The Intel Atom Thread

[dark zero]

Another N100 MoreFine miniPC review but in English:

System power consumption double confirms that it's same power as the last gen Tremont.

Despite single channel DDR4 memory offering half the bandwidth, it outperforms N6005 in games. You can see the reason why looking at the GPU utilization. The N6005 CPU bottlenecks the GPU, while the N100 CPU does not bottleneck it's GPU.

It becomes an interesting option.

Tiger Lake ones are really decent too, but needs better cooling to get their best performance

Now I realize how bad might turn to be Mendocino. Intel is catching up in that department.

 

[burninatortech4]

Another N100 MoreFine miniPC review but in English:

System power consumption double confirms that it's same power as the last gen Tremont.

Despite single channel DDR4 memory offering half the bandwidth, it outperforms N6005 in games. You can see the reason why looking at the GPU utilization. The N6005 CPU bottlenecks the GPU, while the N100 CPU does not bottleneck it's GPU.

The review conveniently misses that N100 is single channel by design. A comparison would be pointless.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I'm still not exactly blown away by this. The Asus PN63 with the i3-1115G4 is an all around better performing platform, offering dual channel ram, actual PCIe x4 connectivity to the NVME drives AND sata, and can live in the same power range will still offering faster single thread and burst performance. It's also available for around $300 bare bones, cheaper if you watch for discounts. If you're good with watching sales though, you can find laptops with that chip offered in the sub $280 range which can typically perform the same duties unless you absolutely have to have that form factor. Also, according to the official specs, the iGPU on the i5-1115G4 has twice the EU and twice the frequency of the one in the N100. With the wider memory bus, it should have dramatically better gpu perforamnce.

I don't doubt that the new chips are an improvement over the old, but, unless they can consistently sustain higher MT throughput than the i3-1115G4, I'm not seeing the point... I get being price sensitive or quibbling over 5 watts or so in actual functional use (though, the i3 can be configured down into the same range, it just has the flexibility to push upwards if you want), but, its not dramatically improved there.

Kinda makes you wonder why the 1115G4 units are so much cheaper.

 

[Roland00Address]

Kinda makes you wonder why the 1115G4 units are so much cheaper.

Because we are talking a 2 year old chip being compared to a just released chip. Raptorlake (13th gen) was just "announced" 3 months ago and will be in laptops in about 3 months.

These new cheap atoms without the atom name are the equivalent generation as Raptor Lake but meant to occupy the low end of that market. (actually to be more technical these e cores are used on both 12th and 13th gen intel due to yadda yadda yadda.)

=====

Nothing wrong with the 11th gen, said me typing this on a 11th gen Gateway i5 I got a good deal on. I see LightningZz71's point and took advantage of it myself, but they are not the same comparison.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Because we are talking a 2 year old chip being compared to a just released chip. Raptorlake (13th gen) was just "announced" 3 months ago and will be in laptops in about 3 months.

These new cheap atoms without the atom name are the equivalent generation as Raptor Lake but meant to occupy the low end of that market. (actually to be more technical these e cores are used on both 12th and 13th gen intel due to yadda yadda yadda.)

=====

Nothing wrong with the 11th gen, said me typing this on a 11th gen Gateway i5 I got a good deal on. I see LightningZz71's point and took advantage of it myself, but they are not the same comparison.

Even still, the Alder Lake-N parts should have had a baseline BoM much lower than aging Tigerlake parts. Usually previous-gen laptop hardware from the Core lineup holds its value better than that. Alder Lake-N is coming it at a higher-than expected price while low-end TigerLake is losing value rapidly.

 

[Exist50]

Even still, the Alder Lake-N parts should have had a baseline BoM much lower than aging Tigerlake parts. Usually previous-gen laptop hardware from the Core lineup holds its value better than that. Alder Lake-N is coming it at a higher-than expected price while low-end TigerLake is losing value rapidly.

Might just be a firesale to clear the remaining 11th gen from the market. ADL-N should stabilize lower long term.

 

[LightningZ71]

1115g4 has been in the ~$300 range in laptops for multiple years now. Heck, the 1005g1 is still showing up in new units at the same price.



I'm personally on the prowl for a near $300 i5-1135G7 laptop. I've seen a couple get close and know that its just a matter of time.

 

[Roland00Address]

Even still, the Alder Lake-N parts should have had a baseline BoM much lower than aging Tigerlake parts. Usually previous-gen laptop hardware from the Core lineup holds its value better than that. Alder Lake-N is coming it at a higher-than expected price while low-end TigerLake is losing value rapidly.

Long term yes, but short term no.

Businesses must turn over their existing inventory and since inventory is a multi stage process between Intel, OEM, 1st party seller and sometimes a second party seller...

well this in turn means there are inventory with sales and not constant prices and so on. Thus you can find those good deals with better performing Tigerlake even if long term Alderlake will be cheaper. Especially since many retailers will no longer want to be ordering Tigerlake chips, and there is no hurry for ordering Alderlake. Man Retailers will gladly buy a 6 month or 12 month old laptop design if they can get an additional 10 or 20% margin for the final cost.

This may seem counter intuitive with new vs old computers, but it literally was my experience working retail for this market for several years and it got even more so the more online it got. (I have not done it for 10 years now)

=====

I'm still not exactly blown away by this. The Asus PN63 with the i3-1115G4 is an all around better performing platform, offering dual channel ram, actual PCIe x4 connectivity to the NVME drives AND sata, and can live in the same power range will still offering faster single thread and burst performance. It's also available for around $300 bare bones, cheaper if you watch for discounts. If you're good with watching sales though, you can find laptops with that chip offered in the sub $280 range which can typically perform the same duties unless you absolutely have to have that form factor. Also, according to the official specs, the iGPU on the i5-1115G4 has twice the EU and twice the frequency of the one in the N100. With the wider memory bus, it should have dramatically better gpu perforamnce.

I don't doubt that the new chips are an improvement over the old, but, unless they can consistently sustain higher MT throughput than the i3-1115G4, I'm not seeing the point... I get being price sensitive or quibbling over 5 watts or so in actual functional use (though, the i3 can be configured down into the same range, it just has the flexibility to push upwards if you want), but, its not dramatically improved there.

Kinda makes you wonder why the 1115G4 units are so much cheaper.

Edit for example we we’re talking $300 non sale devices earlier and how sale devices are often better.

Staples in store currently has a $279 core i3 1220p, aka the same small core we are talking about but there are 8 of them and not 4 of them, but also 2 performance cores 12th gen.

$329 online sale price. Model Asus f1502za-sb33 / item code 24527384 . This laptop has some limitations, it has 4 gb DDR but there is an open ram slot. 256gb ssd, and a 15.6” ips screen. Note there are lots of complaints about the ips screen doubting it is IPS. Regardless the device is $279 in store or $329 online.

 

[IntelUser2000]

This is brand new for $200 barebones though. As @Roland00Address address points out it is a complex relation.

Some searching shows the 1115G4 PN63 is $300. That's quite a difference at this price level.

My main driver is a Lenovo Yoga 11 710 that I got for $240 Canadian on eBay including shipping. Primary goals were: Convertible, Ultra low power/battery life, super light. Can't really compete with that lol.

Increasingly as computers get better, used market is a big competition. Of course some won't see anything other than brand new.

 

[burninatortech4]

Are there any i3-N300 or i3-N305 units on the market yet? The 8C/8T thread parts are far more interesting at 7W TDP.

 

[hemedans]

Are there any i3-N300 or i3-N305 units on the market yet? The 8C/8T thread parts are far more interesting at 7W TDP.

Asus just introduced one

Asus Vivobook Slate 13 OLED 2-in-1 tablet gets an Alder Lake-N spec bump - Liliputing

Asus Vivobook Slate 13 OLED 2-in-1 tablet gets an Alder Lake-N spec bump

liliputing.com

With Oled and UFS storage.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Intel® Core™ i3-N305 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Core™ i3-N305 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

So now they gonna have sub-categories within the Core i3 series? Where does Intel find these marketing geniuses? The local pawnshop?

 

[Roland00Address]

Are there any i3-N300 or i3-N305 units on the market yet? The 8C/8T thread parts are far more interesting at 7W TDP.

Not yet with “on the market”, there will be devices announced so far, but CES and Intels announcements of N300 was Q1,2023 at 3rd of Jan at CES.

It takes 3 months sometimes 6 months to have actual devices on store shelves even if OEMs have announced hardware and reviewers may have early samples that have not touched a wholesaler like Best Buy, Amazon, etc.

 

[IntelUser2000]

It takes 3 months sometimes 6 months to have actual devices on store shelves even if OEMs have announced hardware and reviewers may have early samples that have not touched a wholesaler like Best Buy, Amazon, etc.

Way better than Tremont. Because Raptorlake essentially has Gracemont+ it allows the N chips to catch up. Hopefully next year we get Crestmont. 20% gain gets us to Sunny Cove level.

Gracemont is around Cortex A710/715. It continues them roughly aiming the E cores at ARM chips. If they can get the platform power level down, it would be great.

 

[DZero]

Revive this thread, I found that the N-305 had some reviews.
And seems to be competent enough. Still the single channel screws a potential promising design.

And made me think, how good might be a 12 core Alder Lake -N or a 16 core one.

 

[Kaido]

Revive this thread, I found that the N-305 had some reviews.
And seems to be competent enough. Still the single channel screws a potential promising design.

And made me think, how good might be a 12 core Alder Lake -N or a 16 core one.

I used a ton of MINIX Atom PC's for kiosks, thin clients, digital signage, etc. over the years. I use 12th-gen N100's from Mele now:

Amazon.com

Pretty nice:

* $280 (when not on sale...currently $206)
* Fanless design
* 12th Gen Alder Lake N100 CPU (4 cores, 4 threads, up to 3.4ghz, 8w TDP, 30% faster than the Celeron N5095 & N5105)
* 16GB RAM
* 256 GB eMMC + 256 GB SSD (up to 2TB McroSD & NVMe supports up to 4TB PCIe x4)
* Triple 4K (2x HDMI & 1x USB-C)
* WI-FI 5 & BT 5.1

Really amazing how we from Netbooks to actually decent-performing, super-tiny computers! Great for like a Grandma PC. I'm a lifelong Mac Mini fan & started with a used G4 Cube back in the day. The Mele is like the size of a deck of cards lol.