 up to 900 MHz in this case and allow a performance comparable to a dedicated mainstream chip. The GPU might be able to compete with a GeForce 945M under perfect conditions and it is therefore the fastest iGPU on the market by a pretty big margin. Modern games from 2015/2016 can usually be played smoothly at medium settings. More information about the performance and the features is available on our dedicated page for the Iris Pro Graphics P580.

Power Consumption

According to its TDP of 45 Watts, the chip is primarily designed for bigger notebooks starting with 15-inch screens. The TDP can optionally be reduced to 35 Watts (cTDP down), but this would obviously affect the performance.