Broadwell ULV performance review and benchmarks

[III-V]

Yes of course. There was a big deficit from 3dmark or Computing to real gaming performance in the past, one reason could be the poor texturing performance. Intel improved it for Broadwell. Should help for MSAA as well.

Gotcha. Sorry, I was having a hard time following you. I wonder how 3D mark accounts for texture, geometry and raster performance, if at all.

 

[thedavexp]

Both the haswell and the broadwell where running DDR3 1600 (2x8gb configuration)

The drivers on both laptops where stock. The dell is actually my own person laptop.

Is there anything else you guys want me to test?

It is a tad limited in what I can do but I should be able to grab screenshots.

 

[thedavexp]

Yep OEM choices matter more than the single part now, I'm looking at Broadwell-Y and whoever choose to put a 4K display with it... just use a good quality 1080P, even the new power saving variant (I dont remember the name at all) would be great for a premium price.



I am baffled too by the weird CPU increase: mostly base clocks gains, big ones, but looking thorough the charts there are also decreases in max turbo sometimes...
Then the new 5y71 chip even has a 2.9GHz turbo in a 4.5W TDP so I'm really speechless when a 15W part is limited to 3ish or a few bins more.

Maybe it's all marketing and they (Intel) are going to release much better variants in the future?
Stress tests shoud give a better picture: just think how long they could keep those turbo speed up vs the much more limited -y variant.

Could have been the CPU not throttling as much because it didn't reach its max TDP?

 

[witeken]

Could have been the CPU not throttling as much because it didn't reach its max TDP?

Yes, you see it in the base speed, which is much lower for Core M. BDW-U has a ton more thermal headroom. Turbo Boost probably shouldn't be underestimated since it has a tremendous benefit in a lot of use cases, so the high turbo of BDW-Y isn't too surprising.

 

[jdubs03]

Both the haswell and the broadwell where running DDR3 1600 (2x8gb configuration)

The drivers on both laptops where stock. The dell is actually my own person laptop.

Is there anything else you guys want me to test?

It is a tad limited in what I can do but I should be able to grab screenshots.

Could you test geekbench, cinebench 11.5/15, pcmark8-work/home/creative (the basic free edition), 7-zip, gfxbench, latest edition of kraken? maybe 3dmark 2013 - performance.

That would suffice for a pretty good overall picture. If you can't get many of them that's still fine.

Thanks.

 

[TreVader]

Broadwell-U uses DDR3-L 1600. Only desktop gets DDR4 1866

 

[bronxzv]

BDW-U has a ton more thermal headroom.

indeed, for example I see that Core i7-5557U has a base freq. of 3.1 GHz and Iris Graphics 6100, all of this in 15 W TDP

whatever people are saying about SDP, per SKU varying SDP numbers will be very valuable instead of a flat TDP for 17 SKUs as seen at the link someone posted above
http://www.fanlesstech.com/2014/09/entire-broadwell-u-lineup.html

EDIT: I see that the text at the link says "28 W TDP" for the Core i7-5557U but the table (image 1) mentions "15 W", 15 W looks too good to be true

 

[witeken]

indeed, for example I see that Core i7-5557U has a base freq. of 3.1 GHz and Iris Graphics 6100, all of this in 15 W TDP

*28W. It's the successor of this one: http://ark.intel.com/products/75992.

 

[bronxzv]

*28W. It's the successor of this one: http://ark.intel.com/products/75992.

yep, but as mentioned in my EDIT above the source at the link is ambiguous (the text says something else than the supposedly leaked table)

 

[witeken]

Iris (GT2) wouldn't make a huge amount of sense in 15W SKU, at least not the HD6100 SKU. That isn't the only fault: it also says the L3 Cache is 1600, the TDP is 4MB, etc.

 

[bronxzv]

Iris (GT2) wouldn't make a huge amount of sense in 15W SKU, at least not the HD6100 SKU. That isn't the only fault: it also says the L3 Cache is 1600, the TDP is 4MB, etc.

yes, it's another issue, the table layout in the 1st pic is broken since there is one header missing (DDR3) , from past experience I'll say it's a good sign that these slides are legit, just a bit rushed out

 

[justanotherboy]

Broadwell-U uses DDR3-L 1600. Only desktop gets DDR4 1866

Broadwell will be DDR3 only

 

[railven]

Broadwell will be DDR3 only

Woah, is this true? Where did I miss a memo...I was under the impression Broadwell would be the first non-E CPU's to have DDR4 support from Intel.

You're telling me that is being held off until Skylake? Which will come out when!?

This puts a wrench in the reason why I'm holding off upgrading.

 

[TreVader]

Woah, is this true? Where did I miss a memo...I was under the impression Broadwell would be the first non-E CPU's to have DDR4 support from Intel.



You're telling me that is being held off until Skylake? Which will come out when!?



This puts a wrench in the reason why I'm holding off upgrading.

No it's not true. I guess that guy just likes making stuff up?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture)

Broadwell-E and Broadwell-EP (XEON) use DDR4

 

[railven]

No it's not true. I guess that guy just likes making stuff up?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture)

Broadwell-E and Broadwell-EP (XEON) use DDR4

Yeah, but E and EP are neither non-E's. If I wanted a server style setup I'd get Haswell-E. I was hoping for a cheaper upgrade path for my gaming rig since I Know I won't be using all that B/W.

If SKylake is truly going to be the first mainstream DDR4 config, I might as well just pick up a Devil's Canyon.

 

[justanotherboy]

No it's not true. I guess that guy just likes making stuff up?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadwell_(microarchitecture)

Broadwell-E and Broadwell-EP (XEON) use DDR4

Sorry about the confusion, I was referring to the Desktop class, not server class Broadwell. The -E version will have DDR4, every other Broadwell is DDR3

 

[mikk]

Is there anything else you guys want me to test?

3dmark11 performance score. And if you have time you could do a log with GPUz core clock while running Vantage or 3dmark11.

 

[seitur]

First of all thanks for doing this and sharing benchmarks/results.

Some games benchmarks and GPGPU scores would be nice.


Frankly though I am more interested in Skylake.

 

[ikjadoon]

Wow, great info. +1 mate.

1) Can you check whether it is DDR3L or LPDDR3? The latter has big standby battery life improvements. You can't check directly, AFAIK, but a screenshot of the SPD Tab in CPU-Z should help (like this: http://bcchardware.com/index.php/v/...uz-spd.JPG.html?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=161 )

2) Did USB 3.1 make it onto the laptop? Any of the new connector-C ports?

3) Did you see Panel Self-refresh enabled? Check via:

- Go to the desktop.
- Tap and hold to bring up right button menu.
- Select 'Screen Resolution'
- Tap on 'Advanced Settings'
- Tap on 'Intel(r) HD Graphics Control Panel tab
- Tap 'Graphic Properties' button
- Tap 'Power'
- The first option on this page is 'Panel Self Refresh'.

4) And can you check on the LCD panel? I'm hopeful for IGZO, but I doubt it.

- Device Manager
- Monitors
- Right-click the monitor and go to Properties
- Details tab
- In the drop-down, select Hardware ID

What's the value, the text in the box?

5) Is InstantGo/Connected Standby available?

-CMD
-type "powercfg /a" w/o quotes
-Is Standby (Connected) available?

 

[ikjadoon]

If you're feeling adventurous, maybe you can clue us in on a few other things, too, hehe:

1) What other laptops do you have ordered? Anything interesting from Lenovo with Broadwell-U? Any showing of USB 3.1?

2) What is the release date of these laptops? Hehehe

3) Any pricing info?

4) Any laptops look exciting to you? I'm looking for a convertible with decent specifications and long-long-long battery life.

 

[seitur]

Haswell was pretty good in 3dmark but often failed in games. So having a 34% better Vantage GPU score and overall P5100 is a nice result for a 15W CPU, I would expect that in real games the increase can be 50% over Haswell.

What kills IntelHD performance in games is AA. They are often weak at handling shading too.

Once you turn off AA completly and are not using high shading options performance is quite alright actually more often than not being higher than those old NV/AMD graphics from several years ago that got similar 3dmark results.

Of course as gamer you even at low-tier GPU you want some basic AA or/and some nice shading, so Intel has a lot to do cause especially IntelHD AA performance is absymal.


I wonder if Broadwell and/or Skylake IntelHD will have some breakthrough in those fields.

 

[witeken]

What kills IntelHD performance in games is AA.

I wonder if Broadwell and/or Skylake IntelHD will have some breakthrough in those fields.

Doesn't Broadwell have improved MSAA support?

 

[mikk]

What kills IntelHD performance in games is AA. They are often weak at handling shading too.

Once you turn off AA completly and are not using high shading options performance is quite alright actually more often than not being higher than those old NV/AMD graphics from several years ago that got similar 3dmark results.

Of course as gamer you even at low-tier GPU you want some basic AA or/and some nice shading, so Intel has a lot to do cause especially IntelHD AA performance is absymal.


I wonder if Broadwell and/or Skylake IntelHD will have some breakthrough in those fields.

Gen7.x doesn't even support 2xMSAA in hardware. Texture sampler increase should help MSAA performance.


I did a Gen7.5 comparison with my HD4600 1200 Mhz on the same driver. I have to note that my system is running on DDR3-2133 and my CPU has a bit more L3 Cache for the GPU.

Gen 7.5 1200 Mhz= 5046 +16% http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5181696
Gen 8.0 max 950 Mhz= 4351 http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5180008

We don't know how high his Broadwell ULV clocks in Vantage, max GPU Turbo is not a given on an ULV. But even with 950 Mhz means Gen 8 efficiency must be higher in Vantage because there is a 26% frequency advantage for my GPU (plus faster RAM and more L3 cache)

 

[thedavexp]

Hey Guys

Sorry about the delay in replying I work retail and its christmas

I have taken screenshots of all the CPUz windows on another hp laptop running broadwell unfortunately the original laptop I tested has sold out but this one is running the same CPU (without dual channel memory).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/03tv0lihfrlcw9v/AACEZOTltIbLfxHB2_KzkonPa?dl=0

I can run some more benchmarks in the new year (i will try do a geekbench done on the broadwell laptop we have left before hand)

 

[mikk]

CPUz says single channel memory, is this correct?