Pentium Silver N5000 vs i3-7020U
Aggregate performance score
Core i3-7020U outperforms Pentium Silver N5000 by a small 6% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
Comparing Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.
| Place in the ranking | 2093 | 2134 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Series | Intel Core i3 | Intel Pentium Silver |
| Power efficiency | 10.28 | 24.29 |
| Architecture codename | Kaby Lake (2016−2019) | Goldmont Plus (2017) |
| Release date | 10 April 2018 (6 years ago) | 11 December 2017 (7 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $281 | $161 |
Detailed specifications
Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.
| Physical cores | 2 (Dual-core) | 4 (Quad-Core) |
| Threads | 4 | 4 |
| Base clock speed | 2.3 GHz | 1.1 GHz |
| Boost clock speed | 2.3 GHz | 2.7 GHz |
| Bus type | OPI | no data |
| Bus rate | 4 GT/s | no data |
| Multiplier | 23 | 11 |
| L1 cache | 128 KB | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 512 KB | 4 MB (shared) |
| L3 cache | 3 MB | 4 MB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| Die size | no data | 93 mm2 |
| Maximum core temperature | 100 °C | 105 °C |
| 64 bit support | + | + |
| Windows 11 compatibility | - | + |
Compatibility
Information on Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.
| Number of CPUs in a configuration | 1 (Uniprocessor) | 1 (Uniprocessor) |
| Socket | FCBGA1356,FC-BGA1356,FPBGA1356 | FCBGA1090 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 6 Watt |
Technologies and extensions
Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.
| Instruction set extensions | Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2 | Intel® SSE4.2 |
| AES-NI | + | + |
| AVX | + | - |
| Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST) | + | + |
| Speed Shift | + | - |
| My WiFi | + | no data |
| Turbo Boost Technology | - | - |
| Hyper-Threading Technology | + | - |
| Idle States | + | + |
| Thermal Monitoring | + | + |
| Flex Memory Access | + | no data |
| Smart Response | + | - |
| GPIO | no data | + |
| Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | no data | - |
Security technologies
Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.
| TXT | - | no data |
| EDB | + | + |
| Secure Key | + | + |
| MPX | + | + |
| Identity Protection | + | + |
| SGX | Yes with Intel® ME | Yes with Intel® ME |
| OS Guard | + | + |
| Anti-Theft | no data | - |
Virtualization technologies
Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 are enumerated here.
| AMD-V | + | - |
| VT-d | + | + |
| VT-x | + | + |
| EPT | + | + |
Memory specs
Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.
| Supported memory types | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| Maximum memory size | 32 GB | 8 GB |
| Max memory channels | 2 | 2 |
| Maximum memory bandwidth | 34.134 GB/s | 38.397 GB/s |
Graphics specifications
General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.
| Integrated graphics card Compare | Intel HD Graphics 620 | Intel UHD Graphics 605 |
| Max video memory | 32 GB | 8 GB |
| Quick Sync Video | + | + |
| Clear Video | + | no data |
| Clear Video HD | + | no data |
| Graphics max frequency | 1 GHz | 750 MHz |
| Execution Units | no data | 18 |
| InTru 3D | + | no data |
Graphics interfaces
Available interfaces and connections of Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs.
| Number of displays supported | 3 | 3 |
| eDP | + | + |
| DisplayPort | + | + |
| HDMI | + | + |
| DVI | + | no data |
| MIPI-DSI | no data | + |
Graphics image quality
Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.
| 4K resolution support | + | + |
| Max resolution over HDMI 1.4 | 4096x2304@24Hz | no data |
| Max resolution over eDP | 4096x2304@60Hz | no data |
| Max resolution over DisplayPort | 4096x2304@60Hz | no data |
Graphics API support
APIs supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000 integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.
| DirectX | 12 | 12 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.4 |
Peripherals
Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000.
| PCIe version | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| PCI Express lanes | 12 | 6 |
| USB revision | no data | 2.0/3.0 |
| Total number of SATA ports | no data | 2 |
| Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Ports | no data | 2 |
| Number of USB ports | no data | 8 |
| Integrated LAN | no data | - |
| UART | no data | + |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.
Passmark
Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.
GeekBench 5 Single-Core
GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core
GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.
Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core
Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.
Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.
Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core
Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.
Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core
Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.
TrueCrypt AES
TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.
WinRAR 4.0
WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.
x264 encoding pass 2
x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.
x264 encoding pass 1
x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.
Geekbench 3 32-bit multi-core
Geekbench 3 32-bit single-core
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 1.63 | 1.54 |
| Integrated graphics card | 2.43 | 1.18 |
| Recency | 10 April 2018 | 11 December 2017 |
| Physical cores | 2 | 4 |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 15 Watt | 6 Watt |
i3-7020U has a 5.8% higher aggregate performance score, 105.9% faster integrated GPU, and an age advantage of 3 months.
Pentium Silver N5000, on the other hand, has 100% more physical cores, and 150% lower power consumption.
Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000.
Should you still have questions on choice between Core i3-7020U and Pentium Silver N5000, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Similar processor comparisons
We picked several similar comparisons of processors in the same market segment and performance relatively close to those reviewed on this page.
