Benchmarks: System and Gaming
PCMark 8 encompasses various performance metrics to evaluate overall system speed. The Zbox EI750 can certainly be classed as quick, yet it falls short of expectations as a consequence of the three aforementioned limitations: single-channel memory, CPU throttling, and a basic hard disk.
With Iris Pro 5200 graphics in tow, Zotac is marketing the EI750 as a "mini PC designed for demanding gamers." We know from past experience that Intel's best IGP is able to handle a bit of gaming, but the synthetic 3DMark benchmark gets us off to an uncertain start. The Brix Pro and EI750 Plus both use the same IGP, yet the latter is visibly slower, to the tune of almost 20 per cent.
Our default gaming benchmark for PC systems is Aliens vs. Predator at a 1080p resolution with 2xAA, 4xAF and medium-quality settings. The Zbox EI750 should be scoring around 18 frames per second, so what has happened to the performance of the Iris Pro 5200 IGP?
The problem, once again, is throttling. Gigabyte's admittedly-loud Brix Pro had the IGP running at a constant 1,300MHz in our gaming benchmarks, while the Zbox EI750 Plus automatically fluctuates between 1,050MHz and 1,300MHz.
Intel Iris Pro 5200 - 1080p Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Zotac Zbox Zotac Zbox EI750 Plus |
Gigabyte Brix Pro |
| BioShock Infinite | Very Low Quality | 42.6 |
51.0 |
| Low Quality | 28.2 |
34.5 |
|
| Medium Quality | 21.7 |
27.0 |
|
| High Quality | 18.5 |
23.4 |
|
| Max Quality | 7.8 |
11.0 |
|
| GRID 2 | CMAA, Ultra Low Quality | 65.8 |
77.0 |
| 2xMSAA, Low Quality | 40.4 |
53.0 |
|
| 4xMSAA, Medium Quality | 27.7 |
36.4 |
|
| 4xMSAA, High Quality | 22.9 |
31.0 |
|
| 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality | 14.5 |
17.4 |
|
| Total War: Rome II | Low | 32.9 |
44.9 |
| Medium Quality | 31.1 |
42.8 |
|
| Very High Quality | 17.1 |
22.5 |
|
| Extreme Quality | 12.3 |
16.0 |
|
GPU throttling is evident in various games, and performance takes a significant hit. In some cases, we see a loss of over 10 additional frames per second.
Browsing Zotac's BIOS revealed no means to manually define CPU or IGP clock speeds, meaning there's no easy way to circumvent the out-the-box performance restriction. Further optimisation is required, and we suspect it won't be long until a BIOS update is made available to give users greater flexibility in operating frequency.
