ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-N97 and GMKtec NucBox G2 Review: Contrasting Compact ADL-N Options
by Ganesh T S on October 6, 2023 9:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- UCFF
- Mini-PC
- ASRock Industrial
- Alder Lake-N
- micro-PC
- GMKtec
System Performance: Multi-Tasking
One of the key drivers of advancements in computing systems is multi-tasking. On mobile devices, this is quite lightweight - cases such as background email checks while the user is playing a mobile game are quite common. Towards optimizing user experience in those types of scenarios, mobile SoC manufacturers started integrating heterogenous CPU cores - some with high performance for demanding workloads, while others were frugal in terms of both power consumption / die area and performance. This trend is now slowly making its way into the desktop PC space.
Multi-tasking in typical PC usage is much more demanding compared to phones and tablets. Desktop OSes allow users to launch and utilize a large number of demanding programs simultaneously. Responsiveness is dictated largely by the OS scheduler allowing different tasks to move to the background. The processor is required to work closely with the OS thread scheduler to optimize performance in these cases. Keeping these aspects in mind, the evaluation of multi-tasking performance is an interesting subject to tackle.
We have augmented our systems benchmarking suite to quantitatively analyze the multi-tasking performance of various platforms. The evaluation involves triggering a ffmpeg transcoding task to transform 1716 3840x1714 frames encoded as a 24fps AVC video (Blender Project's 'Tears of Steel' 4K version) into a 1080p HEVC version in a loop. The transcoding rate is monitored continuously. One complete transcoding pass is allowed to complete before starting the first multi-tasking workload - the PCMark 10 Extended bench suite. A comparative view of the PCMark 10 scores for various scenarios is presented in the graphs below. Also available for concurrent viewing are scores in the normal case where the benchmark was processed without any concurrent load, and a graph presenting the loss in performance.
| UL PCMark 10 Load Testing - Digital Content Creation Scores | |||
| UL PCMark 10 Load Testing - Productivity Scores | |||
| UL PCMark 10 Load Testing - Essentials Scores | |||
| UL PCMark 10 Load Testing - Gaming Scores | |||
| UL PCMark 10 Load Testing - Overall Scores | |||
Since none of the systems being considered in the graph above have heterogeneous cores, it is no surprise that the relative ordering of various systems remains the same irrespective of the presence of concurrent loading.
Following the completion of the PCMark 10 benchmark, a short delay is introduced prior to the processing of Principled Technologies WebXPRT4 on MS Edge. Similar to the PCMark 10 results presentation, the graph below show the scores recorded with the transcoding load active. Available for comparison are the dedicated CPU power scores and a measure of the performance loss.
| Principled Technologies WebXPRT4 Load Testing Scores (MS Edge) | |||
In the absence of thermal throttling, the systems have minimal performance loss. The ones with a higher PL1 / PL2 value fare better in that aspect.
The final workload tested as part of the multitasking evaluation routine is CINEBENCH R23.
| 3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R23 Load Testing - Single Thread Score | |||
| 3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R23 Load Testing - Multiple Thread Score | |||
Similar to software transcoding, rendering is also quite CPU intensive with barely any recovery time possible for the CPU between operations. Therefore, it is no surprise that loss in performance ranges from 35% to 90%. A look at the impact to the transcoding rate during this segment would provide more insight on how the system handles concurrent workloads.
After the completion of all the workloads, we let the transcoding routine run to completion. The monitored transcoding rate throughout the above evaluation routine (in terms of frames per second) is graphed below.
| ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-N97 (Intel Processor N97) ffmpeg Transcoding Rate (Multi-Tasking Test) | |||
| Task Segment | Transcoding Rate (FPS) | ||
| Minimum | Average | Maximum | |
| Transcode Start Pass | 0 | 3.5 | 21.5 |
| PCMark 10 | 0 | 2.6 | 12.5 |
| WebXPRT 4 | 0 | 3.05 | 7 |
| Cinebench R23 | 0 | 1.81 | 7 |
| Transcode End Pass | 0 | 3.49 | 15 |
A similar set of results for the GMKtec NucBox G2 is presented below.
| GMKtec NucBox G2 (Intel Processor N100) ffmpeg Transcoding Rate (Multi-Tasking Test) | |||
| Task Segment | Transcoding Rate (FPS) | ||
| Minimum | Average | Maximum | |
| Transcode Start Pass | 0 | 3.6 | 22 |
| PCMark 10 | 0 | 2.75 | 11.5 |
| WebXPRT 4 | 0.5 | 3.3 | 8 |
| Cinebench R23 | 0 | 1.9 | 6 |
| Transcode End Pass | 0 | 3.61 | 15 |
The impact of concurrent loading on both the NUC BOX-N97 and the NucBox G2 is largely similar. This is not a surprise given the same core counts and similar PL1 / PL2 values.
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meacupla - Friday, October 6, 2023 - link
n100 vs n200, n200 is faster. That I can understandn100 vs n97, n97 is faster. Who came up with this naming scheme?
NextGen_Gamer - Friday, October 6, 2023 - link
Total agree, Intel had the opportunity with a new new series (Intel Processor N) and still messed it up. N50 is 2 cores, 6-Watts. N97, somehow, is 4 cores, at 12-Watts. Then you move "up" to N100, 4 cores, but at 6-Watts. N200 is the same as N100, but gets a small clockspeed bump and finally gets you the full Intel UHD Graphics @ 32 EUs. Then Intel went ahead and named the 8 core ones to Core i3 N300/N305 - why throw the i3 in there??? Why not just keep it as Intel Processor N300? At least the split between N300/N305 makes sense: N305 just gets a higher TDP, and nothing else.mode_13h - Sunday, October 8, 2023 - link
Lots of good points, here. However, the part about N97 can be partially explained in that I believe it's not one of their models meant for things like Chromebooks. Rather, it's more of a specialty/embedded part. If you look at them on ark.intel.com, the N97 lists its product segment as Embedded, while the N100's vertical segment is Mobile.The fact that they're aimed at different segments means their specs don't necessarily have to plot along the same continuum. Though, it'd be nice if they did.
NextGen_Gamer - Monday, October 9, 2023 - link
@ mode_13h - Ahh, you are right, that does explain it, a little at least haha. I am personally waiting for a nice NUC-type box to come around with the N200 in it, and *hopefully* a SO-DIMM for DDR5 and M.2 2280 for the SSD.mode_13h - Monday, October 9, 2023 - link
Beware of how many lanes are active on the SSD, though. PCIe 3.0 x1 is pretty disappointing, though it still beats SATA!I was expecting to see at least x2 - these SoCs don't have a ton of I/O, but they have one more lane than the previous generation. Going back 2 generations, Gemini Lake had only PCIe 2.0 x6! So, you'd really think they could spare at least 2 lanes for NVMe.
NextGen_Gamer - Tuesday, October 10, 2023 - link
I currently have the Intel NUC11ATKPE, with the Pentium Silver N6005 processor. My WD SN850 is running at PCIe 3.0 x2 right now, but I really don't see why these newer Alder Lake-N systems wouldn't want to spare a full PCIe 3.0 x4 for the M.2 slot. I would rather sacrifice other I/O and have your storage subsystem running as fast as it can.deil - Wednesday, October 11, 2023 - link
Well, its buldozer kind of thing.It's NEWER, with ddr5 instead of ddr4 AND $100 cheaper.
If your order them by price, performance matches.
sjkpublic@gmail.com - Friday, October 6, 2023 - link
Are the memory timing right? Seems like the ASROCK is a stronger box. Main diff is 2W of powerat idle? And $30 bucks?
ganeshts - Saturday, October 7, 2023 - link
Yes, memory timing is for LPDDR5-4800 (it is not comparable against DDR4-3200 timings or DDR5 timings).The ASRock box is substantially different from the G2 - check the I/Os and also more importantly it has scope for additional user configuration wrt RAM capacity and SSD capacity. The G2 has soldered RAM.
Btw, the difference in price is not $30, but more than $100. The G2 is ready out of the box for $230 with Win 11 Pro pre-installed. The NUC BOX-N97 needs RAM, SSD / HDD, and OS to be supplied by the user.
mode_13h - Sunday, October 8, 2023 - link
Also, the NUC BOX-N97 is from ASRock Industrial, and therefore presumably built to a higher standard and with better support!I've never heard of GMKtek - do they offer real support for US-based customers? What's the warranty on that unit? How long do you think they'll keep releasing BIOS updates for it?