SP 4 Core M3 vs SP3 Core i5?

[elee532]

Anyone know what to expect in terms of performance between the new Surface Pro 4 with the Core M3 compared to the current Surface Pro 3 sporting the Core i5?

The i5 in my SP3 more than meets my performance needs. Wondering if I would see a performance drop if I went with an SP4 running the Core M3.

Thanks!

 

[Johnny365]

Seeing as the Core M is 900Mhz base clock, I'd say you'd get better battery life but that's it.

 

[GreyFox7]

Roughly about 15% drop.
With a grain of salt
Geekbench core i5-4300u single core 2890 multi core 5650
Geekbench core m3-6y30 single core 2485 multi core 4749 *only 1 64 bit sample

Passmark
core i5-4300u - - 3750
core m3-6y30* - 3352
*estimated 15% increase from Core-M 5y10 - 2915 There are currently no Core m3-6y30 passmark scores.

 

[elee532]

Thanks! That's really helpful. I'm thinking I would notice very little performance difference going from the Surface Pro 3 with Core i5 to the Pro 4 with the Core M3.

90% of my usage is Office 2013 (probably 2016 soon) and a pretty old version of PhotoShop (CS3). Would you agree the 15% drop wouldn't be too noticeable?

 

[callihan_44]

I have the i-3 and it's done everything I need so I may be looking at the core m myself and I'm glad they finally ditched the 64gb entry storage

 

[daveyp]

I have the i-3 and it's done everything I need so I may be looking at the core m myself and I'm glad they finally ditched the 64gb entry storage

ditto. i3 has been a great companion. as long as you dont need to connect an array of high res monitors. fanless design is as nice perk in the core m as well, but i'm a little concerned with the increased resolution (+60%) combined with a similar, possibly lower-performing CPU

 

[hughlle]

Battery life would be the only reason I'll consider a core m to replace my i5 sp3. Otherwise I just can't justify the cost. If no significant improvement then I'd rather shell out for an i5 or i7

 

[GreyFox7]

I'm considering replacing my S3 Atom with a core m SP4.
However, an i5 has plenty of horsepower for most tasks so if you wanted the lighter, fanless experience and a slight performance drop didn't mean much then it's a reasonable tradeoff.

 

[elee532]

Another question... is the fanless Core M more likely to get warm to the touch than an i5 with fan?

 

[GreyFox7]

Another question... is the fanless Core M more likely to get warm to the touch than an i5 with fan?

Hard to say really although there's a big difference between the power range i.e. watts which directly relates to heat. the core m3 range is 3.8w to 7w, 4.5w TDP and the i5 is 15w TDP.

I have 3w, 9w, & 10.5w light bulbs ... the 3w you can put your hand on it, hold it, its barely warm at all, almost not warm. At 9w its noticeably warm but I can hold it. I'll just say it doesn't take me long to feel the 10.5w bulb

The Surface 3 Atom has a believed range of 2w to 7w (Intel doesn't publish the TDP, assumed to be 4w, or max number only the bottom number) sometimes gets warm but comfortably so. I would expect about the same of the core m.

 

[GreyFox7]

Preliminary NOT Sp4 3DMark Cloud Gate score for a Core m3-6y30 in an HP 8075 (whatever that is, it's new)
The i5-4300U score is from an SP3.

Shows Core m3-6y30 HD 515 Graphics is 25% better than HD 4400 in SP3 i5-4300U while the Physics portion of the test is not quite as good. Overall this is a good result for the Core m3-6y30.

 

[hughlle]

What is with the clock speed of that core m?