Intel Atom x7-Z8700 (Cherry Trail) vs Intel Celeron N3150 (Braswell) Benchmarks Comparison

Intel tend to release lots of processors, and it’s not also clear how they perform against each others, but generally the rank from slowest to highest goes something like Atom < Celeron < Pentium < Core M < Core i3 < Core i5 < Core i7. Recently, I’ve seen and reviewed a few low power Intel Atom x7-Z8700 “Cherry Trail” and Intel Celeron N3150 “Braswell” mini PCs, both quad core processors @ 1.6 GHz (base), and I could not find much differences between the two during use.

Atom_x7-z8700_vs_Celeron_N3150

So to have a clear and objective view of the relative performance of the two processors, I’ve compared the results I got with Intel Atom x7-Z8700 based Beelink BT7 mini PC to the ones I got with MINIX NGC-1 mini PC powered by Celeron N3150 processor in the table below. Both machines have been designed quite well (good heat dissipation) and with storage devices having similar performance. A ratio greater than one (green) means the Celeron processor is faster, and if it is lower than one (red) the Atom processor prevails.

Benchmark Beelink BT7
Intel Atom x7-Z8700 @ 1.6 GHz / 2.48 Ghz (Turbo)
MINIX NGC-1
Intel Celeron N3150 @ 1.6 GHz / 2.08 GHz (Turbo)
Ratio
PCMark 8 Accelerated
Overall Score 1,509 1,492 0.99
Web Browsing – JunglePin 0.59309s 0.63426s 0.94
Web Browsing – Amazonia 0.19451s 0.2141s 0.91
Writing 8.53975s 9.3966s 0.91
Casual Gaming 7.96 fps 9.7 fps 1.22
Video Chat playback 29.99 fps 30.01 fps 1.00
Video Chat encoding 301 ms 193.333 ms 1.56
Photo Editing 0.65544s 0.81038s 0.81
Passmark 8
Passmark Rating 846 781.9 0.92
3DMark
Ice Storm 1.2 23,999 23,032 0.96
Cloud Gate 1.1 2,185 1,961 0.90
Sky Diver 1.0 1,131 1,108 0.98
Fire Strike 276 258 0.93

So in the end, both processors have a very close performance, except for video chat encoding where the Atom processor is about 56% slower than the Celeron processor. The Atom’s 16 EU GPU @ 200/600 MHz is faster than the Celeron’s 12 EU GPU @ 300/640 MHz in most case, but only marginally. Both SoCs are capable of decoding 4K videos with H.264 and H.265 video codecs. Systems based on the Intel Axom x7-Z8700 processor could consume less electricity as Atom x7 has a 2W SDP, while Celeron N3150 a 4W SDP, but the  power consumption of a complete mini PC also depends on its overall design.

So there seems to be very little to gain by purchasing a system with Celeron N3150 “Braswell” processor  over one with a Atom x7 “Cherry Trail processor, if a mini PC matches your requirements. One noticeable advantage of Braswell processors should be Linux support with the default/standard ISO images, while Atom x7 systems currently require community hacked ISO images for support of features such as HDMI audio, WiFi and Bluetooth. You can also find a side-by-side comparison of the features of the two processor on Intel website.

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Lieutenant Colonel Olivier South
Lieutenant Colonel Olivier South
8 years ago

Not much point buying anything with Atom processors which will be discontinued, or with Braswell processors, since the forthcoming Apollo Lake processors are reputed to have a significant performance increase over Braswell but at similar low powers.

Until then (and for some time after until old stock is cleared) there will be no doubt lots of promotional items to persuade people to buy equipment with processors past their sell by date.

TLS
TLS
8 years ago

@Lieutenant Colonel Olivier South
Huh, what? I think there’s some serious misinformation going around. Intel only discontinued the Atom processors for phones, the X5 series is going to continue, as it’s targeting tablets and low-cost notebooks.

Also, Apollo Lake won’t be out until sometime in the third quarter of this year, so you’ll have to wait quite a while for a “maybe” in terms of performance improvements.

I don’t see either of these as past their sell by date and it really all comes down to what people need, no?

Lieutenant Colonel Olivier South
Lieutenant Colonel Olivier South
8 years ago


“the X5 series is going to continue”

According to PC World:

“Intel is also discontinuing its Atom X5 line of tablet chips code-named Cherry Trail, which is being replaced by Pentium and Celeron chips code-named Apollo Lake, aimed more at hybrids than pure tablets.”

Is that correct or not? And so which Atom processors are going to continue?

Also is there not a question of the level of Linux support for Atom processors?

rafisganeyev
rafisganeyev
8 years ago

Overall score 1,509 – 1,492 – 0.99. What’s with your math? If I divide 1,509/1,492 = 1,01.

GanjaBear
GanjaBear
7 years ago

There’s a great promo on BG presently – X5 for $47.

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