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Intel Core i5-8257U vs Intel Core i5-8279U

Intel Core i5-8257U

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The Intel Core i5-8257U is a quad-core SoC for notebooks based on the Coffee Lake architecture that was announced in the new entry level MacBook Pro 13 in mid 2019. Compared to its predecessor, the CPU is now a quad-core with Hyperthreading support for the execution of up to 8 threads simultaneously. The base frequency is only 1.4 GHz, but the Turbo goes all the way up to 3.9 GHz. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 GPU with 128 MB eDRAM, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to faster Core i7-8557U model with eDRAM and 15 Watts, the i5-8257U only features 6 MB smart cache and the slowest clock of the Iris Plus GPU.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Kaby Lake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

Thanks to the relative high Turbo Boost clock, the single thread performance should be very good, but still behind the faster i7 model. The short burst all core performance is clearly better compared to the old dual core predecessors thanks to the additional cores. In sustained workloads, the performance is usually limited by the TDP and cooling. In these workloads the difference to the Core i7 should be also smaller.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 645 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Coffee Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-1050 MHz and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 930M or 940MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Plus 650, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors announced in January should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm++ process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel specifies the TDP with 15 Watts and therefore suited for thin and light laptops.

Intel Core i5-8279U

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The Intel Core i5-8279U is a quad-core SoC for notebooks based on the Coffee Lake architecture and was announced in the first quarter of 2019. Compared to its predecessor Core i5-7287U, the CPU is now a quad-core with Hyperthreading support for the execution of up to 8 threads simultaneously. The base frequency is 2.4 GHz, but the Turbo goes all the way up to 4.1 GHz. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 GPU with 128 MB eDRAM, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors. 

Compared to faster Core i7 model (e.g. Core i7-8559U) with eDRAM and 28 Watts, the i5-8279U only features 6 MB smart cache and a slower clock of the Iris Plus GPU.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Kaby Lake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

Considering the clocks of the Core i5-8259U, its performance should be between above the 15W model Core i7-8650U. The i5-82769U should still be faster than the i7-8650U in practice thanks to the increased TDP, especially during sustained workloads. Compared to the similar named Intel Core i5-8269U, the 8279U offers a slightly lower performance (-200 MHz Turbo, -100 MHz base) although the name suggests otherwise.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 655 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-1150 MHz and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 930M or 940MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Plus 650, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors announced in January should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel specifies the TDP with 28 Watts, which can be reduced to 23 Watts (cTDP Down) depending on the usage scenario. The TDP is pretty high compared to the common 15-Watt TDP for quad-core processors, but allows a better utilization of CPU and GPU Turbo.

ModelIntel Core i5-8257UIntel Core i5-8279U
SeriesIntel Coffee LakeIntel Coffee Lake
CodenameCoffee Lake-UCoffee Lake-U
Series: Coffee Lake Coffee Lake-U
Intel Core i7-8559U compare2.7 - 4.5 GHz4 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core i7-8557U compare1.7 - 4.5 GHz4 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8269U compare2.6 - 4.2 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8279U2.4 - 4.1 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8259U compare2.3 - 3.8 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8257U « 1.4 - 3.9 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i3-8109U compare3 - 3.6 GHz2 / 4 cores4 MB L3
Intel Core i7-8559U compare2.7 - 4.5 GHz4 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core i7-8557U compare1.7 - 4.5 GHz4 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8269U compare2.6 - 4.2 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8279U « 2.4 - 4.1 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8259U compare2.3 - 3.8 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i5-8257U1.4 - 3.9 GHz4 / 8 cores6 MB L3
Intel Core i3-8109U compare3 - 3.6 GHz2 / 4 cores4 MB L3
Clock1400 - 3900 MHz2400 - 4100 MHz
L1 Cache256 KB256 KB
L2 Cache1 MB1 MB
L3 Cache6 MB6 MB
Cores / Threads4 / 84 / 8
TDP15 Watt28 Watt
Technology14 nm14 nm
max. Temp.100 °C100 °C
SocketFCBGA1528FCBGA1528
FeaturesDual-Channel DDR4 Memory Controller, HyperThreading, AVX, AVX2, Quick Sync, Virtualization, AES-NI, Intel SSE4.1, Intel SSE 4.2Dual-Channel DDR4 Memory Controller, HyperThreading, AVX, AVX2, Quick Sync, Virtualization, AES-NI, Intel SSE4.1, Intel SSE 4.2
iGPUIntel Iris Plus Graphics 645 (300 - 1050 MHz)Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 (300 - 1150 MHz)
Architecturex86x86
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU - i5-8257U
28.2 pt (39%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
4033 Points (4%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
1003 Points (43%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 388     avg: 393     median: 393 (44%)     max: 398 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 1494     avg: 1520     median: 1519.5 (4%)     max: 1545 Points
1717 Points (4%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 629     avg: 634     median: 633.5 (4%)     max: 638 Points
min: 743     avg: 750     median: 750 (5%)     max: 757 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 156     avg: 157.7     median: 157.7 (47%)     max: 159.3 Points
min: 166     avg: 167.5     median: 167.5 (50%)     max: 169 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64 Bit
8.3 Points (11%)
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64 Bit
1.9 Points (48%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (32bit)
6551 Points (40%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (32bit)
24096 Points (17%)
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 1024m *
266.1 s (3%)
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 32m *
8.6 s (2%)
WinRAR - WinRAR 4.0
5862 Points (9%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Multli Thread 4 runs
19620 MIPS (11%)
22683 MIPS (13%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
4083 MIPS (49%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 2
45.7 fps (16%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 1
190 fps (44%)
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
5.3 fps (9%)
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
714 Seconds (5%)
3DMark 06 - CPU - 3DMark 06 - CPU
8830 Points (19%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M *
9.2 s (2%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M *
21.3 s (1%)
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 32M *
512 s (2%)
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
7866 Points (21%)
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Physics
21476 Points (17%)
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme Physics
21581 Points (18%)
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Physics
24185 Points (20%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
7017 Points (18%)
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
8936 Points (16%)
10411 Points (19%)
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
2740 Points (12%)
3439 Points (14%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
948 Points (40%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
3858 Points (7%)
Geekbench 5.0 - Geekbench 5.0 64 Bit Single-Core
989 Points (4%)
Geekbench 5.0 - Geekbench 5.0 64 Bit Multi-Core
4181 Points (13%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Single-Core
4608 Points (46%)
4850 Points (48%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
16580 Points (18%)
17643 Points (20%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 901     avg: 914     median: 913.5 (1%)     max: 926 ms
740 ms (1%)
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
min: 38704     avg: 39388     median: 39387.5 (35%)     max: 40071 Points
44259 Points (40%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
210 Points (44%)

Average Benchmarks Intel Core i5-8257U → 100% n=14

Average Benchmarks Intel Core i5-8279U → 110% n=14

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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v1.26
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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)