Benchmarking UMPCs of the second epoch

Introduction

"An ultra-mobile PC (ultra-mobile personal computer or UMPC) is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006." (c) Wikipedia. That was the dawn of the first UMPC epoch. This epoch did not last too long, because in the early 2010s major UMPC manufacturers ended its product lines. Few years later new manufacturers emerged and recreated UMPC market. The major one was the Chinese company GPD. GPD started the second UMPC epoch by releasing gaming handheld GPD Win in 2016 and the general purpose device GPD Pocket in 2017. Since then a whole bunch of UMPC devices were released. In this article we will compare performance of various UMPC devices from the second epoch: including the very first GPD Win and the most powerful UMPC up do the date – One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro.

Disclaimer. This article is not a comprehensive performance analysis of the 2-nd era UMPCs. All the test items are taken from my collection. Therefore the number of test items is quite limited. In case I add any new corresponding items to my collection, this benchmark survey might be extended as well.

Testing methodology

The following programs were used to test CPU, Memory, Disk performance:

  • Geekbench version 5.3.1;
  • PassMark Performance Test 10.0 build 1010;
  • CrystalDiskMark version 8.0.1;
  • CPU-Z version 1.95;

The following programs were used to test 3D performance:

3DMark with default settings. Version details:

  • Time Spy version 1.2
  • Fire Strike version 1.1
  • Wild Life version 1.0
  • SystemInfo version 5.37.888.0

Unigine Heaven Benchmark at the resolution of 1280×720; version 4.0.

Test setup descriptions

GPD Pocket

Processor: Intel Atom x7-Z8750
BIOS version: AMI 5.11 8/7/2017
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Intel HD Graphics 405 driver version: 20.19.15.4444

GPD Win

Processor: Intel Atom x7-Z8750
BIOS version: AMI 5.11, 25.05.2017
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Intel HD Graphics 405 driver version: 20.19.15.4549

GPD MicroPC

CPU: Intel Celeron N4100
BIOS version: AMI 02.07.2019
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.17763 Build 17763
Intel UHD Graphics 600 driver version: 26.20.100.7584
TDP: 10W

One-Netbook A1

Processor: Intel Core m3-8100Y
BIOS version: AMI 5.12 12.09.2020
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel UHD Graphics 615 driver version: 27.20.100.8681

One-Netbook OneMix 2s

Processor: Intel Core m3-8100Y
BIOS version: AMI 5.12 04.03.2019
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel UHD Graphics 600 driver version: 26.20.100.7584

One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro

Processor: Intel Core i7-1160G7
BIOS version: AMI 5.19 17.12.2020
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel Iris Xe Graphics driver version: 27.20.100.8680

CPU & Memory performance

PassMark Performance Test results
Geekbench test results
CPU-Z test results

The 11th generation Intel Core mobile processors (codename Tiger Lake) is a substantial breakthrough. It’s hard to believe that Core i7-1160G7 is faster than the high-end desktop processor Core i7-4790k, which was discontinued in 2017.

SSD performance

CrystalDiskMark test results

It is worth noting the variation in write speed across devices. Write speed of premium OneGx1 is significantly lower than the write speed of A1.

3D performance

3DMark test results
Unigine Heaven test results

Few notes:

  1. Performance of Iris Xe is just outstanding.
  2. Tiger Lake supports Thunderbolt 4, which allows to connect gGPU to the UMPC. eGPU can improve 3D performance of OneGx1 Pro by at least 4 times. See details here: Benchmarking OneGx1 Pro with eGPU.
  3. Performance of A1 is significantly lower than performance of OneMix 2s, which is based on the same Intel Core m3-8100Y.

Conclusion

Since GPD Win performance of UMPCs has increased in many times in every single aspect.
Tigre Lake architecture is an outstanding breakthrough in both CPU and GPU performance.

Benchmarking OneGx1 Pro with eGPU

I connected EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FOUNDERS EDITION to One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro via the following eGPU box: Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550.

Here are the main results:

  1. eGPU can improve 3D performance of OneGx1 Pro by at least 4 times.
  2. Performance of the video card inserted in the desktop is significantly higher than performance of the same card connected via eGPU box.
  3. Performance of eGPU is significantly higher when the image is displayed on an external monitor.

More benchmarks of OneGx1 Pro are availavle here.

Behold the world’s most powerful handheld

One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro is not only the most powerful handheld computer in the world as of today (January of 2021). It’s also one of the most beautiful handhelds I’ve ever seen.

The device is based on Intel® Core™ i7-1160G7. P

EDIT: Readers asked why I consider OneGx1 Pro the most powerful handheld, not GPD Win3. Let me explain. According to the Indiegogo, Win3 is still a prototype and estimated shipping is "May 2021". So it’s not out for retail yet, but OneGx1 is already available for purchase.