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Intel Core M Speeds Highly Variable between OEMs

posted by martyb on Friday April 10 2015, @06:12PM   
from the not-so-hot-processor-performance dept.

tonyPick writes:

Spotted at Extreme Tech is a report on the variation between processor speeds on Intel Core-M devices between OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers):

...users have generally been able to expect that a CPU in a Dell laptop will perform identically to that same CPU in an HP laptop. These assumptions aren’t trivial — they’re actually critical to reviewing hardware and to buying it.

The Core M offered OEMs more flexibility in building laptops than ever before, including the ability to detect the skin temperature of the SoC (System on Chip) and adjust performance accordingly. But those tradeoffs have created distinctly different performance profiles for devices that should be nearly identical to one another

The article references the detailed analysis done by Anandtech. Originally spotted at Hackernews

• controlling heat is hard controlling heat is hard (Score: 5, Touché) by shortscreen on Friday April 10 2015, @08:22PM

  by shortscreen (2252) on Friday April 10 2015, @08:22PM (#168830) Journal

  Intel would love to sell you an expensive, high-perf, multicore CPU, but it needs a certain cooling apparatus. Whereas OEMs are too cheap to install adequate cooling, or maybe they would just like to go along with the latest fad of making devices that are so thin they can't even contain an ethernet port. So to resolve this conflict, it seems Intel is taking a lesson from ISP marketing and selling something that runs "up to" X.X GHz until you hit the heat cap and get throttled to 1GHz.

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:controlling heat is hard (Score: 5, Funny) by Alfred on Friday April 10 2015, @08:58PM

  by Alfred (4006) on Friday April 10 2015, @08:58PM (#168834) Journal

  1GHz should be enough for anyone.

  Parent

• Re:controlling heat is hard (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @12:11AM

  by kaszz (4211) on Saturday April 11 2015, @12:11AM (#168866) Journal

  Solution: Review the sustained performance after an hour so of running.

  Then compare..
  And of course laptop temperature underneath as well as noise level from fans has to be listed.

  Parent

• Re:controlling heat is hard (Score: 3, Interesting) by meisterister on Saturday April 11 2015, @06:07PM

  by meisterister (949) on Saturday April 11 2015, @06:07PM (#169010) Journal

  This reminds me quite a bit of the Pentium 4 laptops of yesteryear for a different reason. The problem them was that a laptop generally couldn't have adequate cooling and would thus throttle immediately.

  This is an interesting inversion, where in 2005 the chip was at fault because the OEM couldn't bundle adequate cooling, but in 2015 the OEM is at fault because it won't bundle adequate cooling.

  --
  (May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.

  Parent