Intel Processor N95 vs N97 vs N100 vs Core i3-N305 benchmarks comparison

Intel Alder Lake-N processors have been pretty popular in mini PCs and to a lesser extent in single board computers in the last year or so, thanks to their excellent performance/price and features/price ratios. All processors have more or less the same features, but performance differences do exist and do not always match the increasing part number.

Since we’ve reviewed a bunch of Alder Lake mini PCs, I’ve decided to compare the performance of the Processor N95, Processor N97, Processor N100, and Core i3-N305 CPUs to have a better understanding of the differences between each part.

For this purpose, we’ll rely on five mini PCs: Blackview MP80 (Processor N95), Blackview MP80 (Processor N97), the Intel N100-powered MINIX Z100-0dB and GEEKOM Mini Air12, and the Weibu N10 with a Core i3-N305 CPU. A summary of the specifications is listed in the table below.

Some important remarks:

• Prices are taken from Amazon without any coupon or discount, and most do have a discount, for example, $80 for the MP80 at the time of writing. Weibu N10 is an OEM product that has no publicly available pricing information, but fully equipped Core i3-N305 mini PCs will have an MSRP of over $300. All those models are not the cheapest ones, but the ones we have reviewed ourselves, and you’ll find fully equipped systems for under $150, possibly missing features such as 2.5GbE, WiFi 6, etc…
• The Blackview MP80 models come with SATA storage which will negatively impact some benchmark scores compared to other models with M.2 NVMe storage.

Alder Lake-N benchmarks comparison – Windows 11 Edition

Let’s start with Windows 11 (Pro) benchmark results:

You’ll find the Windows 11 benchmarks in the relevant sections of each review:

• Blackview MP80 (N95) Windows 11 benchmarks
• Blackview MP80 (N97) Windows 11 benchmarks
• MINIX NEO Z100-dB Windows 11 benchmarks
• GEEKOM Mini Air12 Windows 11 benchmarks
• Weibu N10 (Core i3-N305) Windows 11 benchmarks

The Core i3-N305 will be the fastest of the lot for multi-core workloads thanks to its eight cores, but the real winner in terms of price/performance ratio is the Processor N97 with good CPU performance and a better 3D graphics thanks to 24EU Intel UHD Graphics clocked at 1.2 GHz instead of just 16EU @ 1.2 GHz or 24EU @ 750 MHz for the other parts. That’s why, along with the higher turbo frequency,  Hardkernel selected the Intel Processor N97 for the ODROID-H4 SBC over the Processor N100 despite the slightly higher price. As mentioned above, storage results for the MP80 mini PCs should be ignored (for a CPU comparison) due to the use of an M.2 SATA SSD.

All systems have about the same power consumption at idle (desktop mode with HDMI display, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, and Ethernet or WiFi). The exception was the Weibu N10 which was reviewed by Ian with different equipment and environment. As we can see from the MINIX Z100-0dB (fanless) and GEEKOM Mini Air12 (actively cooled) results, fanless solutions may perform a little slower, especially in hot conditions, but may consume a little less since there’s no fan. It’s also worth repeating that the often misinterpreted TDP values have no direct connection to the power consumption of a device since 6W N100 and 12W N97 mini PCs consume about the same.

Alder Lake-N benchmarks comparison – Linux Edition

Let’s now switch to Linux benchmarks, although we’ll have to drop the Blackview MP80 (N95) as we were unable to install Ubuntu 22.04 on it, and only found out later that Fedora 39 could be installed and work reasonably well on the N97 model. All other mini PCs were tested with Ubuntu 22.04.

You’ll find the Linux benchmarks in the relevant sections of each review:

• Blackview MP80 (N97) Fedora 39 benchmarks
• MINIX NEO Z100-dB Ubuntu 22.04 benchmarks
• GEEKOM Mini Air12 Ubuntu 22.04 benchmarks
• Weibu N10 (Core i3-N305) Ubuntu 22.04 benchmarks

The story in Linux is very similar to the one in Windows, with the Core i3-N305 being the more powerful solution as expected, but the Processor N97 delivers similar performance as the N100 in most tests except for 3D graphics (Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 benchmark) where it’s significantly faster.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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