In our custom LAME MT MP3 encoding test, we convert a large WAV file to the MP3 format, which is a popular scenario that many end users work with on a day-to-day basis to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content. LAME is an open-source MP3 audio encoder that is used widely in a multitude of third party applications.
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| Lame MT Benchmark |
| Audio Transcoding on the CPU | |
For this test, we created our own 223MB WAV file (a hallucinogenically-induced Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format using the multi-thread capable LAME MT application, in both single and multi-thread modes. Processing times are recorded below, listed in seconds. Shorter times equate to better performance.
Here the Yoga 3 Pro trails, just barely falling behind Core i5-4200U and 4300U-powered machines in multithread performance, though its single-thread performance is strong. It's indicative of the better IPC throughput of Intel's new architecture. Regardless, clock-for-clock a Core M 5Y70 is showing itself to be on par with the Core i5-4200U at this point in our testing.
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| Cinebench R11.5 |
| 3D Rending On The CPU And Integated GPU | |
Cinebench R15 is a 3D rendering performance test based on Cinema 4D from Maxon. Cinema 4D is a 3D rendering and animation suite used by animation houses and producers like Sony Animation and many others. It's very demanding of processor resources and is an excellent gauge of computational throughput. This is a multi-threaded, multi-processor aware benchmark that renders a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The rate at which each test system was able to render the entire scene is represented in the graph below.
Cinebench, on the other hand, tells a different story. The Core M 5Y70, in terms of CPU performance, is out-classed by all but the Pentium N3530 chip in Dell's budget Inspiron 11 machine. With respect to OpenGL graphics rendering performance, however, the Yoga 3 Pro and its Core M chip hold their own in the top quadrant of performance.
