This post should show you what to expect from the Intel Core i5-5200U CPU and whether it’s a good buy or not. And if I get to test any of the Broadwell i3 configurations, I’ll have a dedicated post about it as well.įor now, we’ll wrap it up here. If you want to know how the i5-5200U compares to the i7-5500U, you should follow this link.
On top of these, it should be more efficient, which translates in longer runtimes, cooler laptops and potentially new and more compact form factors.
Wrap-upĪt the end of the day, I’d say Intel did a fine job with the mid-range Core i5-5200U processor and if paired with 8 GB of RAM and a proper SSD, such a configuration should do well for most of you, as long as you plan on using your computer for everyday activities such as browsing, editing texts, chatting, listening to music, watching all sorts of video contents and even play some casual games.Ĭompared to the previous Haswell i5 processors, this one offers slightly better results in RAW CPU benchmarks (and it’s actually really close to the Haswell i7 processors) and significantly better results in anything graphics related. Still, like I said, you should read my latest reviews for more updates or wait for the in-depth post about the HD 5500 graphics chip, should be available here on the site in a few weeks, as I gather more data. And that’s noticeable both in benchmarks, but especially if you plan to run some light games on your ultraportables. The bigger picture is that the Intel HD 5500 chip is actually significantly faster then the Intel HD 4400 solutions. Thus, you should only take them as a general reference, they will vary from product to product, from configuration to configuration. So take these particular results as a general reference ONLY.Īgain, the i5-5200U results are based on the Dell XPS 13 2015, while the Haswell CPUs’ numbers are based on several different reviews I did over the years. However, the processors aren’t running at the exact base frequency during the tests, they might run higher (due to Turbo Boost) or lower (due to overheating, throttling, etc), depending on the implementation. However, keep in mind that this “normalization” is far from accurate, as I’ve considered that each CPU runs at its base frequency. It could also mean that the Broadwell U platform’s performance-per-clock is just designed to sit beneath Haswell’s. And that for me means one thing: immature drivers, as the platform was just recently released, which in time should translate to somewhat improved results and overall performance. However, if we normalize the multi-core results to 1GHz in order to determine each CPU’s performance per clock, we’d see that the i5-5200U actually trails behind the Haswell options. SO while in reality you won’t really feel the difference between the two generations in casual everyday use, the i5-5200U and other Broadwell i5s will be somewhat snappier under more demanding tasks and multitasking. Even so, the numbers are only withing 5-15% better when compared to the Haswell CPUs. The Broadwell option steps in front when it comes to multi-core benchmarks, due to its higher base clock.Single Core performance between the two generations is within a 5% margin and that’s because when running these benchmarks, the CPUs should run at their maximum Turbo Boost frequencies, which are almost identical across the board (somewhat lower for the i5-4200U, visible in the results).With that in mind, we can draw a few conclusions: For the i5-4200U and the i5-4210U I used ’s median results, as they have a larger range of tested products over the years (available here and here).
The data pool for the i5-5200U is still very limited and the numbers above are based on my edition (with 4 GB of RAM and SSD) and that’s why you should be aware these results might vary within reasonable limits, based on the tested configuration.