Intel Atom x7-E3950

The Intel Atom E3950 or Intel Atom x7-E3950 is a quad-core SoC based on the Apollo Lake platform. It is primarily intended for embedded systems that is also used in some cheap laptops. It integrates four small Goldmont cores clocked at 1.6 to 2 GHz (Boost). The chip also integrates a Dual-Channel DDR3L-1866 / LPDDR4-2400 memory controller and a entry level Intel HD Graphics 505 graphics card.

Architecture

For the first time in a couple of years, Intel completely reworked the CPU architecture of the Atom series. The manufacturer advertises performance gains of roughly 30 percent, but does not reveal any specifics about the individual changes. The new Goldmont architecture should therefore be roughly on par with AMD's Beema/Carrizo-L APUs in terms of per-MHz performance, but it still far behind the more expensive Core CPUs (like Skylake / Kaby Lake).

Performance

The CPU performance of the Atom x7-E3950 with 4 CPU cores and a clock between 1.6-2 GHz should depend a lot on the cooling solution. Even when it can maintain the Boost clock, the performance is only positioned in the entry level in 2017 and up. Therefore, the processor performance is only suited for low demanding tasks (office, browsing) and moderate multi-tasking.

GPU Performance

The HD Graphics 500 (Apollo Lake) is based on Intel's Gen9 architecture, which supports DirectX 12 and is also used for the Kaby Lake / Skylake graphics adapters (like HD Graphics 520). Equipped with 12 EUs and a clock of up to 650 MHz, the performance should be roughly on par with the older HD Graphics (Braswell). This means only older and simpler titles like Counter-Strike: GO or Diablo 3 will should be playable.

The chip also includes an advanced video engine with hardware support for the playback of VP9 and H.265 material (8-bit color-depth).

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the chip is defined at 12 Watt (TDP). Therefore, the cooling demand is rather low and it can be used in small laptops.

Benchmarks