HP Spectre X2 Review: A Core m Powered Surface Alternative


Benchmarks: Processor and Graphics

Cinebench R11.5 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.
Cinebench R11.5
3D Rendering On The CPU And GPU
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.

cine

Cinebench reveals one of the tradeoffs users will make if they opt for a Core m-based machine like the HP Spectre X2.  With short, bursty workloads like those in PCMark, the processor performs very well. But when all of its cores (both physical and virtual) are put under a sustained load, frequencies must scale back to keep the chip within its power envelope. As such, it trails all of the high powered processors in the CPU test, save for a previous-gen Core m. In the OpenGL test, however, the Intel HD 515 graphics engine put up some good numbers. 

Next up, we have 3D graphics testing with 3DMark Cloud Gate. The Cloud Gate test is aimed at entry-level PCs and laptops, and has two subtests: a processor-intensive physics test and two graphics tests. We run the test suite at its default 1280 x 720 resolution and at default rendering quality settings. Keep in mind that 3DMark Cloud Gate scores aren’t comparable to scores from say, 3DMark Fire Strike (gaming PCs) or Ice Storm (smartphones and tablets).

3DMark Cloud Gate
Synthetic DirectX Gaming And Graphics Testing

cloud

In Cloud Gate, which is a lighter-duty DX11 graphics test, the HP Spectre X2 finishes about in-line with a mid-range, Haswell-based Core i5 with HD 4400 series graphics.

Far Cry 2 Benchmark
DX10 Gaming Performance
minipic farcry2When it comes to lush vegetation in a steaming, sinister jungle, no one pulls it off quite like Ubisoft does in its Far Cry series. Far Cry 2 uses high-quality textures, complex shaders, and dynamic lighting to create a realistic environment. The game’s built-in benchmark gives us a good look at a system’s graphics performance with DirectX 10. Though it's not a demanding test by today's standards for heavy duty graphics cards or gaming PCs, it does make for a good barometer of raw graphics horsepower in ultralight notebook architectures, which typically don't cater to hardcore gaming workloads.

farcry

Our results in FarCry 2 were similar to Cloud Gate. Here, the HP Spectre X2 again finished in-line with a Core i5 with HD 4400 series graphics.

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