Intel Core M Compute Stick beats out old discrete GPUs, desktop CPUs

The big selling point of Intel’s Compute Stick is how compact a system it is, according to Yahoo News. With a micro-USB cable and a compatible plug, it’s a fully functioning pocket size PC. But in recent testing it turns out that the new Core M version of that micro-system beats even some desktop chips and discrete GPUs from a few years ago.

The Core M Compute Stick being tested in this instance featured a Core M3-6Y30 CPU running at a base block of just 0.9GHz, though it can turbo up to 1.5GHz if required. This is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage, and utilizes the on-board HD Graphics 515 core for 2D and 3D rendering.

None of that sounds hugely impressive until the fact that it’s all packed inside a USB stick is considered. It’s even more surprising when paired up with the performance numbers as known now.

In the first of several benchmarks run by Linuxium, Passmark, the Core M Compute Stick holds its own against a Radon HD 5770 in 2D testing, destroys a Core 2 Duo E8400 (running at 3.0Ghz) in the CPU test, dominates a GeForce GT 630 in 3D testing, and isn’t far behind an 8GB set-up in the memory test.

In PC Mark 8, it scored just 10 percent below a gaming laptop from 2013 and achieved some reasonable scores in the easier 3Dmark benchmarks: 41,605 in Ice Storm and 4,213 in CloudGate. Although it must have been a bit of a slideshow, it also managed just shy of 600 points in FireStrike.

Of particular note however is the Octane Score, which saw the Core M Compute Stick perform around 20 percent faster under Ubuntu than it did with a Windows 10 configuration.

While it is unlikely to beat any overclocking records, or be capable of playing the latest AAA games at high resolutions, these results show that the Core M Compute Stick is quite a powerful little system that is far more capable than many likely gave it credit for, says the report in Yahoo News.