The Bay Trail Preview: Intel Atom Z3770 Tested
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on September 11, 2013 12:00 PM ESTIn addition to showing Bay Trail running on a Windows 8.x platform, Intel showed us a “pre-beta” version of the platform running Android 4.2.2. I have to emphasize that the build they showed us definitely seemed pre-beta, as there was some instability, but overall the build was good enough to run some tests on and get a feel for. Intel made it clear that they do have a lot more work to do on their Android build before it’s considered close to final quality than the Windows equivalent.
Inside Android we can still see the CPU state table data and how long the cores are sitting in each performance state still, despite this now being managed in-silicon on Bay Trail. In addition Android sees the 2.39 GHz Z3770 boost frequency and reports it. I didn’t see any strange behavior on the device while running tests and watching CPU frequency, if anything the reference design platform stayed at the maximum boost frequency even with four cores plugged in for an impressive amount of time. Of course this is a tablet so there’s more TDP to play around with compared to a phone.
Depending on where you were in the Android UI, there was some definite stutter, but I’m told this is a result of an issue with Dalvik not allocating threads to cores properly that Intel is still tuning, something which you can see plays itself out as well in the AndEBench Java test that runs in Dalvik. The launcher especially had some stutter, but Intel claimed they were aware of it and that final performance in areas like that would be dramatically improved. Regardless of the state of Bay Trail’s Android port, it affords us the opportunity to look at performance through our pretty standard benchmark suite.
On the CPU side for Android we’re still limited to just a few tests that rely on a combination of native code and stuff that runs inside the browser. That means AndEBench, JavaScript benchmarks, and part of Vellamo.
Sunspider has been a regular staple but in recent time has become an exercise in browser JavaScript engine optimization rather than actual performance. Nevertheless the FFRD takes the crown in both 1.0 and 0.9.1 (we have more tablet data from the 0.9.1 version so I replicated it here).
Kraken is another JavaScript benchmark which hasn’t quite been an optimization target everyone has gone after lately, and it’s also longer, which makes it a bit more reliable. Once again Bay Trail takes the crown here with notably faster JS engine performance.
Google Octane is another JS test that isn’t quite as platform optimized yet, here there’s once again dominance by Bay Trail with just over a 50 percent higher score.
Browsermark has a combination of both JS tests and other web related performance metrics. Here the Bay Trail platform lags behind the 8974 based devices slightly. This isn’t a raw JavaScript benchmark again but rather a more holistic web browsing performance test, so it’s interesting to see Bay Trail a bit behind here.
AndEBench is a combination native compiled microkernel benchmark (indicative of NDK application performance) that also runs a very similar workload atop Dalvik like a normal Android Java application. Here we can see what Intel was talking about when they said they have more work to do getting Dalvik working properly at dispatching threads to appropriate cores, hopefully the Java number will climb considerably. The native test also shows a lead over the competition.
GPU Performance
While Bay Trail clearly leads on the CPU side, its GPU performance is more middle of the road - at least among the higher end SoCs. In 3DMark Bay Trail's GPU performance is aided by the more CPU bound nature of the benchmark, but here Intel is able to beat the Snapdragon 600. Snapdragon 800 on the other hand pulls ahead by around 35%.
The 3DMark Physics test is effectively a CPU test, which once again plays to Bay Trail's strengths. Here it's faster than Snapdragon 800 and Cortex A15. Only Ivy Bridge is quicker in a tablet.
Basemark X
Basemark X is a bit more GPU bound than 3DMark, and we also have iOS data here so we can put Bay Trail's performance in better perspective. Here Bay Trail is a bit slower than the iPad 4, and clearly Tegra 4 and Snapdragon 800. Intel's GPU in Android is measurably quicker than Adreno 320/S600 though.
Bay Trail's onscreen performance is penalized by the FFRD's extremely high native resolution.
GLBenchmark 2.7
The more interested GLBenchmark numbers, T-Rex HD, show Bay Trail just behind the iPad 4 in performance. It's definitely not bad at all but clearly not industry leading.
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JumpingJack - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Nope, power consumption would still be too high, AMD has nothing that can really match up in this space. This has been true with Kabini and all prior iterations. This is why there is so few design wins. AMD has a power consumption problem (just as Intel did a few years back).silverblue - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Perhaps, but the GPU looks to be overkill for the CPU power on offer.Jaguar appears to lack the sort of dynamic L2 power gating we will be seeing with Steamroller which would make sense in low-power situations. Also, it's still a dual-issue front end - highlighted as a possible decent boost to performance. We don't actually know this particular detail as regards Bay Trail; it could very well be dual-issue as well.
monstercameron - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
not so sure about that bobcat sold fairly well. Also if amd optimized the a4-5000 for tablet scenarios then the power consumption would be closer to atom. notebookcheck reviewed the a4-5000 in the acer e1-522 http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-E1... and there web browsing test reached 3:47 hours on a 37Wh battery [equating to a ~10W draw with laptop components]iwod - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
A Few things,Browser Performance, or JavaScript performance are heavily influenced by its VM. And the version it used to test. Not mention these VM has the best tuning on x86 for years. And Safari JS's VM JvascriptCore isn't very optimized for Karken. As shown in www.arewefastyet.com
And i dont argee much the conclusion. While others has been siting Anand as an Pro Intel site. I have often disagree with it. But looking at those results I dont see how on the CPU side is winning anything. At least not against Shield or the upcoming Qualcomm MSM. As i have said the Javascript Benchmarks are not a reliable way to look at it. And all other CPU based performance Intel is either behind or on par. Not winning the benchmarks. So No, the CPU isn't the best performance here.
And on GPU, it concluded with " Intel's HD graphics in Bay Trail appear to be similar in performance to the PowerVR SGX 554MP4 in the iPad 4" I mean unless you are interpreting the results much more differently then what i read i the graph. Then please do explain yourself there. Because I dont read how it is "similar". There are like at least 20% of performance difference.
And if you want to compare with the best of ARM SoC breed coming up in the same time frame ( And actually shipping it )? Wait until Apple announce its A7X coming in the next iPad.
If I may have missed something you explained. Please enlighten me. Otherwise this is a review that is quite pro Intel.
fteoath64 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
"And if you want to compare with the best of ARM SoC breed coming up in the same time frame ( And actually shipping it )? Wait until Apple announce its A7X coming in the next iPad."Yeah, the A7X is going to look like 50% ahead of Intel HD gpu and will lead the SoC market ingpu performance for the next 2 years AGAIN!.
Krysto - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
50%? Snapdragon 800 and Tegra 4 are already up to 80 percent faster in some GPU tests. A7X will be 150% faster, if Apple doubles the GPU performance from last year again.Once again Anandtech shows its bias for Intel, when it's saying Bay Trail is even "competitive" with what is/will be available in the same timeframe.
formulav8 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
You know, I have defended Anand before with people claiming such things, but I can somewhat see what some people mean. Thankfully I rarely come here for any of his stuff, just mainly come to the site for the forums these days.andrewaggb - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
yeah that's what I see happening as well. I'm seriously considering getting a T100 anyways because it's pretty good value for a windows device... but as good as bay trail is, it's going to be slower than the A7X by a large margin. I think intel aimed too low.Jaybus - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
I disagree. GPU performance is not the end-all of tablet performance criteria. They can all do 2D fast enough. For everything but games, if it can play video streams smoothly, then it's fast enough. Overall snappiness and responsiveness is more a CPU thing. So, if the power usage is as claimed, then saying that the Intel chip is a contender in the tablet market is more than fair. I don't see how it is bias toward Intel if it is just the simple truth.monstercameron - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
temash a4-1350 might have it beat.