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.
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.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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