We’ve previously seen there’s not that much difference in benchmarks between Intel Atom Z3735F and the newer Atom x5-Z8300 processor, except when it comes to 3D graphics performance where the latter can be up to twice as fast. The same benchmarks have been run in Windows 10 on an Atom x5-Z8500 based device, namely Kangaroo Mobile Desktop computer, and the difference seemed large enough that I decided to make a comparison against the Atom x5-Z8300 processor used in Tronsmart Ara X5.
The three benchmarks – PCMark 8 (Accelerated 3.0), Passmark 8, and 3DMark – were run in Windows 10 64-bit Home in both devices. A Ratio greater than one indicates Kangaroo (x5-Z8500) is the faster device.
| Benchmark | Tronsmart Ara X5 Intel Atom x5-Z8300 @ 1.44 GHz / 1.84 GHz (Turbo) |
Kangaroo Mobile Desktop Intel Atom x5-Z8500 @ 1.44 GHz / 2.24 GHz (Turbo) |
Ratio |
| PCMark8 | |||
| Overall Score | 1,354 | 1,597 | 1.18 |
| Web Browsing – JunglePin | 0.62407s | 0.5599s | 1.11 |
| Web Browsing – Amazonia | 0.20059s | 0.18814s | 1.07 |
| Writing | 13.24s | 9.03502s | 1.47 |
| Casual Gaming | 9.65 fps | 11.97 fps | 1.24 |
| Video Chat playback | 29.99 fps | 30.01 fps | 1.00 |
| Video Chat encoding | 254.3333s | 212s | 1.20 |
| Photo Editing | 0.96745s | 0.85046s | 1.14 |
| Passmark 8 | |||
| Passmark Rating | 672 | 826 | 1.23 |
| CPU Mark | 1,468 | 1,950 | 1.33 |
| 2D Graphics Mark | 138.8 | 206 | 1.48 |
| 3D Graphics Mark | 240.2 | 297 | 1.24 |
| Memory Mark | 560 | 622 | 1.11 |
| 3DMark | |||
| Ice Storm 1.2 | 19,115 | 20,347 | 1.06 |
| Cloud Gate 1.1 | 1,658 | 1,917 | 1.16 |
| Sky Diver 1.0 | 903 | 1,104 | 1.22 |
| Fire Strike | 214 | 270 | 1.26 |
So Intel Atom x5-Z8500 is faster in all benchmarks. Passmark 8 also includes Disk Mark, but I have not included it in the table above, as it’s more related to the storage performance itself than the processor. Nevertheless, it should be noted that I/O performance may also impact the performance of some tests above, and Disk Mark results were 757 and 606 points for Ara X5 and Kangaroo respectively, and should not have affected the results.
The memory specifications should have favored x5-Z8500 when it comes to memory bandwidth, but Passmark’s “Memory Mark” shows only marginal higher performance for x5-Z8500. Nevertheless, overall Atom x5-Z8500 in Kangaroo mini PC should deliver about 20% performance improvement over x5-Z8300.
Price-wise Tronsmart Ara X5 now costs $120 with free shipping worldwide, and Kangaroo mobile desktop computer goes for $99 with shipping to the US only. The Kangaroo device does lack Ethernet however. Intel lists x5-Z8300 for $20 and x5-Z8500 for $25, with actual market prices likely to be even lower, and considering the ~20% performance improvement, the price/performance ratios of x5-z8300 and x5-Z8500 are comparable.
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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Hmm…. Benchmarking these processors with turbo frequency is quite tricky…
Another guy compared x5-Z8300 and x5-Z8500 tablets with Ice Storm 1.2:
x5-Z8300: 15,143 points (1280 x 800 screen resolution)
x5-Z8500: 25,199 points (2048×1536 screen resolution)
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a03ftrNGCik
Lots of variability within the same device too. For example GeekBench 3 on Mi Pad 2 and others
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=ATOM+X5
>The memory specifications should have favored x5-Z8500
kangaroo = 2GB = most likely one memory channel used
@rasz_pl
OK. I thought it might have been possible to use the two memory channels of the SoC.
So does that mean 4GB systems might not only benefit from higher memory, but also double the memory bandwidth (if dual channel is implemented)?
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
There are already 4GB x5-Z8300 products on the market (you posted about few) due to higher density memory available. Intel didnt bother updating this table for older one, but did include higher density ram in the new one.
Im sure most if not all 4GB x5-Z8500 models will also use one chip and one channel because its cheaper (easier routing on less layer pcb)