Intel Core i5 4200U: Features and Tests Overview

Intel Core i5 4200U is a processor from the Californian manufacturer for mobile platforms, in particular tablets. In this article we will consider all its advantages and disadvantages, as well as perform performance tests.

Core i5 family

This family of processors was born in 2009 and is still produced in the form of the sixth generation, which at the moment is the last. The i5 processors are average in performance and cost in the company's overall model lineup. Intel is a leading manufacturer of processors for personal computers. The competition of their products can only be made by AMD.

A special system of indexes was created for the Core i5 family. The prefix M denotes the accessory of the processors to the mobile architecture that is used in laptops. The name of the processor with the prefix U (as in our case - Intel Core i5 4200U) means belonging to the ultra-mobile platform. This branch was created specifically for conventional tablets, tablet computers, netbooks and ultrabooks. For stationary computers, only a numeric index is used, or a prefix K, indicating an improved and overclocked version of the processor. Now let's go directly to the culprit review.

Intel Core i5 4200U: Features

The processor is built on the Haswell architecture and has two full-fledged cores in the asset, despite the modest dimensions created specifically for tablet computers. The technology allows to process four process flows in parallel. Also, the processor has its own chip. It consists in the fact that both cores are capable of overclocking their frequency depending on the load. In normal mode, the processor runs at 1.6 GHz for each core. Under load, the frequency increases to 2.3 GHz if both cores are active. When one core is active, the frequency is accelerated to 2.6 GHz.

This device has built-in Intel Graphics graphics of the fourth generation. On performance, the board is rather bland and mediocre, but it copes with the basic everyday tasks and even allows you to run games that are quite demanding to the graphics accelerator. Also it supports the output of the image on three screens and all modern interfaces.

Due to a good start to sales and stable performance, the quad-core version of the Intel Core i5 4200U soon appeared, which is installed even in some ultrabooks. For example, from the well-known manufacturer Acer. The maximum operating temperature of the processor can reach 100 degrees Celsius. The cache size is 3 MB. Energy consumption, according to the manufacturer, is no more than 15 watts.

External structure

The Intel Core i5 4200U processor is built on an ultra-thin architecture that allows you to use it even in the thinnest tablets or ultrabooks. Unlike most processors, this chip has a rectangular shape. The 22 Hm process technology achieves impressive performance results.

Testing

For the tests was taken as a basis for an inexpensive ultrabook from the company Acer. The characteristics of the computer are quite budgetary: the Intel Core i5 4200U, the GeForce 820M graphics card with 2 GB of video memory, 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. The maximum screen resolution is standard for most notebooks - 1366 by 768. The cost of this configuration with a screen diagonal of 15 inches starts from 25 thousand rubles.

We will compare with another ultrabook, which is equipped with AMD A10-5745M processor - a direct competitor of our experimental.

The first test for processors is the encoding of audio files. The device from Intel coped with the task much faster - 82 seconds compared to 136 seconds from the AMD processor. Next, tests were conducted in one of the most demanding graphics processing programs - Adobe Photoshop. And here again, the processor from Intel showed itself better.

For its task, the Intel Core i5 4200U is doing fine. Within the devices for which it was designed, the processor is justified completely. Now we will try to test in some games the integrated Intel Graphics card.

The first test is 3Dmark. And again Core i5 is ahead of the competitor from AMD - 49 thousand points against 45 thousand. Now let's go through the games. Most of the game projects that are current at the time of release can be run on both embedded video cards, except Crysis 3.

And here the integrated graphics in the Intel Core i5 4200U processor goes around the competitor's head. In the game Bioshock Infinite, which is very demanding to the hardware, gives out as many as 50 frames per second against 30 on the AMD processor. In the game Deus Ex, released in 2012, the culprit of the review is gaining about 70 frames per second against 40 from AMD. At the maximum settings, no game produced an acceptable 25-30 frames per second, so it's useless to paint the results. It's understandable - these models were developed not specifically for games, but for everyday tasks, watching videos, movies and surfing the Internet. Also, this processor model is perfect for most online and network projects. The performance of the device from Intel is between two chips Core i7 version M for high-end notebooks.

Verdict

If you need a device to run modern games and at the same time compact and easy, then you definitely will not be able to use a computer on the Intel Core i5 4200U platform. The review showed that the given processor copes better with the daily load, distributed on the cores.