Pentium 3556U vs i7-5500U

Aggregate performance score

Core i7-5500U
2015
2 cores / 4 threads, 15 Watt
1.75
+161%
Pentium 3556U
2013
2 cores / 2 threads, 15 Watt
0.67

Core i7-5500U outperforms Pentium 3556U by a whopping 161% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking20212733
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
SeriesIntel Core i7Intel Pentium
Power efficiency11.044.23
Architecture codenameBroadwell-U (2015)Haswell (2013−2015)
Release date1 March 2015 (9 years ago)1 September 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$393no data

Detailed specifications

Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U 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 cores2 (Dual-core)2 (Dual-core)
Threads42
Base clock speed2.4 GHz1.7 GHz
Boost clock speed3 GHz1.7 GHz
Bus rate5 GT/s5 GT/s
L1 cache64K (per core)64K (per core)
L2 cache256K (per core)256K (per core)
L3 cache4 MB (shared)2 MB (shared)
Chip lithography14 nm22 nm
Die size82 mm2118 mm2
Maximum core temperature105 °C100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)105 °C105 °C
Number of transistors1300 Million1,400 million
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility--

Compatibility

Information on Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U 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 configuration11
SocketFCBGA1168FCBGA1168
Power consumption (TDP)15 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2
AES-NI+-
AVX+-
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)++
Turbo Boost Technology2.0-
Hyper-Threading Technology+-
Idle States++
Thermal Monitoring++
Flex Memory Access+no data
Smart Response+-
GPIOno data+
Smart Connectno data+
FDI+-
Fast Memory Access+no data
AMTno data9.5
Matrix Storageno data-
HD Audiono data+
RSTno data+

Security technologies

Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT--
EDB++
Secure Key++
Identity Protection+-
OS Guard+-
Anti-Theftno data-

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U are enumerated here.

AMD-V++
VT-d+-
VT-x++
EPT++

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR3DDR3
Maximum memory size16 GB16 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth25.6 GB/s25.6 GB/s

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics cardIntel HD Graphics 5500Intel® HD Graphics for 4th Generation Intel® Processors
Max video memory16 GBno data
Quick Sync Video+-
Clear Video++
Clear Video HD+-
Graphics max frequency950 MHz1 GHz
InTru 3D+no data

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supported33
eDP++
DisplayPort++
HDMI++

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

Max resolution over HDMI 1.42560x1600@60Hzno data
Max resolution over DisplayPort3840x2160@60Hzno data

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectX11.2/12no data
OpenGL4.3no data

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U.

PCIe version2.02.0
PCI Express lanes1210
PCI supportno data-
USB revisionno data3.0
Total number of SATA portsno data2
Max number of SATA 6 Gb/s Portsno data2
Integrated IDEno data-
Number of USB portsno data4
Integrated LANno data-
UARTno 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.

i7-5500U 1.75
+161%
Pentium 3556U 0.67

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.

i7-5500U 2786
+163%
Pentium 3556U 1061

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.

i7-5500U 880
+191%
Pentium 3556U 302

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.

i7-5500U 1688
+242%
Pentium 3556U 493

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.

i7-5500U 4615
+83.5%
Pentium 3556U 2515

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.

i7-5500U 9791
+102%
Pentium 3556U 4854

3DMark06 CPU

3DMark06 is a discontinued DirectX 9 benchmark suite from Futuremark. Its CPU part contains two scenarios, one dedicated to artificial intelligence pathfinding, another to game physics using PhysX package.

i7-5500U 3826
+97.3%
Pentium 3556U 1939

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

i7-5500U 16.76
+176%
Pentium 3556U 46.23

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

i7-5500U 3
+121%
Pentium 3556U 1

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

i7-5500U 289
+130%
Pentium 3556U 126

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.

i7-5500U 121
+84.7%
Pentium 3556U 66

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark 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 loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

i7-5500U 1.41
+88%
Pentium 3556U 0.75

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.

i7-5500U 1.7
+1033%
Pentium 3556U 0.2

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.  

i7-5500U 18
+95.6%
Pentium 3556U 9

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.  

i7-5500U 95
+92.3%
Pentium 3556U 49

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.

i7-5500U 2474
+108%
Pentium 3556U 1190

Geekbench 3 32-bit multi-core

i7-5500U 6004
+142%
Pentium 3556U 2478

Geekbench 3 32-bit single-core

i7-5500U 2894
+97.3%
Pentium 3556U 1467

Geekbench 2

i7-5500U 6336
+102%
Pentium 3556U 3129

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 1.75 0.67
Recency 1 March 2015 1 September 2013
Threads 4 2
Chip lithography 14 nm 22 nm

i7-5500U has a 161.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, 100% more threads, and a 57.1% more advanced lithography process.

The Core i7-5500U is our recommended choice as it beats the Pentium 3556U in performance tests.


Should you still have questions on choice between Core i7-5500U and Pentium 3556U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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Intel Core i7-5500U
Core i7-5500U
Intel Pentium 3556U
Pentium 3556U

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