Top end CPU is it dual or quad cpu ?

[a5cent]

^ hey, that's where I buy all my gear,

 

[vladi]

^ No. There is no secret batch, nor would it necessarily be amazing if there was.

When it comes to determining what the fastest CPU configuration is (number of cores, threads, etc) at any given power and thermal budget, the engineers at Intel are likely more knowledgeable than any of us here. If their top of the line 15W part is a dual core configuration, those of you wanting four cores at 15W would definitely end up with an inferior solution. Intel's quad core parts start at 45W, which gets us double the cores (and only occasionally better performance but never double), at the cost of tripling the power budget. If that's amazing, it's at least not unconditionally so.

Assuming we stick to the 15W CPU power envelope, the quad core system some of you want would make the device slower in most scenarios, because each core would be forced to run slower than in could in the dual core setup. If we went the opposite way and increased the 15W power envelope so as to accommodate the more powerful CPU, we'd end up with a thicker, louder and heavier device due to requiring a beefier cooling solution, not to mention suffering noticeably worse battery life. If you don't want those power and thermal restrictions, choose a bigger and thicker laptop, like the SurfaceBook, or just buy a desktop where you can go all out.

Anyway, those of us willing to step back and forget the marketing driven desire for more cores will recognize that the Surface Pro 4 is in fact the best performing device ever built at this particular size/form factor. If you want the best performing device at this size, then this is what you get. End of story. In that sense, how many cores it has is completely irrelevant.

Um not true. You will see the huge performance gains in apps that properly utilize more than two cores. Your mobile H processor has higher clocked single core than your dual core U processor and it's even higher clocked when using two cores out of four so no, performance of quad core is not worse when it utilizes two cores. Performance is also affected by storage more so than CPU on tablets like SP4. Its not the same if it runs in SATA or PCIe and its also not the same which PCIe SSD runs inside and in case of SP4 the latest generation PCIe SSD is available only in 1TB option. And again no Surface Pro 4 is not the fastest desktop OS tablet on the market today. That title belong to Vaio Z Canvas with proper 45W quad-core, proper mid-range GPU and absolutely the fastest PCIe SSD setup money can buy right now no matter if it's desktop, laptop or tablet. And its cheaper than i7 SP4.

 

[ytrewq]

Um not true. . . . That title belong to Vaio Z Canvas with proper 45W quad-core, proper mid-range GPU and absolutely the fastest PCIe SSD setup money can buy right now no matter if it's desktop, laptop or tablet. And its cheaper than i7 SP4.

Um not true. The Vaio is not cheaper. An i7 SP4 is $1599 ($1439 if you can swing the student discount), and the Vaio is $2199. The Vaio also weighs a pound more without the keyboard.
The Vaio is nice, but you are paying a lot extra in price and weight for the extra horsepower (as you would expect).

 

[vladi]

Um not true. The Vaio is not cheaper. An i7 SP4 is $1599 ($1439 if you can swing the student discount), and the Vaio is $2199. The Vaio also weighs a pound more without the keyboard.
The Vaio is nice, but you are paying a lot extra in price and weight for the extra horsepower (as you would expect).

Um no
SP4 with i7 512GB and 16GB RAM starts at $2,199 + $129 for keyboard + $199 for the dock if you want to have all the ports Vaio has

 

[a5cent]

Performance is also affected by storage more so than CPU on tablets like SP4. Its not the same if it runs in SATA or PCIe and its also not the same which PCIe SSD runs inside and in case of SP4 the latest generation PCIe SSD is available only in 1TB option.

Yes, nothing new, fine with me.

And again no Surface Pro 4 is not the fastest desktop OS tablet on the market today. That title belong to Vaio Z Canvas with proper 45W quad-core, proper mid-range GPU and absolutely the fastest PCIe SSD setup money can buy right now no matter if it's desktop, laptop or tablet. And its cheaper than i7 SP4.

rly: You may have missed it, but I think I was quite clear when I said the SP4 is the best performing device ever built, at this particular size/form factor.

The Vaio Z Canvas (with keyboard and screen) is over twice as thick as the SP4 and about twice as heavy! At twice the volume and weight, these two devices simply aren't in the same class. Oh yeah, and despite the volume and weight difference, the SP4 still outlasts the Vaio in battery life. Screen size is the only thing these two devices have in common. Otherwise they simply aren't comparable.

Um not true. You will see the huge performance gains in apps that properly utilize more than two cores. Your mobile H processor has higher clocked single core than your dual core U processor and it's even higher clocked when using two cores out of four so no, performance of quad core is not worse when it utilizes two cores.

We all know that a quad core 45W CPU will be faster than a dual core 15W CPU. That's all you're saying. That could neither be more obvious, nor any less relevant to the point I was making. I'll be glad to debate you, but that won't work if you don't understand the point that was being made.

I'm a software engineer with two decades of experience. Most of that time I spent architecting and developing highly concurrent software systems. It's unlikely you'll be able o tell me anything I don't already know about this topic.