Intel Corp (INTC)

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Well, that's benchmark magic mainly I guess. Something Intel is good at, no doubt, but the platform didn't get any better with it. Just marketing. Remember how everyone was complaining about Antutu being a bad benchmark when scores weren't in favour of Intel?

Actually, the Moorefield platform is fairly new, and there hasn't been a lot of benchmarks released so far. There are some earlier 3DMark submissions, but given how close they were to Merrifield, I had figured they might be lacking software optimizations - especially since the graphics core was upgraded from Imagination G6400 to the G6430.

Previous submissions also used the lower bin skus, while the new devices uses the Atom Z3580, which operates at higher CPU frequency (2.33GHz vs. 1.83GHz for the Z3560), which would be a contributor to the Icestorm benchmark, as well as AnTuTu.

So I think between the extra CPU frequency and software optimizations, the improvements make sense. I don't think it's just smoke and mirrors, unless you also consider all the benchmarks from nVidia and Qualcomm to be the same way, since they also put a ton of effort into software and frequency tuning.

Bottom line, Moorefield is a decent phone and tablet chip, and seems to provide a blended performance level up with Tegra K1 and Snapdragon 805, which is a lot better than I think some people expected. In advance of the Tegra X1 and Snapdragon 810, I think it has a small window of competitiveness.

Not that I think Intel will get a pricing premium for this chip, but at the right price, it will help them carve some market share in the mid or upper mid tier of the market.