The Intel Compute Stick (Core m3-6Y30) Review
by Ganesh T S on June 27, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Intel
- Core M
- Skylake
- HDMI Stick
- Compute Stick
Performance Metrics - II
In this section, we mainly look at benchmark modes in programs used on a day-to-day basis, i.e, application performance and not synthetic workloads.
x264 Benchmark
First off, we have some video encoding benchmarks courtesy of x264 HD Benchmark v5.0. This is simply a test of CPU performance. The Core m3-6Y30 in the Compute Stick form factor is given a bit of a challenge by the Core i5-4210Y in the Zotac ZBOX CI540 nano, a NUC-form factor machine.
7-Zip
7-Zip is a very effective and efficient compression program, often beating out OpenCL accelerated commercial programs in benchmarks even while using just the CPU power. 7-Zip has a benchmarking program that provides tons of details regarding the underlying CPU's efficiency. In this subsection, we are interested in the compression and decompression MIPS ratings when utilizing all the available threads.
In these multi-threaded benchmarks, the quad-core processors (4C/4T) are able to score better than the 2C/4T configuration of the Core m3-6Y30.
TrueCrypt
As businesses (and even home consumers) become more security conscious, the importance of encryption can't be overstated. The Core m3-6Y30 supports the AES-NI instruction for accelerating the encryption and decryption processes. TrueCrypt, a popular open-source disk encryption program can take advantage of the AES-NI capabilities. The TrueCrypt internal benchmark provides some interesting cryptography-related numbers to ponder. In the graph below, we can get an idea of how fast a TrueCrypt volume would behave in the Intel Core m3-6Y30 Compute Stick and how it would compare with other select PCs. This is a purely CPU feature / clock speed based test.
Agisoft Photoscan
Agisoft PhotoScan is a commercial program that converts 2D images into 3D point maps, meshes and textures. The program designers sent us a command line version in order to evaluate the efficiency of various systems that go under our review scanner. The command line version has two benchmark modes, one using the CPU and the other using both the CPU and GPU (via OpenCL). The benchmark takes around 50 photographs and does four stages of computation:
- Stage 1: Align Photographs
- Stage 2: Build Point Cloud (capable of OpenCL acceleration)
- Stage 3: Build Mesh
- Stage 4: Build Textures
We record the time taken for each stage. Since various elements of the software are single threaded, others multithreaded, and some use GPUs, it is interesting to record the effects of CPU generations, speeds, number of cores, DRAM parameters and the GPU using this software.
Dolphin Emulator
Wrapping up our application benchmark numbers is the Dolphin Emulator benchmark mode results. This is again a test of the CPU capabilities, and the pure single-threaed performance advantage of the Core m3-6Y30 is evident here.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
105 Comments
View All Comments
bill.rookard - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
That's somewhat debatable IMHO. If there's one thing that's usually true: people never complain about having too much power, proper thermal and power management usually keeps that all under control. They always complain though if it's not powerful enough.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
I have a use case for one of these...At home I have a Samsung 3D TV that I paid a fortune for, and other than the software / online side to the device, I'm very happy with. The issue is - after 4yrs, Samsung no longer updates their smart TV, and thus I cannot even finish a single episode of anything on iPlayer, without it rebooting. And the smart TV interface is painful to use.
I think this device would bridge the gap, and allow me to keep this TV another 4 years.
But that price...it won't convert well when it hits the UK shores...
felang - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
Seems like a $50 Roku Stick might be just what you need.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
I hear that a lot. People jumped on the 3D TV and smart TV fads which are both are rapidly deflating markets making them unprofitable to continue to support from an OEM perspective. You're probably better off using a Roku or some other similar set top box. A compute stick seems like overkill for your usage scenario.Notmyusualid - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
Thanks for all your answers.However, I don't stream Hulu, or Netflix, but only from the BBCs iPlayer, in accordance with my non-license-paying laws.
But I DO use Youtube, and have hated most every linux interface I've seen, so I really Need / Want a Windows user environment.
At $200 this would be an insta-buy. At $300, I dunno, I guess I'd have to be stateside to really decide, but when it lands at 299 GBP, they can stuff it. (that is my price GUESS).
I'll certainly be adding it to my Ebay 2nd hand search, just in case a fool dumps one cheaply...
erple2 - Wednesday, July 6, 2016 - link
Sounds like a Chromecast might work, too. BBC suggests that it should just work if you use the iPlayer app on your Android or iPhone.JackNSally - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
I currently have an Amazon Firestick.It works really good for Netflix, Hulu, etc.
You can also put Kodi on it. It's not the most polished interface and experience but it does work.
I think you can do more with it too, I just haven't figured it all out.
Gunbuster - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
My takeaway is that 2in1's have the potential to not suck if Intel would make Core-M pricing reasonable.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
Yes, but this is intel we are talking about here.bill.rookard - Monday, June 27, 2016 - link
If Zen comes through with good cores at low enough power usage, we might see that pricing adjust somewhat.