Intel Processor N97 vs Intel Core i7-6700T

Intel Processor N97

The Intel Processor N97 is an entry-level mobile CPU for thin and light laptops from the Alder Lake-N series. It was announced in early 2023 and offers no performance cores and 4 of the 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The chip does not support HyperThreading and clocks with up to 3.7 GHz. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 6 MB L3-cache. 

Performance

The performance should be between the Intel Processor N100 and Intel Processor N200 and clearly below the Core i3-N300 and N305 due to the reduced core count. 

Features

The Alder Lake-N chips only support single channel memory with up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200 or LPDDR5-4800. The chip also supports Quick Sync and AV1 decoding (most likely same engine as in Alder Lake). Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 are partly integrated (but no Thunderbolt). External chips can be connected via PCIe Gen3 x9 (via the PCH).

The integrated graphics adapter is based on the Xe-architecture and offers only 24 of the 32 EUs (Execution Units) operating at 1200 MHz. Due to the single channel memory, low clock speeds, and low shader count, the gaming performance of the iGPU is very limited.

Power consumption

The N97 has a base power consumption of 12 W and therefore double the amount of the N100. The CPU is built with a further improved 10nm SuperFin process at Intel (called Intel 7).

Intel Core i7-6700T

The Intel Core i7-6700T is a quad-core processor based on the Skylake architecture, that has been launched in September 2015. It is generally intended for desktops but due to the relatively low TDP of 35 Watt is is also used in some laptops. In addition to four CPU cores with Hyper-Threading clocked at 2.8 - 3.6 GHz, the chip also integrates an HD Graphics 530 GPU and a dual-channel DDR4-2133/DDR3L-1600 memory controller. The CPU 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").

Performance

According to the specified clock rates and the improved architecture, the Core i7-6700T performs roughly on par with the former, somewhat higher clocked Intel Core i7-3770K (Ivy Bridge). Therefore, the CPU is also well suited for demanding applications.

Graphics

The integrated graphics unit called HD Graphics 530 represents the "GT2" version of the Skylake GPU (Intel Gen. 9). The 24 Execution Units, also called EUs, are clocked at 350 - 1100 MHz and offer a performance about 20 percent above the old HD Graphics 4600. Games of 2015 can thus be played smoothly in low or medium settings. For more information about performance and features, check our page for HD Graphics 530.

Power Consumption

Specified at a TDP of 35 W (including CPU, GPU and memory controller), the CPU is best suited for bigger notebooks 15-inches in size and above or small desktops.