We were pleasantly surprised recently when we looked at the Core i7-10710U. This was the showtime demonstration of what Intel can still practise on 14nm to squeeze more performance. The 10710U packs six cores and twelve threads into a 15W package. Fifty-fifty though this CPU runs below 2.0 GHz in long term tests to go all those cores working within such a tight TDP, it still managed to evangelize upward to 30% more operation than eighth-gen CPUs.

This is downwards to Intel optimizing the efficiency point of this CPU. Past reducing clock speeds slightly, Intel gained enough power budget to add together in two extra cores, and these two cores more than offset the reduction in clock speed, giving us more performance in multi-threaded workloads. It makes the CPU pattern more complex and expensive and the gains are just present in workloads that utilize more than iv cores, just in that location's no doubt the gains are in that location.

Today we're checking out some other 10th-generation Intel CPU, and like the last one, this chip is much more interesting than it appears at face value. You'd retrieve that with these 14nm+++ CPUs Intel has basically nothing left in the tank, just fifty-fifty with the quad-core we're reviewing today, that's surprisingly far from the truth.

The aforementioned i7-10710U is the simply CPU in Intel's new 10th-gen line-up that has half dozen cores. The remainder are quad-cores, or even dual-cores if we get down to the Core i3s, Celerons and Pentiums. The Core i7-10510U, for example, is a four core eight thread CPU just it's clocked a decent amount higher than the six-cadre 10710U, with its 1.8 GHz base clock and 4.9 GHz maximum turbo clock. This is higher than any Whiskey Lake CPU likewise, especially the popular Core i7-8565U, which is clocked up to 300 MHz lower.

And so we go to the CPU we're reviewing today, The Intel Core i5-10210U sports four cores and eight threads, but with a few reductions compared to the Core i7 models. Clock speeds are lower, at a 1.6 GHz base clock and maximum single core turbo of 4.2 GHz.

That's a piffling higher than the equivalent concluding-gen Core i5 on the maximum turbo speed, just not hugely different. Similar story with the all-core turbo, which sits with the 10210U at three.ix GHz, up from three.7 GHz. With both of these clocks, we aren't quite at the level of the Core i7-8565U, but generally speaking, for a 15W processor nosotros are power express rather than clock limited and that's something nosotros'll explore throughout the review.

The other important cistron here is the L3 cache size, which drops down from 8 MB to vi MB as with previous Core i5 models, with unified access across the same number of cores. On a less of import annotation, the GPU remains the aforementioned, a UHD 620 with 24 execution units. It'southward clocked fifty MHz lower on the Cadre i5 compared to by Core i7s, simply what you should know is this is only a serviceable GPU that's barely changed from when Skylake U-series CPUs launched all those years ago.

As we mentioned in our previous tenth-gen Cadre review, Intel hasn't made it easy for the average laptop heir-apparent to figure out which CPU they are getting and at what functioning level. Comet Lake, the line-up we've but been talking virtually, exists alongside Ice Lake on 10nm. Water ice Lake CPUs are express to quad-core designs at lower clock speeds on the CPU, but take beefier integrated graphics with upward to 64 execution units. Customers later the best CPU functioning should exist on the look out for Comet Lake, while those that need better GPUs might be more than interested in Ice Lake.

The naming scheme is simply unfriendly though. The Comet Lake Cadre i5 chip we are reviewing today is the Core i5-10210U. While Water ice Lake Cadre i5s get names like Core i5-1035G1 or Core i5-1035G7, depending on the graphics configuration. At that place's also the Core i5-1030G4 and G7 at 9W rather than 15W, farther muddying the waters. This actually needs to be simplified.

Combine this with the fact that many laptops also come up with low-power discrete GPUs to beef upward graphics performance. And then grabbing an Ice Lake laptop might not even evangelize the all-time GPU experience, relative to a Comet Lake product with a discrete GPU.

Moving on, you will want to know Comet Lake comes with a few additional features compared to previous-gen products, and so it isn't a simple refresh with different clock speeds. Nosotros're now getting support for retentivity upwardly to DDR4-2666 speeds or LPDDR4x-2933, as well every bit native Wi-Fi 6 support. But the bigger improvement comes in the form of something chosen Intel Adaptix, which we didn't cover in our Cadre i7-10710U review equally it wasn't enabled on the laptop nosotros tested.

Adaptix is a feature new to not just Comet Lake, merely 10th-gen CPUs in general, so right now this also includes Water ice Lake. It'due south a new version of Intel's dynamic tuning engineering science that takes turbo boosts a step further than we've seen previously in a mobile form cistron.

Earlier, with Intel's eighth-gen CPUs you would become ii power limits: PL1, which is the long term power limit, and PL2, the short term limit for turbo boost. When a workload gets fired up, the CPU would jump up to PL2 for a predetermined amount of time, and then cutting dorsum to PL1 when that fourth dimension is up. Then on a 15W laptop, that would typically be a heave up to 45W for a few seconds with higher clock speeds, then a drop straight downwards to 15W for the rest of the workload.

Intel Adaptix changes this. Instead of dropping downward to the sustained PL1 limit, Adaptix adjusts the PL1 limit dynamically over time to maximize performance based on the limits of the system. These limits are typically thermal constraints. This could meet the system run at above the long term PL1 limit for a much longer time considering the thermal limit of the system hasn't been reached.

In some ways, the old arrangement was leaving a lot of potential performance on the table. If the system dropped down to PL1 well before the cooler had heated up to its sustainable limit, it could have boosted for longer to reach the limit sooner, before then dropping downwards. Adaptix is aimed at solving that problem and Intel says it delivers 8-12 percent more performance. However, Adaptix is optional and requires a lot of profiling on the OEM side, and so it's just enabled on some systems.

Our Core i5-10210U test platform is Adaptix enabled, and it'south none other than the new Asus ZenBook Pro Duo.

This is an interesting laptop to test as it comes with a second screen above the keyboard. We've been using this laptop for the concluding few weeks. For the stuff we normally do on a laptop similar web browsing, spreadsheet editing and so on, the 2d screen isn't all that useful only for some people, having it in that location could be handy. Information technology's a very unique design and overall the laptop is very portable, plumbing fixtures into a 14-inch class cistron.

The exact model we have on manus is the ZenBook Pro Duo UX481FL. It uses a 14-inch 1080p brandish, the Cadre i5-10210U processor, GeForce MX250 graphics, and 8GB of DDR4 memory. You tin get up to Core i7 CPUs and 16GB of RAM in here, although it's nice to run into the MX250 is retained for the Core i5 model. For the purpose of testing the i5-10210U thoroughly though, we've benchmarked with both the MX250 enabled and disabled.

Benchmarks

We're going to boot this ane off with a await at Cinebench R20. Offset, let'south rapidly run through the configurations we take here. This is the standard Core i5-10210U running with Adaptix manually disabled, in a standard 15W configuration. This gives united states of america an apples-to-apples comparison with other U-serial CPUs, which are configured to 15W hither as well unless otherwise specified. This is what a typical buyer tin expect from a 10210U laptop where Adaptix is not used.

Then nosotros accept ii 18W configurations, i with Adaptix enabled, and another without. The reason we've configured it up to 18W hither, is that the ZenBook Pro Duo comes by default with a long-term PL1 limit of around 17 to 19W, hovering betwixt that mark with Adaptix enabled out of the box. Nosotros can then manually limit the CPU to a PL1 of 18W using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and that gives u.s. a look at the performance do good nosotros're getting from Adaptix specifically, and whether or non it's worth finding laptops with this optional feature enabled.

The outset affair to note is that this 10th-gen Comet Lake Core i5 is not far away from Intel's 8th-gen Whiskey Lake Cadre i7 in the i7-8565U. Nosotros're only about iv percent behind and faster in the single-threaded test, which is impressive from a mid-range Core i5. However, comparing Cadre i5 to Cadre i7 in the 10th-generation, and the Core i5 is 23 pct slower, and so those extra two cores you get with the 10710U are a meaning improver for this type of workload.

We're also getting a good look at Intel's Adaptix technology. In this benchmark, having Adaptix enabled is delivering an 11% performance improvement from being able to heave that bit higher in this medium-term examination.

Nosotros tin can meet in a higher place what's happening to clock speeds with a await at Cinebench R20. Without Adaptix, the 10210U performs as we've always seen from Intel mobile CPUs. Nosotros get a curt period boosting into the PL2 state, this time clocked around 3.7 to three.ix GHz which is expected given this CPU'due south maximum all-cadre turbo frequency. Then it drops down and maintains a consistent clock during PL1, which is around ii.5 GHz configured at 18W, or 2.3 GHz at 15W.

With Adaptix enabled, the chart looks very different. We nonetheless get that boost period right at the start, just immediately subsequently that, instead of dropping right down to PL1, clock speeds gradually fall away and only one-half style through the test exercise nosotros encounter them accomplish the long term limit of virtually 18W, delivering two.5 GHz all-core. So for more half this test we're benefitting from clock speeds over a GHz college in some situations, as nosotros're running closer to the thermal limits.

There's no guarantee that this clock speed behavior will exist the same for all Adaptix laptops, in fact, nosotros can almost guarantee in that location there will be variations depending on the cooling capabilities. This Asus laptop seems to have strong cooling, and so this is probably a all-time case scenario.

Looking at the older Cinebench R15, nosotros're getting an even higher performance boost from Adaptix. This is because Cinebench R15's multi-threaded test is quicker to run, and so even more of the benchmark run occurs during a boost phase. This gives the 10210U very impressive results, most matching the 10710U.

Something else to note, the boost in functioning you lot get from Intel's Adaptix technology will depend on how you are using your system or how the workload is configured. If your system is idle earlier running a certain CPU intensive task, you'll become the biggest benefit, and might see even bigger gains than nosotros're showing here. If you've been doing a few moderate tasks, you'll go a moderate improvement, and if you've simply been slap-up your CPU at 100% utilization, it's unlikely you'll see any gain. For these benchmarks we perform an boilerplate of three runs back to back, so the first run tends to produce a college score with Adaptix enabled than the successive runs. Generally our numbers represent a 'mixed' use case where you may get from doing ane thing, directly into another, with some small periods of idle in between.

In longer workloads, the benefits of Adaptix are reduced. Here we accept x264 encoding, and we're only getting a vi% performance gain in laissez passer 1, and just ii per centum in pass 2. When the CPU falls back to long term limits, in that location'south no deviation in clock speeds and thus no deviation in performance between the two modes.

That said, in this benchmark it's nice to come across the i5-10210U and i7-8565U providing about the same performance. The new six-cadre model takes things up a notch again with this 10th-gen line-upwards, but getting final year's Core i7 performance in this yr's Core i5 is not bad at all.

Similar story in Handbrake, although this test is very express by the 15W TDP of these CPUs. The i5-10210U is about 5% behind last year's 8565U, just besides five% faster than Intel's Core i5 from two generations ago. For further gains in Handbrake yous demand more than cores or a college TDP.

In 7-zip, the i5-10210U is marginally ahead of the Core i7-8565U in decompression and marginally backside in compression, and then trading blows with last-gen's Core i7. Adaptix provides a small boost, viii percent in decompression and 4 pct in compression, which once more is as well decent. A Core i5-10210U laptop with Adaptix enabled will easily beat Intel's terminal-gen offerings if configured to similar long term PL1 TDPs, not simply in this test but likewise in general.

PCMark 10 is a collection of shorter workloads and unmarried threaded stuff, only the 10210U does pretty well hither, clocking in half-dozen percent faster, like to what we saw with 7-zip, some other shorter workload.

In Adobe Photoshop Iris Mistiness we're seeing the 10210U perform effectually the same level as the 8565U, in what is a shorter CPU limited benchmark. Adaptix is very impressive here, likewise, providing an additional 12 per centum, which is one of the better results and non surprising given the test takes under 30 seconds. In one case again, we're right in that ballpark estimate Intel gave about Adaptix providing viii to 12 percent more performance.

Adobe Premiere with Lumetri furnishings is a more compute heavy benchmark, and one where the Core i5-10210U is slower than the Core i7-8565U by about x percent, which is 1 of the larger margins we've seen so far. Some of this volition be downward to CPU operation, the residuum will be from the slight downclock on the GPU, given this benchmark actually benefits from a faster GPU. We can see that from calculation an MX250, the 10210U completes the render three times quicker, which is why those editing Premiere volition want to source a laptop that has a discrete GPU.

In Adobe Photoshop Smart Acuminate, no real difference between CPUs that feature Intel's UHD 620 GPU. This is a GPU limited test, so without any improvement in GPU going from 8th-gen to tenth-gen, nosotros're stuck here with weak functioning.

Blender is another benchmark where the Cadre i5-10210U comes close to the Core i7-8565U, only ultimately falls just short, coming in near 3 percentage slower. It is, however, much faster than Intel's Cadre i5-8250U from 2 generations ago, and Adaptix provides an additional 7 per centum in this examination if it'southward enabled.

Information technology's no surprise to come across not much of a operation gain in MATLAB, unless we're comparing this generation to several generations ago.

And finally we have a wait at GPU operation again with CompuBench Optical Menstruum, which again shows the limitations of Intel's integrated graphics. Yous'd want something with an MX250 inside to get much better GPU and compute performance, or possibly a Ryzen APU will be tempting.

Functioning Breakdown

Core i5-10210U vs. Core i7-8565U

As you may have noticed by our numerous mentions throughout the review, for the states the most telling comparison is the 1 betwixt the Cadre i5-10210U and the Core i7-8565U. They deliver about even operation on average, so information technology's somewhat safe to say that when both CPUs are configured to 15W, Intel's 10th-gen Cadre i5 performs similar an 8th-gen Whiskey Lake Core i7.

With Intel opening a new product category for Comet Lake Cadre i7s, now offering six cores, information technology seems they accept pushed what used to be Core i7 operation, down to the Core i5 tier. We honey to see this sort of improvements year on year and faster CPUs hit more than mid-range products. Unfortunately we haven't reviewed any Whiskey Lake Cadre i5, and so the all-time Core i5 comparing we accept is the Core i5-8250U from Kaby Lake-R two years ago. Nevertheless, this remains a highly relevant comparison considering only a minority will be upgrading their automobile after a year of use.

Core i5-10210U vs. Core i5-8250U

In this case we're seeing a twenty percent improvement on boilerplate, which is impressive after just ii years. Most of this is down to clock speeds and process refinements, simply once more, getting Core i7 performance from a Core i5 is basically the result hither. And it'due south possible to push button those gains further if yous can find a laptop that supports Adaptix technology.

Core i5-10210U: Adaptix on vs. off

Nosotros recorded a five-6% percentage performance gain from this characteristic on average, although this will depend on the workload. If we're comparing an Adaptix-enabled i5-10210U to any of Intel'south 8th-gen U-serial models, nosotros're looking at a small-scale but significant performance gain given this is a mainstream oriented Core i5 CPU.

Core i5-10210U vs. Core i7-10710U

Compared to the new half dozen-core Core i7 over this quad-cadre Core i5. The i5 is about 17 percentage slower on average, which is a similar gap to what we saw comparing Cadre i5 to Cadre i7 with Kaby Lake Refresh. Back and so, the difference was due to clock speeds, at present it'southward downwards to cadre counts, and then a shift in thinking here from Intel to allow them to continue the life of 14nm.

Core i5-10210U vs. Ryzen 5 2500U

When tossing upward Cadre i5 versus Ryzen v, there's a big performance advantage in CPU limited tasks for Intel's 10th-generation CPU. Yes, this is the 2500U non the newer 3500U, merely the 3500U is only clocked 100 MHz college which isn't going to close the performance gap. The Ryzen 2500U does have a much faster integrated GPU.

Notwithstanding if yous tin find a Core i5-10210U paired with an MX250, generally this volition exist all round faster than a Ryzen 5 organisation, peculiarly in workloads similar Premiere which stress the CPU and GPU depending on the effects you're using. The MX250 is more than than twice as fast as Intel'south integrated graphics and we expect most flagship ultraportables to consider this sort of GPU even for their Core i5 offerings.

Wrap Up

This is another impressive 10th-generation U-series offer from Intel. Whiskey Lake didn't offer much of a gain over Kaby Lake Refresh because both were stuck with four core designs and there wasn't much room to become up in terms of clock speeds. But with Intel unlocking 6 cores with this generation, suddenly the entire stack tin can get shifted up, and nosotros meet the Core i5-10210U now performing similar a Core i7 of old.

Intel's new Adaptix algorithm provides a decent performance boost as well, especially for shorter workloads, which if enabled, delivers double digit gains in some scenarios. The just downside to this is that Adaptix is an optional feature that needs to exist implemented and optimized by laptop manufacturers, possibly on a per model footing. And it remains to be seen if it's a feature they volition advertise or even list on the spec sheet.

Finally, information technology volition exist interesting to encounter how these CPUs stop upwards competing with AMD'southward next generation of Ryzen Mobile featuring 7nm engineering, and how Ice Lake can stack up there likewise.

Shopping Shortcuts
  • Core i5-10210U Laptops on Amazon
  • Cadre i7-10710U Laptops on Amazon
  • Core i7-10510U Laptops on Amazon
  • Core i7-8565U Laptops on Amazon
  • Ryzen 7 3700U Laptops on Amazon
  • Ryzen vii 3750H Laptops on Amazon